A San Francisco police officer was sentenced in federal court Thursday to two years, six months in prison for robbing two banks in the city late last year.
Rain Daugherty pleaded guilty in February to robbing banks in the Sunset and Richmond districts of a total of $10,500.
U.S. District Judge William Orrick presided over the case, and ordered him to pay back the two banks he robbed, and to serve an additional three years of probation.
Daugherty is one of several SFPD officers that were suspended in the fallout of a racist text messaging scandal that rocked the department in 2015. He has yet to be formally disciplined in that case, however, and remains a San Francisco police officer.
Daugherty’s attorney, Elizabeth Falk, said the criminal actions he committed are a result of an opioid addiction. She said he was living in his car at the time of the robberies and had hit “rock bottom.”
“This is the exact kind of case that shows that drug addiction can really affect anyone,” she said.
However, the prosecution said that Daugherty’s addiction isn’t an excuse, arguing that many addicts do not rob banks. They advocated for a three-year sentence. The defense had requested 12 to 24 months. The maximum sentence Daugherty could have received was 20 years.
The former officer is also still awaiting trial in San Mateo Superior Court on charges that he stole $13,000 from an elderly man with dementia.
Court documents show that the officer was indicted on Jan. 10 for the Nov. 29 robbery at the East West Bank in Sunset District and the Dec. 13 robbery at the Cathay Bank in the Richmond District.
Orrick thanked the friends and family of Daugherty that had gathered in the courthouse and written letters attesting to his character. The judge told the former officer to rely on his support system in the future and take advantage of vocational training while incarcerated.
“You won’t be going back into law enforcement, but there are so many things that you can do to be a positive force in your community,” Orrick said.
According to an SFPD spokesperson, Daugherty is on unpaid suspension pending discipline by the city's Police Commission.
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