A San Jose police officer has been charged with swapping drugs from one arrest to cover up evidence that went missing from another, and his girlfriend, also an officer with the department, now faces the same felony charges for allegedly helping him pull it off. Officer Raydarius Surry was arrested on Wednesday, with prosecutors alleging he forgot to book a baggie of suspected crystal methamphetamine seized during a May street stop, then later substituted drugs confiscated during an unrelated August stop to make it look like the original evidence was intact.
Surry, a 29-year-old who joined the San Jose Police Department in 2019 and lives in Gilroy, was charged with one felony count of altering, planting and manufacturing evidence by a peace officer and one felony count of filing a false police report, according to The Mercury News. Officer Destiney Thompson, 30, who has been with the department since 2021 and is described by investigators as being in a romantic relationship with Surry, was arrested and charged with the same two felony counts. Both were released after posting $100,000 bail each, and both have been on paid administrative leave since September.
How the Alleged Cover-Up Unfolded
According to the department's account relayed in that same report, Surry arrested a man on suspicion of possessing suspected crystal methamphetamine during a street stop in early May. The department later notified Surry in August that the drugs documented after that arrest were missing from evidence storage. The criminal complaint alleges Surry booked a baggie of purported narcotics into evidence under the May case number on August 13, reporting that he had found it hidden in the man's shoe during the original stop.
Investigators determined that baggie did not actually come from May at all. Instead, the Police Department said it traced back to a pedestrian stop Surry conducted on August 12, during which he confiscated a baggie of drugs without arresting or citing the person involved. Investigators allege Surry forgot to book that first May baggie and passed off the second one as its replacement, with the missing evidence now thought by investigators to simply be lost. The criminal complaint further alleges Surry acted to ensure the original arrestee would still be charged and that the substituted drugs would be presented as genuine evidence at trial.
Girlfriend's Alleged Role Involved Body-Camera Footage
Thompson's alleged involvement centers on identifying the right baggie for the swap. Investigators suspect she reviewed Surry's body-camera footage to figure out what type of baggie was needed to replace the missing evidence, leading to her arrest on the same two felony counts.
Police Chief Paul Joseph addressed the case directly, saying officers are required to maintain the chain of custody without exception and to be completely truthful in their accounts and interactions with the public. He added that falsifying evidence or police reports is a crime, and that the department swiftly removed both officers from duty and pursued criminal accountability. Joseph said that, if proven, the allegations would fail the standards the community has a right to expect, and that he would not tolerate department members violating the public's trust.
Licensing Referral and Legal Stakes
The San Jose Police Department said it referred both officers to the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to consider temporarily suspending their police licenses while the criminal case proceeds. That commission's own published guidance identifies false statements, intentionally filing false reports, and tampering with or falsifying evidence as the kind of serious misconduct its disciplinary process is meant to address, according to California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training materials.
Steven Clark, a criminal-defense attorney and former Santa Clara County prosecutor, said false evidence can undermine confidence in drugs confiscated by police and creates problems in court. Clark said the alleged conduct could erode community trust, pose public-safety risks, and call Surry's past arrests and investigations into question. Those broader consequences echo concerns raised statewide: a San Francisco Chronicle review found California has moved to decertify more than 200 police officers in recent years, though the reasons behind some of those cases have remained secret.
This is not Surry's first brush with the law. He was arrested in July 2022 for misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol following an off-duty, non-injury collision, according to the San Jose Police Department. The current allegations against Surry and Thompson remain unproven, and the evidence reviewed does not include statements from either officer, their attorneys, or the man involved in the May stop.
