Federal authorities Thursday charged 10 present and former Antioch and Pittsburg cops in a set of sweeping indictments alleging offenses starting from dishonest on coaching courses to savage violations of civil rights in certainly one of California’s greatest prison circumstances of police corruption.
Essentially the most severe and disturbing costs — civil rights violations to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate residents of Antioch” — had been filed towards two present and one former officer from that metropolis’s police division, the place residents have lengthy complained of extreme pressure and the place dozens of officers have been positioned on go away amid a scandal over their racist textual content messages.
“Any breach of the general public’s belief is completely unacceptable,” stated FBI Particular Agent In Cost Robert Tripp. “The actions right now clarify that no person’s above the legislation.”
Antioch officers Morteza Amiri, Devon Wenger and Eric Rombough are accused of plotting violence towards particular folks, accumulating “trophies” of their crimes, and reveling within the aftermath of sure alleged crimes. They’re additionally accused of falsifying official stories to justify the violence and canopy their tracks.
The indictment, for instance, alleged that in February 2019, Amiri and Rombough talked about coming to work on a day they deliberate to take off to retaliate towards an individual who they believed had crossed a fellow officer.
“I’m gonna f—- somebody up and hopefully get you a chew,” Rombough allegedly informed Amiri, an officer with a police canine, who replied: “Precisely! Blood for blood.”
Prosecutors say between March 2019 and November 2021, Amiri’s canine bit 28 folks, and Rombough deployed a 40mm “much less deadly” launcher at 11 topics from November 2020 by means of August 2021. Information present that of the 28 chew victims, 19 had been Black residents, or 68 p.c.
Through textual content, the indictment says, the trio egged one another on to make use of violence and swapped images of individuals they’d injured. In a single textual content, Wenger wrote that “we have to get into one thing tonight bro!! Lets go 3 nights in a row canine chew.” Later that evening in August 2020, Amiri and Wenger pulled any person out of a automobile and took them to the bottom. Amiri later texted Wenger footage of that injured individual.
A federal grand jury in San Francisco handed down the 4 separate indictments, every charging totally different schemes. Not one of the officers was charged with all of the alleged offenses.
Wenger, together with former Antioch Officer Daniel Harris, was additionally charged with possession of and conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids. Former Antioch Officer Timothy Manly Williams was charged with obstruction for allegedly interfering with an ongoing murder and tried homicide investigation concentrating on an Oakland-based gang believed to be answerable for a number of shootings.
And Amiri, together with former Antioch Group Service Officer Samantha Peterson and former Pittsburg officers Patrick Berhan, Brauli Rodriguez Jalapa, Ernesto Juan Mejia-Orozco and Amanda Theodosy-Nash, had been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud for coaching course dishonest. They’re accused of getting another person take programs that certified them for pay raises.
The wire fraud counts carry a most sentence of 20 years, as do the falsification of proof costs, whereas the deprivation of rights counts carry a most sentence of 10 years.
The FBI rounded up and arrested a lot of the officers early Thursday morning in a collection of raids throughout the Bay Space and as distant as Hawaii and Texas, following indictments that capped a two-year investigation.
A number of of the accused cops appeared earlier than a federal Justice of the Peace in Oakland, the place the circumstances will probably be tried.
Rombough appeared wearing civilian garments, with bloody arms and knees, ripped garments and a shirt that learn, “don’t weaken.” His lawyer bristled on the FBI raids, telling U.S. District Justice of the Peace Donna Ryu that Rombough has robust Bay Space ties and would come to courtroom if he’d been ordered to.
“There’s completely no motive for Mr. Rombough to seem right here in handcuffs right now,” his lawyer, Will Edelman, stated in courtroom.
U.S. Marshals led Amiri into courtroom, the place he appeared with attorneys Michael Rains and Julia Fox.
Amiri, Rombough, Berhan, Peterson, Rodriguez-Jalapa, and Mejia-Orozco all pleaded not responsible. Prosecutors agreed to launch every of the boys on $100,000 property bonds, offered they agree to not contact alleged victims, co-defendants or witnesses, to relinquish their weapons, to give up their passports, and to conform to journey restrictions. Peterson was launched with out having to place up property.
Although legal professionals for Rombough, Mejia-Orozco and Berhan objected to the property bonds, Ryu agreed to prosecutors’ request, citing “the very severe nature of those costs.”
Prosecutors argued that the bonds had been crucial as a result of the officers “swore an oath to guard and serve the group and uphold the structure and did the alternative.”
Ryu granted Mejia-Orozco — who works as an armed safety guard in San Francisco — an opportunity to argue in a future listening to that he needs to be allowed to own a gun at work.
The Antioch Police Officers Affiliation posted Thursday on Fb that “we’re saddened to study of what has occurred and stay up for the authorized course of taking part in itself out.” The APOA added that “we’re dedicated to nonetheless offering high quality service to the residents of Antioch and likewise offering assist for our members who’re nonetheless working by means of this tough time.”
The arrests mark the tip of an investigation that began in early 2022 when a tipster knowledgeable the FBI and Contra Costa District Legal professional {that a} group of East Contra Costa County cops had been dishonest on faculty exams to acquire education-incentive pay raises.
The scope of the investigation later widened to incorporate alleged violent crimes and drug trafficking and precipitated a cascade of scandals that has remodeled the Antioch Police Division into one of the vital scrutinized legislation enforcement companies in California.
After seizing a number of officers’ cellphones, investigators stumbled upon hundreds of racist and anti-gay textual content messages involving dozens of Antioch cops, shining a highlight on racism inside the division that many residents had been making an attempt to boost alarm bells over for years. Lots of these textual content messages grew to become public earlier this yr in different courtroom proceedings.
Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who has sought to reform the town’s police division, stated Thursday that “right now is a darkish day in our metropolis’s historical past, as folks trusted to uphold the legislation allegedly breached that belief and had been arrested by the FBI.”
Pittsburg Mayor Shanelle Scales-Preston famous Thursday that her metropolis had reported the category dishonest, and its officers weren’t implicated within the civil rights violations alleged in neighboring Antioch.
“This can be a very severe problem for our East County communities and I’m pleased with our Pittsburg Police Division, which took a progressive and aggressive stance towards this alleged wrongdoing,” Scales-Preston stated. “The Pittsburg Police Division instantly reported this incident over 18 months in the past, making the developments we’ve seen right now doable.”
The scandal continues to rock the native prison justice system. Prosecutors in federal and state courtroom have dropped or dismissed dozens of circumstances that relied on the impugned officers, and Contra Costa County has allotted thousands and thousands for attorneys to overview hundreds extra prison recordsdata for potential dismissal.
In Antioch, a civil rights lawyer has filed a federal class motion swimsuit meant to pressure oversight on the police division. And California Legal professional Basic Rob Bonta is making an attempt the identical with a civil rights investigation into the town, primarily based on use-of-force traits that Bonta has known as “disturbing” and that he stated caught his eye earlier than the prison probe grew to become identified.
Amid the fallout from the investigations, a number of high-ranking Antioch officers have retired, together with the town’s police chief, Steven Ford, and an appearing captain has been employed to function interim chief whereas the town finds a substitute. Ford cited no particular motive for his early departure.
In a press release Antioch Appearing Police Chief Joe Vigil known as the arrests “disheartening” and stated “any police officer who breaks public belief should be held accountable.”
John Burris, a longtime Bay Space civil rights lawyer who filed a civil rights lawsuit towards the town’s police division earlier this yr, known as Thursday’s indictments “a great first step in the direction of cleansing up this division” and a validation of residents who’ve complained about it through the years.
Shagoofa Khan, a 23-year-old group activist who grew up in Antioch and stated officers there put a tracker on her automobile and had disparaged her in racist and sexualized textual content messages, was relieved that the officers will probably be held accountable.
“Lastly,” she stated of the indictments. “This course of must conclude earlier than the group can heal.”
Thorpe known as the indictments “the start of the tip of a protracted and arduous course of” of reforming the town police division, validating his push to take action.
“In search of to reform the Antioch Police Division will not be anti-police,” Thorpe stated. “It’s professional our residents and professional officers which have served and proceed to serve with honor.”
