03 Dec Another Former Antioch Officer Sentenced to Federal Prison for Deprivation of Rights, Other Crimes

An Antioch police department vehicle passes A.F. Bray Courthouse in Martinez in 2023. (Harika Maddala / Bay City News / Catchlight Local)

By Katy St. Clair
Bay City News

Another Antioch police officer caught up in the department’s texting scandal has been sentenced to federal prison for conspiring to violate civil rights and distributing steroids, the U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday.

Devon Christopher Wenger, 33, was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison for conspiring to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate residents of Antioch through the unreasonable use of force, as well as conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids. He was also convicted of obstructing justice.

Former Oakley resident Wengler was indicted in two cases, one in April for steroids and one in September for conspiracy against rights. He was found guilty in both cases and has been in custody since September.

Wenger conspired with other Antioch officers to use excessive force including gratuitous siccing of a police dog on suspects, using less-lethal 40mm launchers, “and other unnecessary violence,” prosecutors said.

Wenger also hid his activity from police reports and other official documents.

The malfeasance at the Antioch Police Department first came to light in 2023 when dozens of homophobic, racist, sexist and generally offensive text exchanges between officers were revealed.

In 2023, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office in conjunction with the FBI released a report on the scandal, pinpointing 14 officers by name and describing a culture of racial bias and “animus towards African Americans and other people of color in the community,” according to the report.

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One example in the District Attorney’s report showed a text from Officer John Ramirez joking about shooting Antioch’s then-mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe, a Black man.

“I’ll buy someone a prime rib dinner,” he texted about the proposition.

Other officers were found referring to both Minneapolis police brutality victim George Floyd and then-Antioch Police Chief Steve Ford, both African Americans, as “gorillas.”

In March, former officer and Wegner co-defendant Morteza Amiri was also convicted of depravation of rights and for using his police K-9 to assault suspects.

“Amiri kept a running bite count that he celebrated with other officers,” prosecutors said. “Amiri also took photographs of the dog bites and shared them with other officers, stating in one text message that ‘gory pics are for personal stuff’ and ‘cleaned up pics for the case.'”

In June, Amiri was given seven years in federal prison.

Six former Antioch officers including Amiri have also been convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud by hiring someone to get degrees for them so that they could receive higher salaries, the DOJ said.

Wegner told Amiri he didn’t “like body cams” because they recorded what the officers were doing, according to prosecutors. The two would share pictures of bloodied individuals that had the police dog sicced on them.

“Let’s f–some people up next work week,” Amiri texted to Wegner, who agreed.

“Devon Wenger’s sentencing marks another significant step in a multi-year effort to uncover and confront corruption within the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Agustin Lopez in a statement released Tuesday by the DOJ. “His conviction, along with the earlier convictions in this case, underscores that no one is above the law.”

In addition to bringing federal cases against Antioch officers, the DOJ entered into an agreement with the Police Department in January to overhaul its culture of racism and meet specific standards of compliance. The department has five years to make that goal and hired a consultant to help them reach it.

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