ANTIOCH — A former Antioch police officer whose criminal conspiracy trial recently came to an abrupt and inconsequential end is suing his former department alleging retaliation by higher-ups.
Devon Wenger filed a lawsuit in Contra Costa Superior Court against the Antioch Police Department, alleging retaliation and harassment by higher ups, resulting in “emotional distress” and even the pending criminal cases against him. The suit was filed on Feb. 28, just three days before Wenger went to trial facing charges of conspiracy and deprivation of civil rights, and just four days before a judge declared a mistrial.
The lawsuit centers on issues Wenger has raised in criminal court, where he faces charges in one case of illegally shooting a man with a less-lethal projectile, and another case alleging he distributed illegal steroids. Wenger has long maintained both cases are the result of retaliation after he spoke up against people within the scandal-ridden department.
“The fact that (Wenger) was dragged into this joint investigation is retaliation for, ironically, daring to speak up about illegal discrimination and harassment at the APD,” the suit says.
The city of Antioch, which generally doesn’t comment on pending litigation, didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Wenger was one of nine ex-East Contra Costa cops charged in a series of 2023 indictments and is the only one who has escaped a conviction thus far. He resigned two months before being charged.
Wenger was set to go on trial alongside ex-K9 Officer Morteza Amiri, but just two days in U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White declared a mistrial after a lengthy sealed court hearing. A subsequent order by White says Wenger’s lawyer, Nicole Lopes, moved for a mistrial “based upon her inability to provide effective representation to Mr. Wenger,” and White has since indicated he may soon unseal the transcript from the hearing.
The suit centers on a dispute between Wenger and former Antioch police Lt. Robert Meads, who lost his job after he was charged with using a private law enforcement database to research Wenger’s former girlfriend. It alleges that Meads described to Wenger in lewd detail how he’d had an affair with Wenger’s fiancée, ostensibly to “clear the air” and illegally researched the woman in a police database. Around the same time, an Antioch squad car was seen at the home of Wenger’s parents, who do not live in Antioch, the lawsuit alleges.
Meads, who pleaded no contest to an infraction, now works for the Pinole Police Department.
