San Diego

A perjury charge has been dismissed against a former San Diego police officer who allegedly lied about why he arrested a drug suspect last year.

John Doulette, who had served two years on the police force, had contended that he was simply mistaken when he testified at a preliminary hearing about why he arrested a man for illegal possession of cocaine.

He said on the witness stand that he apprehended the man in February, 1988, after first learning of an outstanding arrest warrant. But contradictory testimony from his police partner showed that Doulette learned of the warrant only after the arrest was made.

“It was just a mistake,” his attorney, Barton C. Sheela, said Thursday. “There would be no reason for it to be a deliberate act.”

The perjury charge was dropped Tuesday in San Diego Municipal Court at the request of the state attorney general’s office. Deborah Factor, a deputy attorney general, said the case would have been pursued, but there were several evidentiary problems, such as in locating several witnesses to the drug arrest.

Doulette now is appealing his job termination to the city’s Civil Service Commission. He was fired from the police force on the basis of the perjury allegation.