Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Examiner Contact: http://www.examiner.com/ Forum: http://examiner.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Jim Herron Zamora, The Examiner Staff S.F. COP ACCUSED OF SELLING, USING DRUGS San Francisco police have accused an officer of selling bogus tablets of the drug ecstasy while off duty in Hayward, according to departmental misconduct charges. Officer Chris Greenman, 33, was accused of two departmental charges of misconduct for selling the bogus drugs on June 28 and for testing positive for methamphetamine the same day, according to charges filed with the Police Commission late Friday. He will have an opportunity to enter a plea before the full commission on Wednesday night. Greenman, a five-year department veteran, has been on unpaid suspension since Hayward police detained him on June 28. He was not arrested and has not been charged with a crime. Hayward and San Francisco police have declined comment, saying the case remains under investigation. The San Francisco charges could result in Greenman losing his job. Those charges said that Greenman arranged by telephone to sell 10 tablets of ecstasy, worth $150, to a woman secretly working as an informant for the Hayward police. Greenman, according to the charges, met the woman in a parking lot in Hayward that was under surveillance. The woman, whose name was not released, paid Greenman $150 in marked money provided by the Hayward police. In return, she received 10 tablets of what was purported to be ecstasy. "Subsequent testing revealed that the ecstasy (Greenman) sold to the woman in the controlled buy was not really ecstasy as the accused had represented," the charges state. The material sold to the woman was not a controlled substance. Police would not say what the tablets actually contain. Sale of fake drugs is still a violation of state law that can result in felony or misdemeanor charges, according the San Francisco Police Department. But officers concede the filing of such charges is quite rare. Hayward police stopped Greenman on the Hayward/San Mateo Bridge after the sale. They found the marked money in his fanny pack, according to the charges. After Greenman identified himself as a San Francisco cop, Hayward officers declined to arrest him. But they did notify SFPD's internal affairs unit, which launched its own investigation. Later that same evening, an internal affairs investigator ordered Greenman to give a urine sample that tested positive for methamphetamine, according to the charges. Police also searched Greenman's Livermore home in Alameda County. Greenman had been assigned to the evening shift of the SFPD's Tenderloin Task Force until his suspension. He could not be reached for comment. Because the alleged wrongdoing took place while he was off duty, he is not being represented by the police union in the misconduct case. The Hayward police probe could result in the filing of criminal charges in Alameda County Superior Court by the district attorney's office. But even if that agency declines to press charges, the officer's police career in The City may be in jeopardy as a result of the internal affairs investigation. Although prosecutors often decline to file charges in cases like Greenman's, a police agency has wider discretion in disciplining one of its members if an internal investigation finds evidence of illegal or improper activity by an officer. Greenman is accused of conduct that reflects discredit on the department and of engaging in conduct that subverts the good order of the department, the charges state. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake