OAKLAND — Morteza Amiri, the former Antioch K9 cop who became the face of a massive law enforcement corruption scandal, was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for crimes that included involvement in a fraud scheme and maiming someone with his police dog.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White reached the decision in front of a packed courthouse at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building in Oakland. White said he considered a range of factors, including arguments by both counsel and Amiri’s own efforts to cover up both crimes.
Amiri acted like the “prosecutor, judge and jury” and in text messages to colleagues he contrasted bites by his dog, Purcy, to the “soft” Contra Costa District Attorney, White said. Amiri was convicted in March of depriving the rights of a man named Adrian Arroyo, who was injured by Purcy during a July 2019 incident.
“He is a danger to the community,” White said. “While Amiri says he’s a different man now … The court cannot ignore the pleasure Mr. Amiri seemed to take in the attack.”
Seated against a courtroom wall in a brown jail jumpsuit with an orange undershirt, Amiri appeared to mouth “I love you” to someone in the courtroom as the sentence was read.
White also noted Amiri’s role in a scandal involving racist, homophobic and sexist texts Antioch officer sent to each other in multiple chat groups, and said all this was “not simply a manifestation of (Amiri’s) PTSD but rather his racial animus.” Amiri bragged about using the N-word and joked with other officers about injuring Black people, who were frequently referred to as “gorillas,” in many of the texts.
“He abused his position as law enforcement to violently attack Mr. Arroyo,” White said, later adding that while Amiri “expressed heartfelt remorse today, he still does not admit to the seriousness of what he did.”
The defense argued that Amiri’s life as a proactive cop in a high-stress city — where violence and death was common — caused him to suffer nightmares, trauma, anxiety and feelings of hopelessness the culminated with the offenses. Paul Goyette, Amiri’s lawyer, said the Antioch Police Department was overburdening its officers and not providing adequate mental health support.
“Not only were the dangers from the criminal community heightening, but the Antioch Police Department was also failing to take into consideration the psychological toll on its officers,” Goyette said. “Due to the absence of mental health options for Antioch Police Department officers, the officers, including supervising officers, opted to engage in group text messages as a way to debrief from the day’s work and commiserate with one another to cope with the stress of the job.”
White said he was weighing all this against Amiri’s courtroom apology, his numerous supporters — including former and current APD officers — and the fact that he has taken classes and been “productive” since White jailed him last March, following his conviction. White said he also knows policing isn’t an easy job.
“The court recognizes that … the court is not only sentencing Mr. Amiri, who deserves what he is going to get, but also his innocent family,” including a young child of Amiri’s, White said.
Amiri was among 14 Antioch and Pittsburg cops to be hit with criminal charges in a widespread corruption investigation headed by the FBI and Contra Costa District Attorney, and centered on the two police agencies. He was convicted last year of conspiring with others to obtain fraudulent education incentive raises by paying someone to take college courses in his name. In March, another jury found him guilty of depriving a man’s rights in a K9 dog attack and covering it up by omitting key details in a police report, such as the presence of a then-Pittsburg cop who was Amiri’s roommate.
Others targeted by the probe have mostly pleaded guilty, including former Antioch Officer Eric Rombough, who testified against Amiri in his civil rights trial earlier this year. Amiri was acquitted of conspiring with Rombough and ex-Antioch cop Devon Wenger to violate civil rights. Wenger, who received a mistrial after his lawyer said she was unable to continue trial alongside Amiri, is set for a retrial with a different attorney later this summer. But, separately, he was convicted of steroids distribution in May.
Prosecutors had asked for a 96-month sentence against Amiri, while his lawyer argued for a four-year prison term. Amiri received numerous support letters and former colleagues, some of which were filed under seal. One current police officer also wrote a support letter but was too frightened to attach a name to it, according to court records.
Amiri will be sentenced to supervised release after getting out of prison and will have to pay a to-be-determined amount of restitution.