A former Bakersfield Police Detective is accusing the department of widespread and shocking misconduct in a multi-county drug enforcement unit. Detective Damacio Diaz is alleging a lengthy series of problems in a federal court filing released Thursday.
Diaz is one of two former detectives facing charges of bribery and corruption during their time on the force. He is facing 22 years in prison and is set to be sentenced Monday.
In a detailed filing intended to seek leniency from a federal judge, Diaz accuses narcotics detectives with BPD of being largely unsupervised, of faking arrest reports, and of taking drugs from the evidence room and replacing them with fakes.
He also says they would arrange for the arrests of informants in order to confiscate drugs without reporting it. Patrol officers that cooperated with them would be compensated.
In addition, Diaz says he and other detectives were often drunk at work, allowed informants to continue selling large quantities of drugs, and manipulated the cash payments to informants among other allegations.
The Bakersfield Police Department says they are aware of the filing but do not have a comment at this time.
