By Nate Gartrell
Bay Area News Group
OAKLAND — A former Pittsburg officer has admitted he lied, stole from his employers, sold steroids to other law enforcement officials and advertised his then-girlfriend’s college cheating service to other cops, ironically all while pretending to pursue a degree in criminal justice.
But instead of taking a college course in crime and punishment, Patrick James Berhan is now getting a real life lesson. On Tuesday afternoon Berhan, 30, pleaded guilty to three felonies: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids.
The final sentencing is yet to be determined, but Berhan is expected to receive far less than the maximum 20 years in federal prison that the most serious charge, conspiracy, carries under the law. His sentencing date has been set for July 2.
Berhan’s plea agreement, read aloud by federal prosecutors in court, reveals new details not previously known to the public. It says that Berhan enlisted a woman he was in a “relationship” with at the time to take online classes with California Coast University for him, so he could receive education pay bumps the city of Pittsburg offered to employees.
Berhan has now become the third officer to plead guilty or no contest to a criminal offense in a massive police corruption scandal that has led to criminal charges against 14 ex-law enforcement officers in East Contra Costa County. But he is perhaps the most significant defendant to plead guilty thus far; federal authorities see him as a ringleader in a scam by six cops to fraudulently obtain pay bumps from the cities of Antioch and Pittsburg, an allegation Berhan’s defense team contests.
Berhan appeared in a federal courtroom in Oakland Tuesday afternoon, dressed in a black suit, while members of his family sat a few feet away. He appeared to listen carefully as an assistant U.S. attorney read through everything the government says it can prove, detailing fraud, lies, steroid dealing, and finally, an attempt to impede criminal investigators by destroying evidence.
After listening to this, Berhan admitted to Senior U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White that it was all true. What the parties will debate at sentencing is whether Berhan played an “aggravating role” by helping run the scam. Whether or not White agrees with that allegation may determine how serious of a sentence Berhan receives.
The plea agreement says that after successfully scamming the system with his then-girlfriend’s help, Berhan “promoted (her) services” to other cops, five of whom were later charged alongside Berhan with wire fraud. The agreement also says Berhan took anabolic steroids and sold them to other cops, including ex-Antioch and Pittsburg Officer Timothy Manly-Williams. Two former Antioch officers, Daniel Harris and Devon Wenger, still face steroids-related charges in a separate case.
Berhan’s plea agreement names his five co-defendants in the wire fraud case: Morteza Amiri , Samantha Peterson, Brauli Rodriguez-Jalapa, Ernesto Juan Mejia-Orozco and Amanda Theodosy-Nash. Of them, Peterson has already pleaded guilty, while Rodriguez-Jalapa’s legal problems have only gotten worse; he was arrested for allegedly driving drunk and threatening Clayton officers earlier this year.
Amiri, a former Antioch K9 cop, is charged in a separate indictment with conspiring with two colleagues to attack civilians, including with dog bites and use of a gun that fires less-lethal projectiles.
Berhan’s plea agreement says that when he learned Manly-Williams had been placed on leave from the Antioch Police Department, he destroyed his cellphone data and cloud account, encouraged his ex-girlfriend to do the same and disposed of other evidence in a dumpster. It was all done to conceal his criminality in the event that investigators got wind of his steroid sales to Manly-Williams and started looking at him, authorities said.
The FBI and Contra Costa District Attorney were tipped off to the scam after one of the defendants’ ex-girlfriends became mad at him and informed authorities about it, multiple law enforcement officials said. That led to the seizure of Antioch officers’ phones, which in turn opened a separate can of worms: an ongoing scandal over racist text messages sent or received by dozens of current and former Antioch cops.
With all these lies in Berhan’s past, he came to court Tuesday to tell the truth, and took an oath before Judge White began to question him. One of White’s first questions was Berhan’s level of education.
“High school,” replied Berhan, who remains out of custody.
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