Felony charges dropped, DA review underway amid ongoing criminal investigation into East Contra Costa cops

ANTIOCH — An ongoing prison investigation into law enforcement officials from Antioch and Pittsburg has led to greater than a dozen dismissals in federal courtroom circumstances and an ongoing evaluation of Contra Costa County prosecutions in any case that relied on reviews from the officers.

Federal prosecutors final month made the extraordinarily uncommon transfer of agreeing to dismiss severe felony fees in opposition to 4 individuals who’d already pleaded responsible of their circumstances and had been awaiting sentencing. All 4 defendants had pleaded responsible to possessing firearms as felons within the metropolis of Antioch — circumstances that hinged on the phrase of Antioch officers.

The circumstances had been among the many dismissals accredited by the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace since late March, when authorities introduced they had been probing potential “crimes of ethical turpitude” dedicated by an unspecified variety of Antioch and Pittsburg officers, in line with two sources with firsthand information. A number of regulation enforcement sources have mentioned the costs pertain to alleged involvement with cocaine and steroids, however that federal authorities are additionally reviewing deadly use-of-force incidents dedicated by a few of the officers.

A spokesperson for the Contra Costa District Legal professional’s Workplace informed the Bay Space Information Group that the company is “actively evaluating the circumstances of the Antioch and Pittsburg officers who’re topic to the FBI’s prison investigation” and is disclosing info that would affect these prosecutions or problem the officers’ credibility to protection attorneys.

“To be able to proceed to prosecute these circumstances, it will likely be essential to make sure disclosures in accordance with moral discovery obligations,” Contra Costa DA spokesman Ted Asregadoo mentioned in an electronic mail. “The Contra Costa District Legal professional’s Workplace continues to stability the integrity of the continuing investigation, with the obligation to reveal favorable info to a defendant, together with due course of rights of the implicated officers.”

In federal courtroom, fees had been dismissed in opposition to Eric Meals, Quincy Mason, Bernard Sices and Kardell Smith, after they’d all pleaded responsible to gun fees that carry a 10-year most jail time period, data present.

In Smith’s case, Officers Brock Marcotte, Quamaine Murphy and Morteza Amiri arrested him. Amiri claimed to have seen Smith throw a gun by way of a window of his house on Sycamore Drive. Meals was arrested in July 2020 by an Antioch officer whose title isn’t utilized in courtroom data, on suspicion of possessing a home made pistol with no serial quantity, courtroom data present.

Each Sices’ and Mason’s unrelated prosecutions concerned the identical arresting officer, Eric Rombough, who claimed that on June 7, 2019, Sices ran from him throughout an tried cease and tossed a pistol onto the grass whereas Rombough pursued him. Rombough tackled Sices and recovered the weapon, prosecutors mentioned in courtroom data. In Mason’s case, Rombough arrested him in December 2020 on suspicion of possessing two firearms whereas on parole, at an Antioch residence on East sixth Road. Different officers had been current and DNA linked him to the weapons, in line with courtroom data.

However on April 13 — simply three weeks after Mason pleaded responsible — prosecutors moved to dismiss the conviction, writing that the U.S. Legal professional’s workplace “has uncovered proof that undermines its confidence within the conviction on this case.” It was the very same wording used within the different dismissals, courtroom data present.

Rombough was one among 4 officers who shot and killed 57-year Guadalupe Zavala throughout a seven-hour standoff final January.

Antioch police Chief Steven Ford didn’t reply to requests for remark, together with an inquiry about whether or not Rombough, Marcotte or Amiri had been among the many officers presently on depart as a part of the prison probe.