Ex-firefighter accused of assault is arrested

By Wire report
Examiner Staff Writer 9/5/08

SAN FRANCISCO – The former San Francisco firefighter who is accused of using his badge to gain women’s trust before sexually assaulting them was arrested Friday afternoon, police said.

Sgt. Neville Gittens said Horacio Candia Jr. went to the office of an attorney, who called police around 2 p.m. to notify them of Candia’s presence there.

Officers went to the office and took 38-year-old Candia into custody on a $500,000 warrant for three counts of forced oral copulation, one count of sexual battery, one count of making terrorist threats and one count of false imprisonment, Gittens said.

The most recent incident happened Aug. 22 near the intersection of 16th and Carolina streets, on the border of the Potrero Hill neighborhood, according to the Police Department. The victim was able to escape Candia’s vehicle and call police.

Candia had a nearly nine-year career with the Fire Department that ended in January 2001 when he was fired for refusing to take a drug test, according to Lt. Mindy Talmadge. It was suspected that Candia had been intoxicated while on the job, she told The Examiner on Wednesday.

Candia still has his badge, Talmadge said, because he had purchased it from The City when he had been promoted to the rank of chief operator several years before his firing.

“With all uniformed employees ... when a person either retires or assumes a different rank, they are given the option of either relinquishing their prior rank badge or purchasing it,” Talmadge said.

— Bay City News

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