It has been a long haul since 'Videogate' started. Five years ago, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom called a news conference to play clips from a video called "Cops Gone Wild." It was meant as a going-away video for the captain of the Bayview Station. Dozens of officers appeared in the comedy video, but no one was punished as severely as Wendy Hurley.
Wednesday night the San Francisco Police Commission voted to suspend Hurley 360 days without pay. She said, "So, I leave here with my head held high knowing who I am and with that I have strength and I don't feel… I don't really feel the assault or the attack, I think as I may have otherwise."
Hurley is out on disability right now from injuries sustained from a high-speed chase, but the commission still cut her pay.
The commission was in the process of also deciding what will happen to Jimmy Lewis. He said earlier on Wednesday, "You can basically see that a lot of our rights are being violated as police officers. That's the one thing that the public will see, once they look at all the facts behind Videogate."
Both Lewis and Hurley believe they have grounds for a lawsuit because other officers were not punished as harshly.
This case continues -- five years and counting.
UPDATE: Late Wednesday night, the police commission ruled on Jimmy Lewis' case the same way they did with Wendy Hurley -- confirming four of five allegations against him and punishing him with a 360-day unpaid suspension. Hurley tells the I-Team she will never go back to the SFPD; she'll retire.
