Interim suspension for ex-deputy district attorney

A former San Francisco assistant district attorney was placed on interim suspension after he pleaded guilty to federal charges that he accepted drugs from defendants he was prosecuting. ROBERT WILLIAM ROLAND [#203087], 35, lost his license April 10 and was sentenced in June to six months in prison, three years of supervised release and 150 hours of community service.

Roland was convicted in February of four felony counts: two counts of possessing MDMA (Ecstasy), one count of possessing Ecstasy with the intent to distribute and one count of using a telephone to aid in the commission of a felony. A charge that he traded favorable treatment of defendants in exchange for drugs was dropped.

The charges involved two men Roland was prosecuting on felony drug charges, Earl Eric Shaw, a childhood friend, and Ryan Nyberg, whom Shaw introduced to Roland.

Roland, who joined the DA’s office in 2000, admitted that in 2002, he agreed to a misdemeanor disposition of Shaw’s case and the next day received Ecstasy from his longtime friend.

About a year later, while prosecuting Nyberg for dealing methamphetamine and Ecstasy, he discussed a diversion program in lieu of jail with Nyberg’s lawyer. The next day, Shaw and Nyberg gave Roland Ecstasy at Roland’s home. On a third occasion, Roland admitted that Nyberg delivered Ecstasy to him and that he intended to share it with friends. At the time he received the drug, he knew Nyberg was a defendant in felony drug cases still pending in superior court and that Nyberg was still represented by counsel.

According to a plea agreement reached with the U.S. Attorney’s office in San Francisco, Roland also admitted that he falsely told FBI agents that he had not used drugs of any kind since he became an assistant DA, but later admitted he used marijuana.

“Prosecutors, because of the unique role they play in the criminal justice system, must conduct themselves with the utmost integrity,” said U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan. Roland “abused the public trust by violating some of the very laws that he swore to uphold, with the very defendants that he was obligated to prosecute.”

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, himself a one-time prosecutor in the San Francisco DA’s office, called Roland’s behavior “inexplicable.”

“If there is a message in this case,” Breyer said, “it is that public confidence in the criminal justice system must be maintained.” He called Roland’s actions a “betrayal of the system” and “a gross misuse of public trust.”

Roland was placed on unpaid administrative leave from his job shortly before he was indicted and he later resigned.

He was to begin serving his term Aug. 1.