‘Blood for blood’: Indictments detail East Contra Costa cops’ alleged crimes that went unnoticed for years

Officers plotted violence, collected ‘trophies’ among other misdeeds, feds say

The FBI’s investigation into widespread corruption in the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments resulted in the indictment of ten people on Thursday, marking one of the Bay Area’s largest and most egregious policing scandals in recent memory.

In four indictments filed in East Contra Costa County, nine police officers — five from Antioch and four from Pittsburg — and one Antioch community service officer were named. The allegations ranged from alleged college credit card scams to steroid distribution to racially motivated police brutality detailed in openly bigoted text messages.

The following are the four types of cases brought by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California:

‘Hopefully you get a bite,’ say civil rights activists, referring to allegations of brutal tactics.

Morteza Amiri, Devon Wenger, and Eric Rombough of Antioch are accused of plotting violence against specific people, collecting “trophies” for their crimes, and reveling in the “gore” caused by their actions. They are also accused of fabricating accounts of the violence in order to hide their tracks.

According to prosecutors, it began in April 2019 and lasted until early 2022, when the FBI raided the officers’ homes.

“I was planning on enjoying the day off but f— them for f—ing with an officer,” Amiri texted Rombough in 2019.

“Me too, and exactly I’m going to f— someone up and hopefully you get a bite,” Rombough responded.

“Exactly! According to the indictment, Amiri responded, “Blood for blood.”

The allegations are similar to previous revelations of alleged police brutality and racist policing by several Antioch officers, who exchanged text messages using the N-word and bragging about brutalizing criminal suspects, according to documents obtained by this news organization. However, the batch of texts detailed in court papers released Thursday centered on the use of Amiri’s police dog, Purcy, who allegedly bit dozens of people while under Amiri’s supervision.

According to the indictment, the trio encouraged each other to use violence through text messages and exchanged photos of people they had injured. Wenger wrote in one text, “we need to get into something tonight bro!!” Let’s go dog bite three nights in a row.” Later that night in August 2020, Amiri and Wenger dragged someone from a car and threw them to the ground, and Amiri later texted Wenger pictures of the injured person.

According to court records, Amiri and an officer from a neighboring agency raided a homeless camp the next day and sicced Purcy on a man inside a tent. He later texted that the man was “laying in bed acting like he was asleep” and that Amiri stood there and “game planned how to f— him up,” before unleashing his dog.

“You would have loved it,” he texted Wenger later. “(The officer from another agency) agreed to keep the cameras off,” referring to police body cameras.

“That nerd! F— him!” “That’s what happens when you run, you get a tax,” Wenger responded. “He paid his taxes on time. “Nice work, bro.”

Prosecutors claim Amiri’s dog bit 28 people between March 2019 and November 2021, and Rombough fired a.40mm “less lethal” launcher at 11 people between November 2020 and August 2021. According to records, 19 of the 28 bite victims, or 68 percent, were Black residents.

Alleged steroid sales and obstructive tracks

Prosecutors say two Antioch police officers, Daniel Harris and Wenger, attempted to sell anabolic steroids and were charged with several felonies. When federal agents seized one of their phones, they discovered that several texts had been deleted in an apparent attempt to cover the officers’ tracks, according to the prosecutors on Thursday.

According to court documents, the scheme began in March 2022, when the two officers exchanged texts about delivering steroids to a person identified only as B.M. in the indictment.According to federal investigators, Wenger then selectively deleted texts before FBI agents took his phone on March 23, 2022.

How the investigation got started: A possible college credit scam

The most officers named in the indictment speak to the heart of the FBI’s investigation: concerns that police officers were boosting their pay by cheating their way into fake college degrees.

Prosecutors claim that from June 2019 to May 2021, six current and former Antioch and Pittsburg police officers conspired to have at least one other person take college tests for them. This is because, depending on the union contract, pay increases for new educational degrees can range from 2.5 percent to 10 percent.

The majority of the officers — Amiri, Samantha Peterson, Ernesto Mejia-Orozco, and Amanda Theodosy, also known as Amanda Nash — made at least one payment of a few hundred dollars for their courses, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors claim that a couple of others contributed significantly more money to the scheme. According to court documents, Brauli Rodriguez-Jalapa, a former Pittsburg officer who left to join the Oakland Housing Authority force, made a $12,130 payment in May 2021, while former Pittsburg Officer Patrick Berhan made a $2,400 payment in December 2020.

Each of them was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and a forfeiture allegation by federal prosecutors. According to previous reports, at least two of the officers attempted – and failed – to avoid prosecution by repaying tens of thousands of dollars in bonus money.

A wiretapping and a rumored tip-off

Timothy Manly Williams, a former Antioch and Pittsburg police officer, is accused of obstructing or interfering with an FBI and APD wiretap investigation involving gang members suspected of murder. Authorities allege that while working in the wiretap room and monitoring calls, he used his personal cell phone to call a target of the case and did not mark it as a pertinent call, which means it was not recorded and he never logged the conversation. The court papers do not specify what was said on the call, but sources say Manly-Williams left APD after the incident was discovered.

The charge of deprivation of rights is related to a situation in May 2021. The indictment claims that while Manly was on patrol, he snatched a cell phone from a person who was filming another officer using a police dog on someone and destroyed it. According to authorities, he violated the person’s right against unreasonable search and seizure.