San Diego

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wayne Mayer testified Friday that he was too intoxicated to remember whether he took tools from a pickup truck in DeAnza Cove.

Mayer, a member of the prosecution team in the Sagon Penn retrial repeated much of the testimony he gave in his first trial on a misdemeanor petty theft charge.

A jury deadlocked 9-3 for conviction last month in his first trial.

Mayer, 41, a 10-year veteran of the district attorney’s office who is on paid administrative leave, told jurors and San Diego Municipal Judge Dick Murphy that he previously had suffered alcoholic blackouts in which he didn’t remember things.

Mayer denied remembering much of the events of the June 14 incident in which a power saw and drill set were taken from a plumbing truck.

He said the next day he discovered the tools in his home. He said he put them in his locker at the courthouse. They were later given to the attorney general’s office by his attorney’s investigator.

“I knew they weren’t mine and I had to get them back to the owner. I was concerned that my drinking had jeopardized my standing with the state bar,” Mayer said.

Mayer said he was also concerned that the incident might jeopardize the jury deliberations in the Penn case.

Two of Mayer’s colleagues are set to testify Monday when the trial resumes. The case will probably be given to the jury on Tuesday.