San Jose, California: Two Police Officers Arrested and Charged With Tampering With Evidence

Two San Jose police officers are facing felony charges after their own department accused them of replacing a missing bag of suspected narcotics with drugs taken from an unrelated pedestrian, and then booking the replacement into evidence under the original case number. The San Jose Police Department announced the arrests on Thursday. Officers Raydarius Surry, 29, and Destiney Thompson, 30, surrendered late Wednesday evening and were booked into the Santa Clara County jail, police said. The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office had filed charges against both officers on Wednesday afternoon.

A bag of evidence that never arrived

The case started with an arrest Surry made on May 3, 2026. His report from that arrest listed a small baggie of suspected narcotics as evidence, and the baggie was scheduled for testing at the county crime lab. It was never booked into evidence. In August, the department's Criminal Investigations Detail reviewed the May 3 arrest, and the department told Surry that the baggie listed in his report was missing.

Police say what happened next is the heart of the criminal case. On August 12, shortly after learning the narcotics were missing, Surry stopped a pedestrian who had no connection to the May 3 case. During that stop he seized a similar bag of suspected drugs from the person, let the person go without taking any enforcement action, and did not document the stop, according to police. He then booked the newly seized baggie into evidence under the May 3 case number, so the file would show the evidence as present. Investigators say Thompson, who is in a relationship with Surry, reviewed body camera footage of the May 3 arrest to help him plan how to replace the missing drugs. Both officers live in Gilroy, police said.

Chief promises accountability

Surry was placed on paid administrative leave on September 2, and Thompson was placed on leave on September 18, while the internal investigation continued. Police said there is no evidence of any other report discrepancies or similar actions by the two officers. The department has referred the case to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training for a temporary decertification review while the criminal and administrative cases proceed.

"Officers are required to maintain the chain of custody without exception and to be completely truthful in their accounts of interactions with the public," Police Chief Paul Joseph said in a statement. "Falsifying evidence or police reports is a crime, and our Department moved swiftly to remove both officers from duty and pursue criminal accountability." Joseph said the allegations, if proven, are a failure to live up to the standards the community has a right to expect.

Both officers are charged with tampering with evidence and filing a false police report. The charges now move through the Santa Clara County courts, and the department's administrative case against the two officers continues alongside the criminal one.