Petrelis Files

Complaint Filed Against
Gay Cop in the Castro: MUMC Bias?



At the Nov. 1 meeting of the Merchants of Upper Market Castro, openly gay Sgt. Chuck Limbert of the Mission Station was present as he usually is but instead of wearing his San Francisco Police Department uniform, he was in plainclothes.

When I walked into the meeting at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center, Limbert told me he was not on duty and was helping MUMC out as a private citizen. Huh?

Every other time I've seen him at MUMC meetings, he's been in uniform and on duty. But all of sudden for the Nov. 1 meeting I'm supposed to believe he's off-duty and will be able to maintain his (minimal) creditability as a cop without bias towards the merchants?

Limbert and his direct boss, Capt. Bob Moser, mistakenly think they can regularly attend MUMC meetings, and as we saw at the Nov. 1 meeting have 6-7 uniformed beat officers waiting outside on the sidewalk, and not have their impartiality challenged.

When MUMC leaders decided it was time to toss out members of the general public, who had been instructed by Limbert about where to sit, Limbert enforced their ejection rule. As MUMC debated motions to endorse Scott Wiener's legislative nudity ban and to retain private control of the public rainbow flag at Harvey Milk Plaza, I watched Limbert from the recreation center's lobby guard the meeting room doors from inside the meeting.

Was all this kosher? To find out, I filed a written complaint with the Office of Citizen Complaints earlier this week and I attended last night's Police Commission hearing at City Hall, which was aired on SF GovTV and is now archived here.

During public comment, starting at the 01:25 mark in the video above, I used my three minutes to bring these concerns to Chief Greg Suhr, who was present, and the commissioners.

I'll provide updates, as they become available, from the SFPD and the OCC.