ANTIOCH — As two more ex-Antioch cops await sentencing, federal prosecutors in the Bay Area have revealed that there was even more alleged criminal conduct within the scandal-plagued department, including by two officers who allegedly kept marijuana that had been seized from suspected criminals.
The uncharged crimes include illegal law enforcement database searches, the marijuana offenses, and even more steroid use by officers, three of whom were convicted of steroids distribution.
The FBI may have never learned of some of the conduct if one of the officers, Timothy Manly-Williams, hadn’t admitted to it. A former officer with both Pittsburg and Antioch, Manly-Williams among the first to admit his criminal conduct and cooperate with the government after 14 East Contra Costa cops were charged with a wide range of federal and state offenses. Manly-Williams testified against his former roommate and colleague, ex-Antioch K9 Officer Morteza Amiri, who now sits in a federal prison in Forth Worth, Texas, thanks in large part to Manly-Williams’ testimony.
Manly-Williams is set to be sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White. Federal prosecutors have asked for a six-month sentence, despite Manly-Williams’ early acceptance of responsibility and helpful cooperation. His lawyer has argued that Manly-Williams has “earned” probation in lieu of jail time.
White will have much to consider, including a straightforward apology letter by Manly-Williams, who said he “cared too much about being seen as being helpful or dependable … instead of doing what I knew was right.” After his arrest, he had a wakeup call, he wrote, and has since tried to right his wrongs. Seeking more education, cooperating with prosecutors, volunteer work at the food bank, and admitting wrongdoing almost immediately were all part of that, he said.
“I did not stop and fully confront what I was doing in the way I should have,” Manly-Williams wrote. “I knew the rules and expectations of my position, but I treated my actions as something I could manage or justify instead of recognizing them for what they were, serious violations … The failure of judgment was mine alone.”
He added that he fully accepts he will be punished.
At Amiri’s trial last year, Manly-Williams was brushed off by the defense as the stupidest witness prosecutors presented. But a jury apparently disagreed, convicting Amiri of a civil rights violation that relied heavily on Manly-Williams’ testimony and rejecting all other charges, including conspiracy to violate civil rights.
In a separate 2024 trial, Amiri was convicted of wire fraud in a college degree scam with other officers from Antioch and Pittsburg. He was sentenced to seven years in prison last June. Now prosecutors say they could have charged him with even more crimes, including taking marijuana that had been seized during law enforcement operations in Antioch.
“I got a basketball size bag of weed in my trunk,” Amiri allegedly told Manly-Williams in December 2020, nearly three years before the two men were charged.
Prosecutors said in court filings that, “instead of filing reports with APD on the seizures of marijuana or submitting the marijuana into evidence, Amiri and Manly Williams personally consumed the marijuana in violation of APD policy and, in at least one instance in approximately November 2020, Manly Williams arranged for the sale of such marijuana and received proceeds from its sale.”
Many-Williams was charged with two federal offenses — interfering with a wiretap operation into gang-related murders and a civil rights violation for spiking a citizen’s cellphone into the pavement after Amiri’s dog, Purcy, bit someone. He also pleaded guilty to accepting tequila as bribes to make someone’s traffic ticket go away.
But he’s an outlier to the police corruption scandal in other ways. His interference with the wiretap appears to have been motivated by boredom; Manly-Williams told investigators that he called a man police were monitoring so that the subject would stop an irrelevant phone call and hopefully move on to something incriminating. He then took steps to hide the fact that he’d made the call. On other instances, Manly-Williams made illegal law enforcement searches for friends and bought steroids from ex-Pittsburg officer Patrick Berhan and ex-Antioch officer Daniel Harris, who is also set to be sentenced Tuesday.
There’s another way Manly-Williams stands out from other co-defendants: He was able to get a job that requires public trust, at Heritage High School in Brentwood, where he has been a special education teacher since August 2023, the same month he and the others were rounded up by the FBI in a series of early morning raids around the Bay Area. Since that fateful day, everyone the government charged has been convicted of something. The only ones awaiting sentence are those who became government informants and testified against former colleagues in law enforcement.
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