“Brutal,” “Vicious” SFPD Officer Finally Fired

Calling people monkeys, pepper-spraying willy-nilly, and using so much force that the City was forced to shell out $385,000 in a 2006 civil settlement.

Pretty much the only question left was when Jesse Serna was going to be removed from the San Francisco Police Department, not if.

Serna, 45, a 16-year veteran of the force, has been confined to desk duty since 2007 for a string of incidents in which the patrolman was found to report use of physical violence more than any other officer over an eight-year period, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Serna was finally dismissed from SFPD by the Police Commission on July 13. 

What finally got Serna fired were two incidents from 2007, the newspaper reported. In one, Serna allegedly called a black man he was attempting to detain a "monkey," and pepper-sprayed the man's wife when she asked why he was being arrested.

Serna's actions resulted in a large settlement when he zapped a Harvard medical student with a stun-gun in 2006 in North Beach. Serna allegedly told Mehrdad Alemozaffar, then 26, to "stop acting like such a girl."

At least for now, Serna will have to stop acting like a cop.