Ex-Antioch Cop Sentenced to 7.5 Years for Sprawling 2023 Corruption Scandal

A former East Bay police officer charged in connection with a 2023 corruption scandal was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on Tuesday, marking one of the longest terms handed down to more than a dozen officials charged.

In two separate trials, former Antioch Police Officer Devon Wenger has been convicted of conspiring with fellow officers to use excessive force against Antioch residents and conspiring to distribute illegal steroids and destroying related evidence.

He’ll serve 90 months, followed by three years of supervised release, for the crimes, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White said Tuesday.

“I’m baffled by the person presented in the letters to the court — a person who is otherwise courageous, law abiding, respectful of the law and a positive contributor to the community at large — and on the other hand the person who was running lawless in the Antioch community and decided that he would be the judge and the jury carrying out a sentence,” White said, before handing down the sentence.

Wenger was found guilty in April of conspiring to distribute synthetic steroids and destroying evidence when the FBI turned up at his door. A government witness, former Antioch officer Daniel Harris, testified that he sold testosterone to Wenger, who also agreed to send it by mail to a former military colleague.

The sale was never completed, since the U.S. Postal Service intercepted the package.

Federal prosecutors alleged that when FBI agents went to Wenger’s home in 2022 with a warrant for his phone, the former officer deleted texts about steroids as well as Harris’ phone number and his contact from Venmo, the financial app used to pay for the shipments.

In a separate trial months later, Wenger was found guilty of conspiring with two other ex-Antioch police officers, Morteza Amiri and Eric Rombough, to deprive people of their civil rights by subjecting them to excessive force.

Prosecutors alleged that over a three-year period, the officers encouraged each other to use excessive force against people and applauded each other via text message when they did. They also said the officers failed to report uses of force and falsified related police reports.

During that trial, Wenger was cleared of a specific use-of-force charge related to a 2021 incident, when he shot a woman with a foam baton round, after White determined it was “reasonable.”

Rombough pleaded guilty to the conspiracy allegation earlier this year in exchange for his testimony against Amiri and Wenger. In March, Amiri was acquitted of the same conspiracy charge but found guilty of using excessive force against a man after siccing his police K-9 on him unnecessarily.

Wenger’s excessive force trial was initially linked to Amiri’s, but Judge White declared a mistrial two days in after his attorney said she could no longer represent him.

In their resentencing motion, Wenger’s attorneys said that he had a difficult childhood and trauma from serving in the Army and National Guard.

“His deployment in Afghanistan involved clearing improvised explosive devices at great risk to himself,” they wrote. “He experienced a great deal of violence in that role. Like many soldiers, he compartmentalized the trauma rather than seek counseling.”

They also noted that as a former law enforcement officer, Wenger would face increased safety risks in prison, which could require heightened security and mean missing out on regular institution programming.

But prosecutors said Wenger’s behavior, which included falsifying police reports and deleting text messages to cover his crimes, showed “contempt for the law” that should be used as evidence in support of a harsher sentence.

“He was a sworn law enforcement officer who was looking to harm people, who encouraged and applauded other officers who harmed people, who helped to illegally distribute drugs, and who covered up what he did by deleting and falsifying evidence,” they wrote. “This was not an accident or oversight. An appropriate sentence would spotlight and deter such bad police conduct.”

The prosecutors also noted that throughout his legal proceedings, Wenger denied actions captured on video related to some alleged uses of excessive force and mischaracterized text messages they cited as evidence of excessive force. His defense said the exchanges were just “venting and bravado” between coworkers.

Wenger also petitioned President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi for support during the proceedings, and declared in a news release after his mistrial that “justice ultimately prevailed.”

White said that Wenger’s apparent lack of remorse contributed to the sentencing decision.

“I am not sure the defendant has gotten the message,” he said in court. “And I am not sure if put in a position … to mete his own form of justice out on various individuals, that he wouldn’t do so again, unless he gets the message from this court his conduct is not only reprehensible, but he needs to be deterred from doing these acts again.”

KQED’s Julie Small contributed to this report.