An investigator for the San Francisco District Attorney's Office was admonished in June 2016 for issuing a faulty subpoena, according to the first such peace officer disciplinary records released by city agencies under a new state transparency law.
The documents were provided in response to a public records request by KQED and the Bay Area News Group. The DA's office is still reviewing records and may produce more misconduct cases, according to a response issued Friday evening.
Inspector Steve Harris wrote an April 20, 2016 subpoena to a Georgia-based sales company demanding personnel files for a defendant facing grand theft and embezzlement charges for allegedly stealing from the Target store where he worked.
But the case wasn't active at the time — the prosecution had been diverted to a neighborhood court, which the defendant allegedly skipped — and Harris had been directed only to issue a misdemeanor arrest warrant, according to the written admonishment.
Attempts to reach Harris Monday were unsuccessful.
The misconduct investigation found that Harris wrote a police report number on the subpoena instead of a court number, and he wrote his own office number as the court presiding over the case.
"The issued DA subpoena was incorrect ... and presented in an effort to gain documents under false pretenses," the admonishment says.
According to testimony in an unrelated criminal case, Harris was on thin ice at the time he was disciplined.