SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) — A man accused of stealing an FBI agent’s gun in San Francisco over Memorial Day weekend appeared in federal court in the city on Tuesday and was granted release on a $50,000 bond.
Michael Delfon Gregory Jr. was also ordered by U.S. Magistrate Laurel Beeler to return to court on June 28.
That hearing will be either a preliminary hearing on the current criminal complaint against Gregory or arraignment on a grand jury indictment, if one is issued by then.
The FBI agent’s gun, badge and government cell phone were stolen from his parked car near Alamo Square in the early afternoon of May 29.
Gregory was arrested two days later at the home he shares with his grandmother in the Bayview-Hunters Point District. He was charged in a federal criminal complaint on June 1 with theft of government property and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute it.
FBI Agent Donovan McKendrick wrote in an affidavit accompanying the complaint that agents found the stolen .40-caliber Glock 27 pistol under the mattress in Gregory’s bedroom.
McKendrick said agents also found two baggies containing 5.4 grams of cocaine and a scale in the black Lexus that Gregory allegedly drove, a second scale in the bedroom, and $1,400 in Gregory’s possession.
Those items provide “probable cause that the cocaine agents found was possessed with the intent to distribute it,” McKendrick wrote.
Video footage from a security camera near the site of the theft led to Gregory’s arrest, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit said the victim agent parked his blue Honda on Pierce Street south of Alamo Square at 12:14 p.m. on May 29.
At 12:28 p.m., the camera recorded a 2003 black Lexus driven by a heavyset male passing the parked Honda and then pulling into a nearby driveway.
The suspect exited the Lexus, smashed the right-rear window and pulled out two backpacks, one of which contained the agent’s pistol, badge and cell phone. The suspect threw the two backpacks into the Lexus and drove away, according to the affidavit.
McKendrick wrote that Gregory was identified as a suspect because the car’s license plate was registered to his girlfriend and Gregory, whose appearance matched the description of the person shown in the video, was driving the same car during a traffic stop by San Francisco police in March.
Agents began surveilling Gregory’s home and the black Lexus parked in its driveway on May 31 while awaiting a search warrant signed by a federal magistrate.
When Gregory and his girlfriend began to drive away in the Lexus, the agents stopped them, waited for the signed search warrant and then searched both the house and the car.
The agents also found small pieces of broken safety glass, “likely from car windows,” in Gregory’s pockets, the affidavit says.
If Gregory is convicted of the two counts, the theft of government property would carry a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, and the possession with intent to distribute cocaine would have a maximum of 20 years.