Davin Cole faces a maximum prison sentence of 4 years; his attorney says he was struggling with a painkiller addiction at the time of the 2021 Rite Aid holdup.
SAN MATEO — A former San Francisco Police Department sergeant has pleaded no contest to charges inin which he held up a San Mateo pharmacy with a gun threat and made off with painkillers to feed an opioid addiction, authorities said.
He appeared in court after traveling from Southern California, where he is currently undergoing drug rehabilitation, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said Monday. Cole’s attorney said he became addicted to painkillers following a bite injury to his calf suffered during a police dog training exercise in 2010.
On the evening of Nov. 3, 2021, Cole walked into the Rite Aid on Concar Drive in San Mateo wearing a hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses and a face mask and approached the drug counter. Prosecutors say Cole then handed a pharmacy technician a note “stating that he had a gun” and demanded that the employee “give him Norco,” a painkiller consisting of hydrocodone and acetaminophen.