No Charges Filed Against Narcotics Officer : Police: A veteran officer was accused of stealing $20 and possessing drugs. His job status remains unclear.

San Diego city and county prosecutors said Wednesday that they have decided not to file criminal charges against a veteran undercover San Diego police narcotics officer suspected of stealing money during a drug raid and possessing illegal drugs at police headquarters.

Wilmer O. Nelson, a 16-year police veteran, was relieved of duty after he reportedly pocketed $20 in cash during a drug raid two weeks ago. Taken to police headquarters, Nelson was then reportedly found to have illegal drugs in his desk in the narcotics division.

Police sources have confirmed that Nelson, 45, was suspended without pay, but police supervisors have refused to discuss his job status.

Michael R. Pent, who heads the San Diego County district attorney’s special operations division, said he received a case against Nelson prepared by detectives from the police internal affairs unit. Pent said he decided against prosecution and instead sent the matter to the city attorney’s office.

“It was a misdemeanor petty theft case committed in the city limits of San Diego,” Pent said. “There was no available felony involved in it, and there was no apparent conflict with the city attorney handling it.”

Susan Heath, chief deputy city attorney in the criminal division, said her office studied the police file on Nelson, but found several evidentiary problems that would make prosecution difficult.

The incident occurred when police child-abuse detectives were serving a search warrant June 5 at a home in the 3400 block of 60th Street. They discovered drugs inside the residence and called for assistance from the narcotics division. Nelson was one of the officers who responded.

Heath said that Nelson took two $10 bills from a purse inside the house, but that she did not believe he intended to steal the money, but to impound it as evidence.

“No one actually saw the money being taken,” she said. “And there was no known owner of the money that was missing and later discovered. It was taken from a purse, but there was no indication of the owner of that purse in any fashion that made any sense.”

“The purse,” she explained, “was just sitting around in the house and there was a bunch of different identification cards in the purse, and the police could not determine who the rightful owner was.”

She added that Nelson placed the money in his pocket only temporarily, after receiving an emergency call on a portable telephone about another drug case.

“Nelson’s story or version right from the beginning was that he was intending to impound it and had gotten a phone call on a portable phone,” she said. “He needed to get to that call right away because it was about disposal of some chemicals to make drugs.

“So he jammed the money into his pockets as he dashed for the phone. And he was saying right from the very start and all the way through that he intended to only impound the money and did not intend to steal it.”

Heath and Pent also declined to file charges about the drugs found in Nelson’s desk on the fifth floor of police headquarters. Heath said it was a small amount that Nelson carried in his capacity as an undercover officer posing as a drug addict.

“They were very, very small amounts that he used in his undercover operation to show that he really was a druggie,” she said. She and Pent also said that police administrators might be better advised to determine if Nelson violated any police policies by storing the drugs in his desk.

“There was no consideration that that could be a criminal offense in light of his position as a police officer in the narcotics division,” Pent said. “That would instead be more of an administrative matter.”

Nelson said Wednesday that he has been notified that prosecutors have declined to file criminal charges against him. He said the situation was a misunderstanding from the beginning, but he did not want to discuss the matter further.

Cmdr. Larry Gore, a police spokesman, said he would have “absolutely no comment” about the case.

“We are prohibited by law from commenting,” Gore said. “We just cannot talk about personnel matters, or we would turn around and get sued or prosecuted.”