By Jakob Rodgers and Nate Gartrell
The Mercury News
OAKLAND, Calif. — Two Oakland Police Department officers with the agency’s helicopter unit were arraigned Thursday on several federal charges, including conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration.
Brandon Mart and David Mac pleaded not guilty during their first appearance in an Oakland federal courtroom on the charges, which were previously handed down in an indictment by a federal grand jury and were unsealed during Thursday’s hearing.
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Along with the conspiracy charge, Mart faces three counts of FAA registration fraud, as well as two charges of obstruction of justice by falsification of records. The most serious of those charges — alleging obstruction of justice — carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Mac faces two counts, including the conspiracy charge and a single count of FAA registration fraud. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted on the most serious charge.
A third person, William Miller, also was indicted on the conspiracy charge, as well as four counts of FAA registration fraud. He faces up to five years in prison the most serious charge.
It was not immediately clear who Miller worked for, or whether he also was a law enforcement officer. His attorney declined to comment after Thursday’s hearing.
Details of their alleged crimes — including specifics on the alleged conspiracy, and the nature of the fraud they may have committed — remained unclear after Thursday’s arraignments. Though a federal magistrate judge granted approval to unseal the indictments, the files had yet to appear in the government’s online criminal case database by mid-afternoon. A message by this news outlet to the U.S. Attorney’s Office was not immediately returned.
All three defendants appeared in federal court in black or blue suits, speaking little before the magistrate judge during their arraignments. Each of them were released on $250,000 bonds, and ordered to surrender their passports and not speak to other co-defendants.
All of them were ordered to appear in court again on Nov. 30 for a status conference.
The Oakland Police Department’s communications team did not immediately respond to a request by this news outlet for comment on the indictments and for details about the officers’ employment with the agency.
The indictments mark at least the third time in the last couple weeks that an Oakland Police Department employee has faced criminal charges. In late August, Alameda County prosecutors recently charged Kevin Arias — an Oakland police sergeant who has occasionally served as an acting lieutenant — with grand theft of personal property amid claims he logged $38,000 in hours that he didn’t actually work.
The indictments come less than three weeks before a key — and perhaps final — hearing in the Oakland Police Department’s bid to end more than two decades of federal court oversight that began with the infamous Riders scandal in the early 2000s.
In May, U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick, who said the department was on track to move out of from under federal court oversight that has hounded the agency since 2003. He framed a Sept. 29 court date as a chance to double-check the department’s compliance with dozens of reforms it has completed over the years, at which time the agency could finally be released from his control.
“No one can say ‘Mission accomplished,’ ” said Orrick said, at the May court hearing. “But I do congratulate the city and OPD on getting this far.”
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