SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — The man police mistakenly thought to be a drug dealer who was arrested in a Burger King Restaurant was acquitted on all charges. Jacobia Perkins was sitting in the Burger King located at the intersection of 16th and Mission Streets on November 26th when plainclothes officer Sgt. Sean Perdomo approached him and slammed him onto the table before tackling him, defense attorneys say.
Perdomo apparently received a tip from a secret informant that someone was selling methamphetamine in the back of the Burger King, but the informant provided no physical description and was not at the restaurant when Perdomo arrived, according to the public defender’s office. Perdomo wrongfully assumed Perkins, who is black, was a drug dealer.
Perdomo testified that he believed Perkins was motioning towards his wristband, which Pedomo thought was a weapon even though Perkins was unarmed and did not have any drugs on him, according to the public defender’s office.
At least 15 officers were involved in Perkins’ arrest, yet no witness testimony was documented, and no video exists of the incident.
Perdomo admitted in court that the city’s Office of Citizen Complaints found him guilty of using excessive force in an unrelated arrest in 2013
Perkins was acquitted of resisting arrest using force or violence and resisting arrest causing serious bodily injury, both felonies, as well as battery on a police officer, a misdemeanor, according to the public defender’s office.
If convicted, Perkins could have faced up to five years in prison.
Perkins’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Douglas Welch, said that Perkins was minding his own business when Perdomo tackled him and that “the jury affirmed he had the right to walk away from an illegal arrest.”