Ex-police union leader’s explosive charge against D.A. Gascón

Delagnes submitted his declaration on Tuesday, eight days after Gascón’s Feb. 22 appearance before the panel, where he testified that the police union “influences the ability for a chief of police or frankly even a Police Commission to effectuate reform” — and not for the better.

When provided a copy of the sworn declaration, spokesman Alex Bastian of the district attorney’s office didn’t directly respond to Delagnes’ charge or any other assertions in the document.

In his statement, Delagnes said he had decided to speak up after reading that Gascón told the blue-ribbon panel that he was “much more worried today” about the state of the Police Department than when he was chief from 2009 to 2011.

According to Delagnes, he and the chief routinely met or spoke on the phone two or three times a week.

“These meetings and conversations concerned all aspects of the Police Department, not just POA matters,” Delagnes said.

“Throughout his tenure, and often at our dinner meetings, Chief Gascón and I resolved the vast majority of outstanding disciplinary actions” involving police officers, Delagnes said.

Delagnes added, Not once during all of our candid conversations did Chief Gascón ever state that he believed racial, gender, sexual orientation or other bias afflicted the SFPD.

[...] although Gascón told the blue-ribbon panel that “most of the command staff were born and raised in the city,” something that created “a really tight-knit structure that precluded an objective look into the organization,” Delagnes said the former chief had contributed to that.

Gascón “complains about an old boys’ network — yet his promotions to the command staff were almost invariably graduates of San Francisco Catholic high schools or Lowell,” Delagnes said.

[...] in a parting shot, Delagnes recalled a lunch with Gascón in spring 2011 in which the newly named D.A. said he was going to oppose Greg Suhr’s pending appointment as police chief.