ANTIOCH — The Antioch Police Department has opened an internal investigation to determine whether a sergeant violated policy when he told the FBI he couldn’t identify a longtime colleague, prompting an agent to remind him that lying to the federal bureau is a felony.
The officer in question, Sgt. Randall Gragg, told the FBI he could not identify a fellow officer who turned out to be Detective Robert Gerber, when shown images of Gerber and others arresting a robbery suspect in 2019, according to a report filed by Contra Costa District Attorney Senior Inspector Larry Wallace. Gragg has not been placed on administrative leave, but Acting police Chief Joseph Vigil this week said he “retained an independent investigator” to look into the matter.
The internal probe is only the latest controversy to rock the Antioch police force, where six current or former officers were indicted in August 2023, while 13 other officers lost their jobs related to racist, homophobic and sexist texts shared among dozens of officers. More recently, the city opened an investigation into an ex-chief’s alleged extramarital affair with a subordinate, and more than a dozen officers are expected to testify at an upcoming trial for two former officers charged with violent civil rights abuses.
While investigating officers’ alleged civil rights abuses, the FBI interviewed Gragg twice, in 2022 and 2023, about the Dec. 19, 2019 arrest of Rodney Lamon Smith on suspicion of armed robbery, the report says.
Until recently, Smith’s arrest was part of a nine-count felony indictment against ex-officers Morteza Amiri, Devon Wenger and Eric Rombough, alleging that Amiri, a former K9 officer, committed a crime by siccing his dog on Smith. But federal prosecutors dismissed that charge without explanation just last week, records show.
Amiri and Wenger are set to go on trial on Monday, with Rombough expected to be a star witness against them. Prosecutors listed Gragg, but not Gerber, as another potential trial witness, court records show.
Wallace filed the report in January 2024, but it was kept a secret — both from the public and from Antioch police — until county prosecutors felt obligated to turn it over to the defense in a murder case where Gragg was the star witness. Gragg’s lawyer, Michael Rains, called the 12-month delay “ridiculous” and questionable.
During the 2023 FBI interview, an agent grew suspicious of Gragg’s answers and informed Gragg that lying to them was a felony. Wallace’s report says Gragg “aggressively” replied, “Oh, we’re going to go there,” then began recording to conversation with his cellphone until agents told him to stop.
The report says neither federal prosecutors nor the DA’s office plan to pursue criminal charges against Gragg, either for lying or for recording agents without consent. Rains said he saw nothing wrong with Gragg recording to protect himself.
“I think that’s perfectly OK. I don’t think it violates the law,” Rains said. “He could have just as soon stood up and said, ‘This interview is over.’ ”
Gragg told the FBI he didn’t recognize Gerber’s tattoos because Gerber frequently wore long sleeves, the report says. He said he recognized one officer, whose name tag was visible in the images, and remembered names of two others who were present, but couldn’t identify the remainder of the cops who arrested Smith.
Capt. Trevor Schnitzius, who has since retired, was shown the same images and identified Gerber a short time later, the report says.
Most people, including Antioch’s police chief, Vigil, only learned of the interview in recent weeks, around the time Gragg testified in the murder trial of Lonnie Decker and Steven Kelly. Vigil said in an email to this news organization that he wasn’t provided a copy of the memo until a newspaper reporter sent him one with a request for comment.
“Since learning this information, I have retained an independent investigator to investigate this and determine if Gragg violated APD policies,” Vigil said. Gragg won’t be placed on leave, a decision that will be continuously “evaluated” as the investigation progresses, the acting chief added.
Vigil asked the DA’s Chief of Inspectors, Arnold Threets, to explain why the office hadn’t previously informed Antioch police of the interview. Threets told Vigil that federal authorities had instructed the DA to leave the department out of the loop, as to not “jeopardize the federal criminal cases,” Vigil said in an email.
Decker and Kelly were on trial for the 2024 fatal shooting of Roberto Gonzalez-Lamas, who was killed in Antioch during a confrontational meeting over a recent burglary. Decker shot and killed Gonzalez-Lamas but claimed self-defense. Jurors convicted both men of first-degree murder and attempted murder after a day of deliberation.
During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Kabu Adodoadji briefly addressed Gragg’s FBI interviews in his closing argument, after defense attorneys tried to use it to discredit the police investigation. Adodoadji twice said, “I don’t know what (Gragg) was thinking,” but urged jurors to keep their focus on security video footage that depicted the shooting.
As for Wallace, he is facing his own set of allegations, from Wenger’s defense team. As they prepare for trial, Wenger’s lawyer — as well as Wenger himself, in a failed pro se appeal of a judge’s order denying a motion to quash searches of Wenger’s phone — have accused Wallace of forging an anonymous letter to the Pittsburg Police Department, accusing officers there of misconduct.
Authorities say the letter in question was written by the ex-wife of Pittsburg Officer Patrick Berhan, the ringleader in a scheme amongst a half-dozen cops to pay the woman to take classes for them so they could obtain fraudulent educational incentive pay bumps offered to Antioch and Pittsburg city employees. At Amiri’s trial last year — where he was convicted of conspiracy and fraud — the woman testified that she came forward to the FBI after learning Berhan had cheated on her at his bachelor party on the eve of their wedding. Multiple law enforcement sources say the woman admitted sending the letter.
But Wenger’s attorneys have said they have a handwriting expert that can prove Wallace actually sent the letters, then took over the DA’s side of the investigation.
Rather than defend Wallace, federal prosecutors have sidestepped the issue, successfully arguing that FBI agents had probable cause to search Wenger’s phone regardless of Wallace’s casework, and the DA’s office has declined to comment, “as it could affect the fairness of the process and potentially undermine the case. State Bar rules limit public statements regarding trial publicity,” an office spokesman said in an email.
Amiri and Wenger’s trial has been set for March 3.