San Francisco police sergeant faces charge for alleged false fire alarm

PACIFICA » A San Francisco Pol ice Depar tment sergeant who allegedly pulled a fire alarm to disrupt a meeting in Pacifica earlier this month has been criminally charged for the false alarm, San Mateo County District Attorney Steven Wagstaf fe said Thursday.

Prosecutors filed a single misdemeanor count of causing a false fire alarm against Sgt. Maria Teresa Donati for the Aug. 7 incident at the Pacifica Police Department’s headquarters.

Authorities said Donati was identified as the person who pulled the alarm after Pacifica police posted a photo from the incident to their Facebook page asking the public for help in the investigation.

Wagstaffe said a task force of government officials had scheduled a closed- door meeting at the department to discuss a potential ordinance for how the city handles homeless residents who sleep in parked vehicles.

Donati, a Pacifica resident, was part of a group of about a dozen people interested in the issue who showed up at the department’s headquarters asking to attend the meeting, Wagstaffe said.

After she knocked on the door of the meeting and was told she couldn’t enter, Wagstaffe said, Donati “walked over, pulled the fire alarm and walked out.”

A lthough it was “clearly a false alarm,” Wagstaffe said, the building was evacuated and the fire department had to respond.

Donati declined to speak with Pacifica police or with the District Attorney’s Office, according to Wagstaffe.

She will likely be arraigned on the charge in the next four to six weeks, as is typical in misdemeanor cases.

A spokesman confirmed the San Francisco Police Department has launched an internal investigation into the incident, but otherwise did not respond to questions from this news organization Thursday. Attempts to reach Donati were unsuccessful.