ANTIOCH—On December 2, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a press release announcing the arrest of 10 police officers, including Devon Christopher Wenger, who was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison for, “ conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate residents of Antioch through the use of unreasonable force, conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids, and obstructing justice.”
The charges were brought during an investigation into the police departments in Pittsburg and Antioch that resulted in federal charges against officers and employees of the two departments. Charges ranged from excessive force to fraud. Senior U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White handed down the sentences.
Officers were caught dealing/distributing Anabolic Steroids and were engaging in excessive force with the suspects they arrested. Body cam footage confirmed reports, which, in Wenger’s case, he denied.
Body cam depicted him slamming a suspect’s head onto the hood of his car.
The other act of excessive use of force was using K-9 officers and ordering them to bite people. The act of “sicking” a K-9 officer on a suspect can be a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Evidence of a plan was reportedly found on his cell phone.
“In August 2020, after Amiri deployed his K9 to apprehend a suspect in Pittsburg, California, with Wenger, he wrote to Wenger “if pitt didn’t have all those body cams and that was us… we would have f—ed him up more. he didn’t get what he deserved.” Wenger responded, “I agree. That’s why I don’t like body cams,” states the release.
The next night, Wenger wrote to Amiri, “We need to get into something tonight bro!! Lets go 3 nights in a row dog bite!!!” Amiri and Wenger exchanged additional messages and bloodied photographs after engaging with another suspect that night, and following Amiri’s deployment of his K9 to bite a suspect in a homeless encampment the subsequent evening. At the end of the week, Amiri wrote to Wenger, “let’s f— some people up next work week,” to which Wenger agreed.”
Sales of the steroids were documented as well. Wenger was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison with 3 years supervised release following that.
Following a seven-day trial, Wenger was convicted by a jury of his peers for conspiracy against rights. He was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals and has remained in custody since that time.
Charges were also brought against Patrick Berhan, Morteza Amiri, Amanda Theodosy a/k/a “Nash,” Samantha Peterson, Ernestoi Mejia-Orozco, Brauli Jalapa Rodriguez, Timothy Manly Williams, Daniel Harris, and Eric Rombough.
