A San Diego Police Department officer resigned after he was found alone in the back seat of a police car with a woman who told him she was “going to hell with you,” according to a recently released investigation.
Anthony Hair resigned a month after the incident involving the unidentified woman in August 2023, but the results of an internal investigation were finally released earlier this month. According to NBC 7 and CBS 8, investigators found that he failed to follow proper procedures and falsified police reports, which is a violation of the law.
Officer Anthony Hair was with several other San Diego police officers on August 15, 2023, when they arrested the woman and another person for car theft. Bodycam footage captured a conversation between Mr. Hair and the woman as he drove her in his patrol car to the Las Colinas Detention Center.
In the recording, she asked Officer Hair if he was married and if he was single, telling him, “You’re not that bad. What harm is it in me to take advantage of the system, you know what I mean?”
“I’m totally exhausted right now,” she continued.
“Don’t say that now,” replied Mr Hair. “Don’t say that now, because everything is being recorded.”
After driving for a while, Mr. Hair stopped the vehicle, at which point his body camera shut off. He later told investigators he believed the woman was having a medical emergency, NBC 7 reports. Mr. Hair also claimed he knocked his body camera off its mount when he got out of the vehicle, according to CBS 8.
About 20 minutes after the car stopped, Mr. Hair called an officer and asked if he had a master key for the vehicles.
That officer told investigators he noticed Mr. Hair had a “panicked voice,” CBS 8 reported.
“I asked him if I was OK,” the officer said. “He said yes and then asked if I had the keys to my patrol car… I asked why he was asking and what he needed.”
An hour later, at about 2:40 a.m., a supervisor came and opened the car door. Mr. Hair said he was checking on the woman and the door accidentally slammed shut behind him.
“Then Officer Hair asked me if I could meet him. I asked him where he was and he said near Cottonwood… I asked him why he needed me and he said he would tell me when I got there,” continued the unnamed officer Mr. Hair called. “He said he was really embarrassed.”
The woman later told investigators that Mr. Hair asked for her phone number and requested a meeting after she was released from prison, NBC 7 reported.
“He wanted to meet with me when the arrest warrant or whatever was issued against me was over,” she said.
She also told investigators that there was never any sexual contact between her and Mr. Hair.
The San Diego District Attorney’s Office told NBC 7 that it could not comment on whether charges would be filed against Mr. Hair.
The Independent has contacted the San Diego District Attorney’s Office and the San Diego Police Department for comment.
