San Diego Police Officer Who Faced Being Fired Quits : Performance: Sergeant had been accused of mishandling a sensitive fencing-operation sting.

A San Diego police sergeant who faced possible firing for his alleged mishandling of a sensitive police sting resigned Monday.

Sgt. Thomas DeChandt, 43, told his attorney that he was no longer interested in staying with the department where he had spent 17 years.

“He said, ‘Even if I win this case, I don’t want to go back,’ ” said Everett Bobbitt, his attorney. “Why fight to get a job you don’t want?”

DeChandt, who had been placed in charge of a six-month undercover police fencing operation in Kearny Mesa, had been accused by supervisors of mishandling evidence in the sting, which began late last year and involved the purchase of stolen construction equipment.

Bobbitt said DeChandt was accused of not following the department policy of making sure evidence was properly tagged as inventory, and of leaving stolen equipment on the shelves to make it appear as if the operation “was a thriving business,” rather than sending it to the department’s property room, as required.

On another occasion, DeChandt was criticized for not finishing the sting before being assigned surveillance in Escondido of Ronald Porter, whom the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force has been looking at in connection with several prostitute murders.

A third allegation was that DeChandt told supervisors that he had turned in a telephone that a construction firm loaned the department to help in the sting. Bobbitt said DeChandt was accused of lying when it was learned that a subordinate had gotten the phone fixed, and that it wasn’t turned in.

DeChandt’s supervisors had recommended that he be fired, but he had not yet had his case heard before a deputy chief. One department official said that, although the sting, which included videotaping suspects selling stolen equipment, produced “30 good cases,” other cases had “prosecution difficulties” because of DeChandt’s handling of the evidence.

No criminal charges are being filed against DeChandt or anyone else who conducted the operation, the district attorney’s office said.

Besides DeChandt, eight officers were involved in the operation at various times beginning late last year. A department official estimated the department easily spent more than $300,000 on the operation.

Pending the department’s investigation, DeChandt had been reassigned to a canine unit.