Breaking the Blue Wall: Former Antioch Officer Pleads Guilty in Federal Fraud Case, Unraveling a Wide-ranging Law Enforcement Scandal

In a significant development following a sweeping investigation into misconduct among law enforcement personnel in East Contra Costa, Samantha Genoveva Peterson, a former Antioch community services officer, has pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge. This marks the first federal guilty plea since a series of indictments were issued against present and past members of the law enforcement community in the region.

Former Antioch Officer Pleads Guilty (Photo: Rachelle J/Bay Area News Group)

Peterson’s guilty plea was related to her involvement in a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain pay raises through a city incentive program designed for Antioch and Pittsburg officers who acquired college degrees. The indictment, which also named five other people, revealed a scheme whereby someone else took tests in their names to obtain degrees and subsequent pay raises fraudulently.

While the maximum penalty for the fraud conspiracy charge is twenty years, Peterson’s sentencing recommendation is likely to be lower and is scheduled for April. The details of her agreement with federal prosecutors were filed under seal.

The fraud investigation, initially centered on Peterson and her co-defendants, expanded into a widespread criminal probe uncovering alleged wrongdoing by over a dozen officers. Subsequently, federal and state charges were filed against 14 Antioch and Pittsburg cops, encompassing offenses ranging from accepting bribes to violating civil rights and interfering with a murder investigation.

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Previously, former Antioch and Pittsburg Officer Timothy Manly Williams had pleaded no contest to bribery charges in state court while also facing pending federal charges. Peterson is the second of the 14 indicted officers to plead guilty, with charges still pending against her co-defendants, namely former Antioch Officer Moteza Amiri and former Pittsburg officers Patrick Berhan, Brauli Rodriguez Jalapa, Ernesto Mejia-Orozco, and Amanda Theodosy-Nash.

The guilty plea by Samantha Genoveva Peterson represents a significant development in the ongoing probe into alleged misconduct among law enforcement officials in East Contra Costa. As federal and state charges continue to unfold, the case sheds light on a wide-ranging scandal that has revealed profound breaches of trust and integrity within the law enforcement community.

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