Two Oakland Police Department officers were arraigned in a federal courtroom Thursday on charges of conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, with both of them working in the department’s helicopter unit. Brandon Mart and David Mac pleaded not guilty after a federal grand jury indictment against them was unsealed during the hearing, while William Miller was indicted on one conspiracy charge and four FAA registration fraud counts.
The charges, first reported by The Mercury News, land at a precarious moment for a department that has spent more than two decades under federal court oversight and was hoping to shed that supervision this month. Mart faces one conspiracy charge, three FAA registration fraud counts, and two obstruction of justice counts, according to the outlet’s reporting on the indictment. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the most serious charge, while Miller and Mac each face up to five years in prison on their most serious counts. Mac was charged with one conspiracy count and one FAA registration fraud count.
The Mercury News account did not detail the defendants’ release terms. They are due back in court for a status conference on November 30. William Miller’s attorney declined to comment after the hearing, and it was not immediately clear whether Miller remained employed by the department. The Oakland Police Department’s communications team did not respond to a request for comment on the indictments or the officers’ current job status, the outlet reported.
A Department on the Verge of Ending Federal Oversight
The timing could hardly be worse for a police department that has completed dozens of reforms and was actively seeking to end federal court oversight that began in 2003. That oversight stems from Delphine Allen v. City of Oakland, the landmark civil rights lawsuit filed after the 2000 Oakland Riders scandal, in which four officers were accused of beatings, planting evidence, and falsifying reports — a case that ultimately involved 119 plaintiffs and an $11 million settlement, according to KQED…