By Julia Marnin
Belleville News-Democrat
ANTIOCH, Calif. — A judge sentenced a former California police officer to seven years in federal prison after prosecutors argued he “began to violently dehumanize the population he was supposed to protect and serve” once he became a K-9 officer.
Morteza Amiri, 34, was convicted in March of unreasonably siccing his K-9 on a bicyclist and then writing a false report while working for the Antioch Police Department in July 2019, according to prosecutors, McClatchy News reported.
Amiri’s defense attorneys didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment June 25.
Amiri stopped the man who had been riding a bike without a light at around 1:45 a.m. and punched him, according to his indictment. Then prosecutors said Amiri took him down and unnecessarily called on Purcy, the K-9, to bite him.
Purcy bit at least 28 people when Amiri deployed the dog in and near Antioch, located about a 45-mile drive northeast from San Francisco, the filing says. Amiri was accused of celebrating each bite and keeping a “running bite count.”
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors wrote Amiri “hurt people as a form of punishment outside of the justice system, he celebrated the pain and injuries he inflicted with his K-9 ‘Purcy,’ and he covered up his actions with falsified reporting.”
In a previous interview with McClatchy News, one of Amiri’s attorneys, Paul Goyette, said that Amiri stands by the incidents in which his K-9 bit a suspect and that “every one of those bites is perfectly legitimate.”
Following Amiri’s conviction, Antioch Police Chief Joe Vigil said in a statement to McClatchy News that it was “pleased the investigation is concluded” and that it will continue to support the FBI.
“My focus continues to be on moving the Antioch Police Department forward and providing the quality public safety our community deserves,” Vigil said at the time.
A few months before his March conviction on charges of deprivation of rights under color of law and falsification of records in relation to his encounter with the cyclist, he was found guilty of unrelated offenses, according to a June 24 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
Amiri was charged with lying to get a pay raise in connection with a criminal justice Bachelor’s degree prosecutors said he fraudulently earned because he had someone else complete his coursework online. Amiri was one of multiple officers accused of cheating to boost his pay.
In August, a jury convicted Amiri of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
On June 24, senior U.S. District Judge Jeffrey S. White handed Amiri the seven-year sentence in connection with his convictions in both cases, according to prosecutors, who said White was the judge for both of his jury trials.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian said he “misused his police dog to inflict unnecessary and excessive force against a victim and cheated his way into a pay raise.”
According to prosecutors, Amiri would share photos of the bites with other officers.
Goyette denied the government’s assertion that Amiri celebrated the bites.
“I wouldn’t call it celebration at all. I’d call it … just sharing with his co-workers.”
The charges against Amiri came out of an investigation that led to multiple current and former police officers of the Antioch Police Department and the neighboring Pittsburg Police Department being charged with various federal offenses, prosecutors said.
One of the former Antioch officers, Devon Wenger, was named as Amiri’s co-defendant in the civil rights case, McClatchy News reported. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 4 , according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Separate from the civil rights case, Wenger was convicted in May of a scheme to sell anabolic steroids. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Wenger’s sentence is pending in the case.
As for Amiri, Goyette told KGO-TV that “since his conviction in March, he has been in the Santa Clara County Jail essentially in solitary confinement the whole time.”
“Judge White just gave him 84 months, which is a long, long sentence,” Goyette added while speaking with the TV station. “It will be a difficult time for sure.”
—
© 2025 the Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.). Visit www.bnd.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.