Police Union Rips D.A. for Trying 2 Officers : Justice: Prosecutors accused of holding police to unreasonable standard in wake of pair’s acquittal.

The San Diego police union sharply criticized the district attorney’s office Thursday for bringing kidnaping and robbery charges against two downtown patrolmen and accused the prosecutor’s office of abandoning “logic, reason and fairness” in evaluating allegations of officer misconduct.

In a strongly worded statement, the board of directors of the Police Officers Assn., which represents 1,800 officers on the San Diego Police Department, contended that the recent trial of officers Lloyd J. Hoff Jr. and Richard P. Schaaf shows that the district attorney is holding police officers to an unreasonable standard.

Hoff and Schaaf, with a combined 13 years of police service, were acquitted Wednesday on felony charges of kidnaping and robbing illegal aliens in the downtown district.

“Those close to the investigation concerning Officers Schaaf and Hoff believe the not-guilty verdict was the just one,” the POA said. “It is another in a long line of cases where the jury system has exonerated police officers who were prosecuted on flimsy or non-existent evidence by our San Diego district attorney.”

The police union also noted that the district attorney declines to prosecute about 1,000 cases against accused felons each year. At the same time, the POA said, the district attorney imposes a higher standard when deciding whether to prosecute police officers.

“It is the prevailing belief of the police officers of the city of San Diego that our district attorney has abandoned logic, reason and fairness in evaluating allegations against police officers,” the POA said.

Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller called the POA’s allegations “irresponsible.”

“They know very well that that case was investigated by the Internal Affairs unit of the San Diego Police Department and then submitted to us with a recommendation for prosecution,” he said of the Hoff and Schaaf matter.

“We realized it was a tough case. But we had sufficient evidence, and that’s demonstrated by the fact the jury was out for two days.

“And I just want the public to know that our policies haven’t changed. When we are convinced police officers have committed a crime, when we have sufficient evidence, we’re going to prosecute them.”

Added Michael R. Pent, who heads up the district attorney’s special operations unit that prosecutes police misconduct: “The allegations are utter absurdity and nonsense.”

Steve McMillan, POA vice president and chairman of its legal defense fund, said in an interview that the union is not asserting that all officers are honest and above the law. “We don’t want dirty cops around here,” he said. “If that’s happening, let’s get rid of them.”

But he said the district attorney seems to be bending to political and media pressures in aggressively pursuing criminal charges against police officers, more so than in cases against others.

“Our contention is that they should look at these cases the way they do all of them,” he said.

He added that the POA will closely monitor how the Police Department completes its administrative review of Hoff and Schaaf. Even though the officers were found not guilty in Superior Court, the Police Department is still initiating its own investigation to determine whether Hoff and Schaaf should be disciplined or fired. The officers are now on voluntary, unpaid leave.

Hoff, a four-year police veteran, hopes to return to duty, and, if he is blocked, McMillan said, the POA will defend him in an effort to be reinstated. “We’ll attempt to get his job back,” he said.

Schaaf, meanwhile, has said he is so disappointed in the way the Police Department treated him and Hoff that he has no plans to continue his career in law enforcement after nine years as a police officer.

But McMillan said the POA is still interested in helping Schaaf restore his reputation. “He may not now want to be a police officer, but he still wants to clear his good name,” McMillan said. “And I think, once he does that, he’ll go on to something else. And then this city will be losing one good cop.”