Records suggest officials with the San Diego Police Department moved to cover up a former officer’s sexual misconduct out of fear of negative press coverage, KGTV-TV reported on Friday.

According to a court transcript, former Police Chief William Lansdowne told Executive Assistant Chief David Ramirez in a confidential meeting, “When the reporters … get it in the news, we have a problem” regarding reports that in 1997, then-Officer Anthony Arevalos had forced a mentally unstable woman to perform “sex acts” on herself with his baton, as Arevalos took pictures....