The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has charged five police officers in a conspiracy to drop traffic tickets in exchange for bribes of food and liquor..
Former Antioch polices face felony counts of conspiracy to commit an act injurious to public and taking a bribe for — among other incidents — Teremana tequila for making traffic tickets go away.
The tequila made a patrol officer agree to skip a court appearance in a traffic case Nov. 2, 2020, apparently causing the ticket being dismissed, the documents say.
Antioch patrol Officer Andrea Rodriguez is charged with conspiracy and accepting a bribe for her role, and Antioch patrol Officer Calvin Prieto faces the same charges for another incident.
District Attorney Diana Becton issued a written statement Friday calling the alleged offenses acts of “public corruption.”
Friday’s charges add to the litany of shame emerging from an 18-month, FBI-led corruption probe, which culminated Thursday in the federal indictment of 10 people, including five Antioch police officers, four Pittsburg police officers and an Antioch community services officer. Their alleged crimes ranged from police violence, to college credit scams, steroid distribution, and obstructing a murder investigation.
During the probe, investigators discovered both incriminating and racist text messages between Antioch officers, including by Prieto and Rodriguez, who talked of disproportionately targeting Black people for citations, according to documents previously released by the Contra Costa DA’s office. In one exchange, the two discussed impounding cars and wanting to “make n—as eat s—,” according to the report.
The bribery case alleges that Manly Williams was the catalyst for incidents where tickets were set aside, authorities say. The tequila incident began when he allegedly texted Prieto on Oct. 2, 2020, looking for Rodriguez’s help on a traffic case in exchange for $300 not to show up to traffic court.
In a separate incident on April 13, 2021, Manly Williams allegedly texted Padilla about a ticket issued to a man who owned a local liquor store, right after Manly Williams and Mejia-Orozco had discussed it.
Later that day, Padilla asked a lieutenant in the department for permission to remove the ticket, according to multiple law enforcement sources. Then he followed up with Manly Williams about it, according to the criminal complaint.
“Let your boy know that he can tell Abdul that the ticket will be cancelled,” Padilla allegedly wrote. “He will not have to worry about it.”
Did the police department’s long resistance to the kind of reforms adopted far earlier in other Bay Area cities — Antioch didn’t require body cams until 2021 — enable the brutal behavior that has now led to a sweeping crisis of corruption? And if Antioch’s problems run deeper than the bad actions of some allegedly dirty cops, what will it take to clean this police department up?
Criminal justice experts say the process could be a long and difficult road for a city that saw six current and former cops indicted Thursday, and has dozens more on leave after a related scandal over racist text messages.
“My first question would be, who was in charge, what did they do, what did they know, and why did they do what they did?” said Howard Jordan, the former Oakland police chief who now runs third-party police misconduct investigations across California. “It’s got to start at the top and trickle downhill.”
By 2016, police in nearly two-thirds of Bay Area departments were using body cameras or were approved for their use. But Antioch resisted, citing a lack of funds for the department. The department finally approved body-worn police cameras in March 2021; Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who was elected in 2020 on a police reform agenda, said at the time that the policy change was “10 years overdue.”
It was among a series of reforms that department leaders largely resisted as the corruption within the department’s ranks was festering largely unseen. Those reforms — which city leaders ultimately adopted — include enhanced officer training, increased accountability and transparency, and improved hiring and screening practices.
Thursday’s arrests included a total of five current and former Antioch officers and a former community service officer, on a host of different federal charges spread across four different indictments. Two are charged with steroid distribution, one with obstructing a murder investigation, three others with committing police violence for sport, and six others for an alleged wire fraud scheme involving incentive pay for college degrees.
Police use of force has led to costly settlements for Antioch. The city last year paid $180,000 to a middle school teacher who complained he was left concussed after being punched by officers in 2019, and paid $495,000 to the family of a man fatally shot by one of its officers in 2017.
The department has been through a series of leadership changes, complicating reform efforts. Steven Ford, who took over as chief in early 2022 as the first outsider to lead the department since 2006, left this month after less than a year.
David Schultz, political science and legal studies professor has studied the costs of aggressive police uses of force — more than $2 billion nationally in 15 large cities since 2010 — said this week there’s “not a lot of evidence that check writing is doing anything” to reduce police violence.
“The payouts become a cost of doing business,” Schultz said.
John Burris, a Bay Area lawyer who was involved in the Oakland Riders lawsuit and has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Antioch’s police department, said this week the department should be put under federal oversight, similar to Oakland’s two decades ago.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/08/20/how-did-we-get-here-antioch-dragged-feet-on-police-reforms-delighting-officers-facing-civil-rights-charges/
Later that day, Padilla asked a lieutenant in the department for permission to remove the ticket, according to multiple law enforcement sources. Then he followed up with Manly Williams about it, according to the criminal complaint.
“Let your boy know that he can tell Abdul that the ticket will be cancelled,” Padilla allegedly wrote. “He will not have to worry about it.”
Did the police department’s long resistance to the kind of reforms adopted far earlier in other Bay Area cities — Antioch didn’t require body cams until 2021 — enable the brutal behavior that has now led to a sweeping crisis of corruption? And if Antioch’s problems run deeper than the bad actions of some allegedly dirty cops, what will it take to clean this police department up?
Criminal justice experts say the process could be a long and difficult road for a city that saw six current and former cops indicted Thursday, and has dozens more on leave after a related scandal over racist text messages.
“My first question would be, who was in charge, what did they do, what did they know, and why did they do what they did?” said Howard Jordan, the former Oakland police chief who now runs third-party police misconduct investigations across California. “It’s got to start at the top and trickle downhill.”
By 2016, police in nearly two-thirds of Bay Area departments were using body cameras or were approved for their use. But Antioch resisted, citing a lack of funds for the department. The department finally approved body-worn police cameras in March 2021; Mayor Lamar Thorpe, who was elected in 2020 on a police reform agenda, said at the time that the policy change was “10 years overdue.”
It was among a series of reforms that department leaders largely resisted as the corruption within the department’s ranks was festering largely unseen. Those reforms — which city leaders ultimately adopted — include enhanced officer training, increased accountability and transparency, and improved hiring and screening practices.
Thursday’s arrests included a total of five current and former Antioch officers and a former community service officer, on a host of different federal charges spread across four different indictments. Two are charged with steroid distribution, one with obstructing a murder investigation, three others with committing police violence for sport, and six others for an alleged wire fraud scheme involving incentive pay for college degrees.
Police use of force has led to costly settlements for Antioch. The city last year paid $180,000 to a middle school teacher who complained he was left concussed after being punched by officers in 2019, and paid $495,000 to the family of a man fatally shot by one of its officers in 2017.
The department has been through a series of leadership changes, complicating reform efforts. Steven Ford, who took over as chief in early 2022 as the first outsider to lead the department since 2006, left this month after less than a year.
David Schultz, political science and legal studies professor has studied the costs of aggressive police uses of force — more than $2 billion nationally in 15 large cities since 2010 — said this week there’s “not a lot of evidence that check writing is doing anything” to reduce police violence.
“The payouts become a cost of doing business,” Schultz said.
John Burris, a Bay Area lawyer who was involved in the Oakland Riders lawsuit and has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Antioch’s police department, said this week the department should be put under federal oversight, similar to Oakland’s two decades ago.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/08/20/how-did-we-get-here-antioch-dragged-feet-on-police-reforms-delighting-officers-facing-civil-rights-charges/
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