OAKLAND — In a verdict that marks the near-end of a massive police scandal that rocked East Contra Costa, a former Antioch policeman was convicted Thursday of conspiring with colleagues to violate the civil rights of the people he was supposed to protect and serve.
Devon Wenger was found guilty of conspiracy to violate civil rights, which carries up to 10 years in federal prison. Wenger was also convicted last April of distributing steroids and altering records to try and cover it up, which ironically carries twice as much potential prison time as plotting to commit police brutality.
Prosecutors alleged during trial that the conspiracy was laid out in texts between Wenger and fellow officers Morteza Amiri and Eric Rombough, who discussed beating people, hitting them with less lethal launchers, and dog bites. In one exchange, Amiri — then a K9 officer — wrote, “Let’s (expletive) some people up next work week,” and Wenger reposnded, “Bro, (expletive) to the mother(expletive)ing yes,” according to prosecutors.
Rombough, accused of several instances of illegally shooting people with the launcher, pleaded guilty and became a government’s witness, testifying against both Amiri and Wenger in their separate trials. Amiri was acquitted of conspiracy last March, but convicted of illegally siccing his dog on an Antioch man and falsifying details to cover it up. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White sentenced him to seven years last June.
During closing arguments on Wednesday, Wenger’s lawyer, Michael Schwartz, argued that prosecutors couldn’t prove Wenger actually ever committed a single act of police brutality. He had been accused of one charge for shooting a suspected car thief with a less lethal launcher — but White not only dismissed that count during trial, he informed jurors at the trial’s end that the act had been found legally “reasonable” and to focus solely on the alleged conspiracy.
Schwartz called Rombough a liar in the government’s “pocket,” but also pointed out that Rombough had described Wenger as an “acquaintance” and indicated he had a low opinion of him.
“That’s the co-conspirator?” Schwartz asked skeptically. In another instance, Schwartz pointed out that Amiri and Wenger discussed beating up a man who’d stolen mail from Wenger, but that numerous other officers were involved in the same text group. He said it was clear from the text stream — from jokes about lewd encounters with “snapping turtles” to frequent use of hyperbole — that the messages were private jokes by people with stressful jobs.
“If this is really a conspiracy, the entire shift is involved?” he asked jurors.
For his part, Wenger has not only adamantly denied that he’s guilty of anything, he’s accused police and prosecutors alike of conspiring to violate his rights after he attempted to shine light on police corruption in Antioch. A lawsuit he filed last March accuses higher-ups at the police department of inflicting “emotional distress” after he accused a lieutenant of pulling Wenger into his office and discussing the lieutenant’s affair with Wenger’s fiancée in lewd detail. He’s also accused one Contra Costa District Attorney inspector of forging a letter that incriminated other officers, another of “injecting” incriminating texts into Wenger’s phone, and his trial judge of pressuring jurors to convict him in the steroids case.
Despite the conviction, White could still decide to acquit Wenger of conspiracy. He has yet to rule on a motion for acquittal filed during trial, stating that he wanted to see what jurors would do first.
For Wenger, the case has been a bumpy road full of surprising twists and turns. He was originally set to go alongside Amiri in trial with a different lawyer, but two days in she insisted she needed to bow out of the case, blaming her lack of sleep, lack of support from her firm, and mental health struggled. White reluctantly granted the motion, but later accused the attorney, Nicole Lopes, of misleading him after she appeared on a podcast and appeared to gleefully revel in Wenger’s mistrial.
In retrospect, that jury seemed more sympathetic to the defense’s case than the one that ultimately found Wenger guilty after less than a full day of deliberation. The first jury, by contrast, deliberated for days before acquitting Amiri of conspiracy, multiple deprivation of rights charges, and convicting him of the single dog attack and records falsification. That charge was bolstered by another ex-Antioch cop who’d been charged with a crime and agreed to testify, Tim Manly-Williams, who witnessed the incident. He laughed and forcefully said “no” when asked if Amiri’s deployment of his K9, Purcy, had been justified.
Like the conspiracy, Wenger’s steroids conviction hinged on the word of a man who was more legally culpable than Wenger himself. Daniel Harris, another ex-Antioch cop who became a government witness after being charge, testified that Wenger had acquired steroids from him and that he welcomed Wenger to the “anabolic club.” But Harris described himself as a more prolific steroids distributor who sent the drugs to other cops. He said he admitted guilt and agreed to testify in order to take responsibility for his wrongdoing.
Wenger has not yet been sentenced in either case.
All 14 of the ex-Antioch and Pittsburg officers to be charged have pleaded guilty or been convicted of some law violation, including participating in a college degree fraud scandal, accepting bribes, firearms violations, and real estate fraud. Several Antioch officers also lost their jobs for saying racist, homophobic or sexist things in texts that were discovered during the FBI criminal investigation. The fallout from both scandals rocked the justice system, resulting in dozens of criminal cases being reviewed and dismissed.
