2 Officers in Probe Won’t Be Charged : Police: The district attorney will not prosecute city narcotics officers, who investigators said made a false arrest, because the alleged incident happened too long ago.

The San Diego County district attorney’s office has chosen not to file criminal charges against two former members of a San Diego police narcotics team identified by a corruption task force has having planned and carried out a false arrest, a task force spokesman said Tuesday.

Detectives for the Metropolitan Homicide Task Force, which is investigating the serial killings of prostitutes and possible police corruption, alleged that the two officers, Dennis Sesma and John Fung, canceled a drunk-driving arrest against a woman to get information for an investigation, spokesman Dick Lewis said.

When she was arrested in early 1985, Sesma was the sergeant in charge of the narcotics street team and Fung worked as a subordinate in the same unit. Sesma resigned in the midst of an internal affairs investigation in 1989, and Fung works as an officer in central patrol.

Task force investigators had sought criminal charges against the pair, but Lewis said the district attorney’s office has determined that the case, more than 6 years old, is not worth pursuing. Lewis, also a prosecutor with the district attorney’s office, said he agrees with that decision.

If the charges were tried as a misdemeanor, the statute of limitations is one year, Lewis said. If tried as a felony, possibly as a conspiracy to “falsely imprison” someone, the limit is three years, he said.

“From my 30 years in the business, I have found out that you don’t prosecute people for 6-year-old crimes,” he said. “It just doesn’t work.”

But Lewis said members of the task force and the district attorney’s office are unhappy with the actions of Sesma and Fung and “believe that you don’t trade offenses for favors. Detectives shouldn’t be making those choices.”

He said information about the two has been turned over to the San Diego Police Department. Sesma’s alleged actions “are moot because he’s no longer there,” he said, but information about Fung “is going to be considered as part of our findings to the Police Department.”

Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation filled in the background of the Sesma-Fung investigation this way:

Fung met the woman, a City Hall employee who once dated former Charger Wes Chandler, for drinks to seek information about possible drug use among Charger players. She refused to talk about the Chargers. After the woman had several drinks and decided to leave, Fung watched her get into a car and trailed behind.

Fung notified Sesma, who called a patrol officer to stop the woman for drunk driving. Once she was pulled over and arrested, Fung appeared at the scene and told the woman she probably could be released if she agreed to become a police informant. The woman consented and was set free.

The woman gave Fung and Sesma information about the Chargers, but Lewis said the information turned up nothing of substance.

Gary Schons, a deputy attorney general who headed the task force investigation into alleged police corruption, would not comment on the new allegations other than to say “our work with the task force is completed. All matters we investigated were referred to the appropriate agencies.”

San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen said Tuesday that he knew Fung and Sesma were being investigated by the task force, but could not comment because the case was a “pending prosecution.”

Sheriff Jim Roache, whose agency is also part of the homicide task force, said details of the investigation “have a ring of familiarity to them. I have heard narration to that effect,” but he would not comment on specifics.

Sesma was the sergeant in charge of the first narcotics street team, beginning in late 1984 when he initiated an investigation into possible drug use among Charger players.

Under Sesma, the street team arrested linebacker Mike Green in 1985 for cocaine possession. After the street team was expanded several years later, its officers arrested Charger Danny Walters and former team member Earl Wilson in 1987, both in cocaine cases.

In 1988, Sesma transferred to the narcotics task force, a multi-agency group of federal, state and local authorities established to fight the drug trade throughout the county.

In mid-1989, Sesma resigned from the department while under investigation for a number of alleged improprieties related to the street team.

Later that year, the homicide task force began investigating the disappearance of Cynthia Maine, a narcotics street team informant and prostitute who last was seen in February, 1986, shortly after her release from jail on bad check charges.

Maine had told investigators that she was sexually involved with Fung and Sgt. Sal Salvatierra, who also is still with the department. Both are under investigation by the police internal affairs unit.

In its investigation of Maine, the task force interviewed a number of informants who worked with the street team. Informants told of street team members having sex with informants, allowing them to keep portions of narcotics seized in drug buys and watching them take drugs.

Sesma said Tuesday he did not know anything about the new allegations involving the alleged false arrest of the woman who worked at City Hall. Neither Fung, nor his attorney, James Gattey, could be reached for comment.

Police administrators said they could not discuss the circumstances of Sesma’s departure from the department, citing state confidentiality laws that cover current and past personnel files. They said they would have no comment on Fung for the same reason.

In June, the county Grand Jury concluded that San Diego police officers were not sexually involved with prostitutes employed by convicted “Rolodex madam” Karen Wilkening and said there was not evidence to support allegations that officers overlooked drug use among Charger players or protected the team in any way.

By the end of the week, Burgreen said, he will release a task force report that deals with instances of police misconduct, which is said to include information about the narcotics street team and the investigation into the death of Donna Gentile, a police informant and prostitute.

In reviewing the report’s conclusions several weeks ago, Assistant Chief Norm Stamper said the task force had concluded that the agency was not corrupt, although “instances of misconduct have arisen” that the department is investigating.