SFPD Officer Ronald Gehrke, Who Does He Think He Is? UPDATE

UPDATED: Officer Ronald Gehrke has been convicted of one misdemeanor, and spent one day in jail on December 26, 2012 prior to his sentence. He is no longer at the SFPD as of 2014. The other nine charges were dropped in a plea bargain.  See Kicked-Back Cop Sentenced in SF - SF Examiner, May, 2015

This article was written with the Scripture in mind, "Vengeance is Mine, Sayeth the Lord* - Romans 12:19 

I've waited a long time for this, thank you Jesus! I'm sorry for my scream of "yes" when I read this article.  A former slithering snake who tormented me back in 1998 through a crazy roommate was none other than Officer Ronald Gehrke (aka Gerke) of the SFPD Taraval Station who was in yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, featured in an article S.F. Cop Accused of Spending On Duty Hours At Home.

"Authorities aren't sure what the 52-year-old Gehrke was doing inside his home while he was on the taxpayers' time - but they don't think it involved work. After undercover officers watched him go home repeatedly while he was on duty, police persuaded prosecutors to file 10 misdemeanor counts of theft of public money against him. It's a rare instance of criminal charges being filed against a San Francisco officer for alleged on-duty misconduct. Gehrke has been suspended without pay, and if he's found guilty, chances are he won't have to worry about coming to work. "If he is convicted, he will get fired - he's done," conceded his attorney, Stuart Hanlon."

I recall this Officer Gehrke well, the first thing out of his mouth was "who do you think you are?" when he came over out of breath to see about my fish aquarium being moved in. My roommate had apparently felt threatened I was moving something into my apartment where I had lived for 3.5 years because she wanted the place to herself.  She was desperate for the property lease and this Officer Gehrke helped this roommate eventually obtain it by writing up little tickets while I was away working long hours at Morrison & Foerster LLP.

This roommate had actually been recently evicted five times in five years at that time (1989-1994) and has since filed two bankruptcies in 1995 and 2005. She had also been evicted from the Progress Foundation, a government mental health subsidized housing program and had a large amount of documentation about her mental condition there.  She was also evicted from the Mary Beth Inn where she hadn't paid rent for an entire year and still demanded a jury trial.  I still have her eviction case PDF's to this day but won't bother to link having covered them on my former blog several years ago. She later drove the main leaseholder away with crazy activities such as turning up the heat on warm days, etc.

The flat was a tremendous deal during the dot com boom,  3.5 bedrooms with a backyard, two car garage, two fireplaces, kitchen pantry, molded ceilings for a mere $1,250/mo. This was unheard of in San Francisco, people were standing in line for blocks just to rent a small studio in our area which was across the street from Golden Gate Park.

I asked Officer Gehrke why he didn't have something better to do with his time then sit in my kitchen for 30 minutes after I moved in my fish aquarium.  He responded, "I have all the time in the world." Today, 15 years later, Officer Gehrke apparently still has lots of time since he's been suspended and faces possible termination.  Officer Gehrke caused me to have to go to court and pay an attorney $1,000 in legal fees to address the issues his aggressive police work raised against me in a roommate dispute. This roommate was awarded a 3 foot restraining order so I eventually had to move and give up a most wonderful lease opportunity in San Francisco where I could have saved considerable amounts of money under rent control.

After I moved, I sent the lady's eviction and Progress Foundation legal papers to the police chief with a letter and filed a complaint with the Police Commission asking "who does he think he is, this Officer Gehrke?".  Perhaps Officer Gehrke think's he's God and above the law.  "Vengeance is Mine, Sayeth the Lord - Romans 12:19 

*Please note: I do forgive Officer Gehrke for his dark meddling in my life, God takes care of all things justly to bring glory to Himself. There's really nothing to worry about when you become a Christian and follow Jesus, God takes care of his children.