A California judge has dropped the charges against a local man, implicated in the 1971 murder of a San Francisco police officer.

The move came Monday in San Francisco, releasing 60-year-old Harold Taylor for the potential murder charges he's faced, off-and-on, for the last 38-years.

Taylor was arrested at his Callaway home on January 23rd, 2007. The arrest was part of a coordinated nationwide operation in San Francisco, New York and in Panama City.

Taylor and 6-others were arrested and charged with the murder of San Francisco police Sergeant John Victor Young. He was killed at the Ingleside police station in San Francisco in August 29th, 1971, in what prosecutors described as a raid by Black Panthers and members of the "Black Liberation Army".

Taylor and others were arrested back in 1971. Investigators said Taylor planned the raid, in which the suspects had vowed to kill everyone inside of the police station.

But the charges were dismissed after the judge ruled police beat confessions out of a number of the suspects.

Taylor moved to Bay County in 1982, but California prosecutors never lost track of him, or gave-up on the case. Months prior to his arrest in 2007, Taylor refused to testify before a grand jury looking into the 1971 murder, and was jailed for contempt of court.

After his arrest in 2007, the judge released Taylor on 350-thousand dollars bond. He returned to Panama City where he was arrested in December on drug charges.

He still has several cases pending against him in local court, but the California murder charges are gone. The California judge also dropped charges against 3-of Taylor's co-defendants.

2-of the original San Francisco-8 have entered pleas in the murder case, one of those Monday, the other two weeks ago. A third is still facing charges.