Supposed victims of police brutality in Antioch speak in court

Oakland – they come from different areas of life, from the homeless man who had an advantage for the theft of cars, to the resident of East Bay, who liked to spend the morning playing video games in bed.

What they share are scars – mental or physical – from alleged violent meetings with the police. But what a jury has to decide soon is whether these uses of the police force were justified or the result of three Antio -Set mutual officers to commit violence, as prosecutors claim.

So far, the jurors in the process of former Antiochi police officers Morta Amiri and Devon Wenger have heard from a mixture of police, evidence technicians and alleged victims of police brutality. These men were either bitten by the dog of Amiri, Purcy, or shot by the less lethal rifle of the former officer Eric Rombough, who pleaded guilty and is expected to testify.

On Tuesday, two men took the position claiming that they were shot as part of the surprise attacks by the Antioch Police a few years ago-deciding their thickened shock to see officers in their rooms.

29 -year -old Jessie Wilson Jr. said that the officers broke out in the room of his sister, with their weapons, interrupting a relaxing morning playing Call of Duty. In a few seconds, an officer had grabbed one of the hands. Then he heard that a blow was extinguished, followed by a frightening pain in the stomach.

“It was painful,” Wilson said. “I didn’t know what to think about, I was just shocked.”

Wilson – who had been in the test at that time – was booked in prison after officers said they had a weapon elsewhere. Later, he posted bail, but never faced accusations after prosecutors in Costa County opted in order not to follow the case.

He confessed that Rombough fired the less lethal projectile of 40 mm, which left a massive bruise on the abdomen.

On Tuesday, Wilson called the experience “traumatic, mental”.

“Sometimes the officers scare me,” Wilson confessed. “I just try to move with caution now. I only have a completely different perspective on the law enforcement. “

Another man repeatedly broke in tears, while telling a Raid from May 2021 who came as he gave birth to his friend’s house.

Larry Reed, 45, said he was sleeping after his fourth right change overnight, while the caretaker when the officers flooded the apartment with drawn weapons. After a few moments after the entrance, an officer opened the fire with a 40 mm round while Reed began to sit – beating him on the bed.

“I had so much pain – I kept my chest, how did it happen?” Reed said, adding that the officers then jumped on his back. “I was like” my chest hurts, it hurts. ” And he didn’t interested them. “

The round – which he said was fired also by Rombough – left an indentation on his chest that remained three -four months. The chest hurt for a month.

He was never charged with any crime and was not reserved in prison after the meeting. On the witness’s stand, he could think of one reason for the attack: “I was black.”

“It made no sense at all,” Reed said.

Reed’s cross examination will take place on Wednesday morning. Defense lawyers did not press Wilson hard on cross-examination, but there is a probable explanation of why: during the opening statements, defense lawyers drew a line between Amiri and Wenger’s actions, and those of Wenger’s lawyer as described as an aggressive officer who used the weapon for sports.

On Monday, the jurors heard from a man named Daniel Romo, a repeated car thief, who confessed that he was sleeping when his dog’s dog broke his back to a homeless camp in 2020. Nobody orders that Romo was repeatedly bitten, but Amiri’s lawyer will argue that he was just a man.

Romo’s story was full of dubious statement. He confessed, for example, that, despite being homeless at the time, he sought to buy a car and had no idea that he was stolen. He acknowledged that he drove her on a fast food road, but claimed that the ostensible owner-“Darryl” arrived and started on gas when the Oakley police surrounded the vehicle, forcing Romo in the high-speed chase.

Once he arrived at the camp in which he lived, he went out into a random tent, confessed, exhausted from the chase and was awake for days on a methamphetamine bender.

When examined, he confessed that he lost the records of a few convictions to the crime. But the fateful mood changed when Admiral’s lawyer, Paul Goyette, asked Romo why he never filed a complaint against Amiri.

“I was afraid to get up or say something like this to a law officer … I was afraid if I made a complaint or said something other officers would harass me,” Romo said. “I’m not protected, I don’t care what someone says.”

On Tuesday, Logan Cartwright, Lieutenant of the Oakley police, testified about his role in the incident, saying that he called for help for a K9 officer and said that Romo is “possible” sleeping when he was bitten, but cannot be sure. He also said he was worried that Romo was armed.

Amiri sent a text to an antiochial sergeant about the incident, saying that the officers and Oakley “planned how to support him”, then “returned and did justice.” In the text, he mentioned that the Oakley police officers “agreed to keep the cameras.” Cartwright confessed that there is no registration of the body cameras from what happened.

Amiri and Wenger are accused of conspiracy and abuse of civil rights. During a break in Tuesday’s procedures, Wenger was close to a reporter for this news organization and transmitted his concerns about the case.

“Fedes missed the media and people as this started,” Wenger said, stressing that federal investigators have never obtained appropriate search warrants for the mobile data based on their case.

The judge has decided that the mandates are legal, rejecting Wenger’s statement so far that the investigation was reprisals for him, reporting the wrong facts of other police, including Row. But Wenger said he still believes that the authorities made their justifications for gathering evidence against him.

“The judge has overlooked all this,” Wenger said.

Originally published: March 4, 2025 at 16:05 PST