| Prentice E. Sanders | |
|---|---|
| San Francisco Police Department | |
| Nickname | Earl |
| Years of service | 1964 - 2003 |
| Rank | Chief (2002 - 2003) |
Prentice E. Sanders, also known as Earl Sanders, was Chief of Police of the San Francisco, California, USA Police Department for fourteen months in 2002 and 2003. He was born in Texas and moved to San Francisco's Laurel Heights at the age of fourteen, attended George Washington High School, and served in the Army. He then received Bachelor's and Masters Degrees from Golden Gate University. He joined the San Francisco Police Department in 1964. He is notable for becoming the forces' first African American police chief. In 1964 when Sanders joined the force, there were less than two dozen African American officers in the department.
He was among a group of top brass indicted for covering up the 2002 "Fajitagate" assault by off duty police officers over a bag of take-out. Later in 2003 and through 2004, most of the senior officers including then ex-Chief Sanders, pursued legal appeals to clear their name of the underlying factual claims regarding the obstruction. Sanders and several others were eventually cleared by courts. Sanders took early retirement due to stress from the investigation.
Sanders' was instrumental in the 1973 Officers for Justice discrimination lawsuit. He and long-time partner Napolean Hendrix stand accused of misconduct in the 1989 arrest and conviction of two young African-American men for a murder in the suppression of a confession from another person.
In 2006, Earl Sanders and coauthor Bennet Cohen, his former lawyer, published the Zebra Murders about Sanders' role in the investigation of racially motivated Zebra murders, killings in San Francisco in 1972 and 1973.
In late October, 2007, the United States Supreme Court turned down an appeal from Saunders in his lawsuit arguing that he had been prosecuted maliciously on charges of obstructing an investigation of a fight involving off-duty officers. [1]
A write up re: a Court Ruling as reported in the S.F.Chronicle on December 15, 2010 needs to be added here but awaits confirmation/further development by the press.
| Police appointments | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Fred H. Lau |
Chief of San Francisco Police Department 2002–2003 |
Succeeded by Alex Fagan |