The embattled Antioch Police Department faced another blow when a second officer was convicted last week of fraudulently obtaining a college degree to get a higher salary.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said in a statement Friday that Morteza Amiri, 33, and five others from the Antioch and Pittsburgh police departments falsely claimed they had obtained criminal warrants. Bachelor’s Degree in Justice to qualify for higher salary.
But prosecutors said the officers actually hired others to complete the online courses, thereby receiving raises and financial inducements that they did not otherwise receive. Five others pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Amiri’s case is the only one to go to trial.
Amiri was also involved in the 2023 Antioch Police Department racist texting scandal.
In May 2020, two days after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, Amiri texted another officer about the “riots in Los Angeles” over a “dead gorilla.”
In texts presented at Amiri’s trial, he wrote to the person hired to teach that he would “pay you on a per-class basis.”
“[D]Don’t tell anyone I hired you for this,” he wrote. “[W]We couldn’t afford for it to be leaked and for me to lose my job.
“I need to get my degree quickly so I can start getting a raise,” he allegedly wrote.
The other five officers convicted of conspiring to defraud the police department were Patrick Berhan, Amanda Theodosy aka Nash, Ernesto Mejia Orozco (Ernesto Mejia-Orozco) and Brauli Rodriguez Jalapa, who were current or former members of the Pittsburgh Police Department at the time, and Samantha Peterson. Antioch Police Department, the office said.
“Amiri engaged in an elaborate conspiracy to defraud police departments of taxpayer funds. His actions violated the law and were a gross betrayal of the public trust,” said FBI spokesman Robert Tripp.
“The deceitful conduct of Amiri and his co-conspirators has no place in law enforcement. With this belief in mind, he now faces the consequences of his actions.
Both of Amiri’s convictions carry maximum penalties of 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to stand trial in a related case in February.
