Yes, "fajitagate" is back. Briefly.

Like a pesky gnat, the U.S. Supreme Court swatted away an appeal by former San Francisco Police Department Chief Earl Sanders yesterday. He claimed to have been nailed to the wall unfairly over his part in a little known thing called fajitagate.

Let's go way back a bit: in 2002: three off-duty officers (featuring one Alex Fagan Jr., offspring of former Assistant Chief Alex Fagan) attacked two men on the street late one night. Why? Because one of them refused to hand over a bag of steak fajitas. (Offers a refreshing twist on the time-honored tradition of calling cops pigs, doesn't it?)

Sanders and six other members of the SFPD were indicted by a grand jury in February 2003 on charges of obstructing the fajita-based investigation. Sanders, more or less, lost his job because of it. (That is to say, he was put on paid medical leave and then retired after the accusation of his involvement in the case came crashing down around him.) In turn, Sanders sued then-DA Terence Hallinan and the city of SF for being "prosecuted maliciously" and for public comments Hallinan supposedly made about Sanders being part of a cover-up.

Yesterday, the big guys in slimming robes over at the U.S. Supreme Court gave Sanders the thumbs down on his appeal, pretty much putting an end to his name-saving attempt. But, hey, we loved Zebra Murders, so you're always be gold in our book, true cime-wise.