SOUTH SALT LAKE (ABC 4 News) – Allegations of filing a false report have surfaced in South Salt Lake, and the accused wears a badge.
That’s why Fernando Nunez feels violated.
The former car salesman is out of work and hasn't had a job since his nightmare began.
Two years ago, Nunez was working at the Utah Valley Motors in South Salt Lake car dealership.
But he says the owner Basam Hamdan wasn't paying him.
“He owed me a lot of money but when I request my money he says he's not going to pay me," Nunez says.
Eventually, Hamdan allegedly gave him the title to a used BMW.
Hamdan says that didn't happen.
“No I did not,” Hamdan says. “No I did not.”
Nunez, who filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court claims Hamdan had South Salt Lake police officer Stephen Bernards file a stolen car report.
“This police officer knew that the car was mine because he tried to buy it from me,” Nunez says.
Nunez was charged with theft, a second degree felony. But the case was dismissed.
“After the prosecutor looked at the case he realized it should never have been filed," says his attorney Russell Monahan.
But Nunez lost his job at another car dealership because of those charges.
He filed a complaint with South Salt Lake police.
The police internal investigation concluded that Bernards “falsely reported vehicles as stolen, violating South Salt Lake Professional Standards and Conduct Manual … Conduct Unbecoming a Police Officer.”
“He's helping Basam doing a lot of false reports,” Nunez says. “I have a lot of friends with the same (problem).”
And police investigators came to the same conclusion. The South Salt Lake police report found “The call history at 2800 South State Street (Utah Valley Motors) supports Fernando Nunez’s claim that Officer Bernards was entering vehicles into NCIC as a favor to Basam Hamdan.”
“That is not true, that is not true,” Hamdan told ABC 4 News. “Let me tell you something. If a car is stolen I don't care who does the report."
Nunez’s attorney Russell Monahan says the police officers conduct may be criminal. He says filing a false report is a misdemeanor.
“But that’s for the district attorney to decide,” Monahan says.
As for Nunez, he lost the car, wages and still can't find work.
“It feels terrible,” he says. “It feels terrible.”
ABC 4 News gave a spokesman for South Salt Lake police a copy of the internal report. But police have yet to respond to questions.
Salt Lake District Attorney Sim Gill says no one from the police department notified him about the case.
And at the Police Officers Standard and Training (P.O.S.T.) a spokesman says they have not been notified either.
But a lieutenant at P.O.S.T. who oversees investigations says conduct that mirrors these allegations is reviewed by P.O.S.T.
