Nicole Castronovo, defense attorney for former Antioch police officer Devon Christopher Wenger, gives her opening statement in the federal trial against Wenger and another former Antioch officer at the U.S. District Courthouse in Oakland on March 3, 2025. On Wednesday, the third day of trial, Judge Jeffrey S. White announced that the case against Wenger would not continue. (Vicki Behringer for KQED)
Devon Christopher Wenger was in court this week alongside Morteza Amiri to face charges that they repeatedly used unlawful and excessive force as part of a three-year conspiracy to violate civil rights. On the third day of trial, however, Judge Jeffrey S. White announced that the case against Wenger would not continue.
The ruling came after White took the courtroom into closed-door proceedings, ordering everyone but the attorneys and defendants out just minutes after the day began. The court’s order was sealed, providing little information about the reason for the mistrial.
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While the charges against Wenger — including a constitutional violation involving the unreasonable use of a 40-millimeter impact launcher — have not been dismissed, U.S. attorneys presiding over the case will need to refile against Wenger if they want his case to be heard, said his attorney, Nicole Castronovo.
Amiri’s case will continue independently and is presumed to be unaffected by Wenger’s mistrial.
The Antioch Police Department in Antioch on March 3, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
“It was an unexpected outcome,” Castronovo told KQED. “The way the media ran with him and the optics and dynamics of how this whole Antioch story unfolded, it was a very difficult case to present because of that.”
The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the mistrial.
Castronovo said she could not comment on why the judge ordered a mistrial. However, in a court filing Wednesday, White said that Wenger’s attorney had “made an oral motion for mistrial based upon her inability to provide effective representation.” Amiri’s attorney then asked to sever the trial so that the case against his client could still proceed.
Both motions were granted “for the reasons stated under seal” in a separate filing, White wrote.
In an earlier order filed Tuesday to Bill Seki, a founding partner at the law firm representing Wenger, White wrote that Castronovo was unable to keep up with the pace of the trial and was falling behind in complying with court orders. Several times during the trial, Castronovo complained about not having access to certain materials presented by the prosecution and was admonished by White for “meandering” during her cross-examination of witnesses and for being otherwise ill prepared.
Castronovo also accused prosecutors Monday of violating a previous court order when they moved to submit messages that Wenger sent Amiri into evidence, an objection that was repeatedly overruled by White.
“Although the Court notes that thus far [Castronovo] has effectively represented her client, the Court is concerned that she has been unable to work with the Court and counsel to administer this trial effectively, which could potentially affect the completion of the trial and inconvenience the Court and jury,” White wrote in his filing to Seki.
White ordered Seki to provide Castronovo with more support in her defense of Wenger, which Seki said he was “unable to do” because of the firm’s recent reorganization. He and Castronovo are the only attorneys within the firm with criminal law experience, Seki said.
A response filed Tuesday by White declared Seki’s explanation insufficient, and the judge ordered that the firm provide Castronovo with additional help immediately. Seki responded that a paralegal would be sent into Oakland the next day to assist Castronovo. An investigator familiar with the case and another associate in the firm would also be made available as the trial progressed.
By Wednesday, however, White officially declared the proceedings involving Wenger a mistrial.
Castronovo said she could not comment on the filings between White and Seki, citing the court’s sealed order, and added that she could not confirm whether the concerns in the filings are related to White’s decision.
As part of the evidence against them, Wenger and Amiri were accused of exchanging graphic and racist text messages about the use of force and suspects. They were among at least 14 Antioch officers and supervisors found to have sent such messages to one another, according to a report by the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office that was spurred by an FBI investigation into the racist text scandal.
During the trial, prosecutors read aloud from several of the text messages exchanged between Wenger and Amiri, many of which specifically pertained to Amiri’s use of his K9 to maul suspects.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Shepard said during her opening statements on Monday that the messages between Amiri and Wenger showed the two conspiring and encouraging each other to hurt Antioch civilians without cause.
“We need to get into something tonight bro!!!! Let’s go 3 nights in a row dog bite,” Wenger texted Amiri in one of the messages Shepard read to the jury.
According to Castronovo, the messages that prosecutors showed the jury were “cherry-picked” and were not enough to demonstrate a conspiracy between Amiri and Wenger to hurt people. Being in law enforcement is a stressful job, and officers will speak “rough” as a way of coping, she said during her opening statements.
Amiri and Wenger were not present at each other’s alleged use-of-force incidents, Castronovo said, calling prosecutors’ decision to present their cases as if they were misleading.
“It’s always difficult to represent a police client as a defendant, especially in areas where the police are especially unpopular,” Castronovo said. “I just hope that should this matter be refiled, that the truth, [Wenger’s] innocence and how good he is will come across.”
The case against Wenger and Amiri is part of a larger federal investigation into the Antioch Police Department. Two other former police officers, Eric Rombough and Timothy Allen Manly Williams, were also charged amid the several allegations of misconduct facing the police force.
Rombough took a plea deal earlier this year and was expected to be a key witness for prosecutors. Manley, who is charged with communicating with the target of a wiretap investigation and unlawfully tampering with a witness’ cellphone, is also on the list of witnesses the prosecutors may call as part of their remaining case against Amiri.
Although a mistrial was declared in the conspiracy case against Wenger, he also faces charges of illegally distributing steroids in a separate case to be tried in April.
