ANTIOCH — Five people arrested in police drug raids have filed a multimillion-dollar civil rights suit against disgraced former narcotics commander Norman Wielsch and several Antioch officers claiming they were illegally searched and that authorities stole their property for personal gain.
The lawsuit, filed by Vallejo-based attorney Tim Pori, is the first civil suit stemming directly from the Feb. 16 arrests of Wielsch and former Concord private investigator Christopher Butler on accusations that they conspired to sell drugs stolen from police evidence lockers.
Pori challenges the basis of all the searches detailed in the suit and asks for a minimum of $1 million in damages for each of his clients in addition to legal fees and other punitive damages. He also alleges a pattern of searches taking place before warrants were signed and that seized property — including cash, guns and other valuables — was not documented, making it nearly impossible for his clients to retrieve their belongings after their arrests yielded no charges.
“This is the beginning,” Pori said. “For all we know we have a class-action lawsuit.”
Antioch disputes the claims made in the lawsuit, City Manager Jim Jakel said Wednesday. City attorney Lynn Tracy Nerland declined to comment on the details of the suit but said the allegations are being examined as would any claim against the city, which is named as a defendant.
Nerland pointed out that Antioch police are not part of the Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET) that Wielsch once commanded. Antioch officers occasionally provided assistance for CNET but largely conduct their own drug enforcement operations.
Still, the plaintiffs join the Public Defender’s Office as one of several parties using Wielsch’s arrest to cast doubt on drug investigations in the county. In a separate case, the family of Timothy Mitchell, who was fatally shot during a 2008 drug bust by a Pittsburg police officer, is appealing a judge’s ruling that the shooting was justified because Wielsch offered testimony in the case.
Wielsch, a former Antioch officer in the 1990s, was employed by the state Department of Justice’s Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement when he was arrested and when the searches detailed in the civil suit occurred. He and Butler have been linked to other schemes including a staged fake arrest of a teenager in Pleasant Hill and a scheme to lure targets into drunken-driving arrests.
The suit also names as defendants Officers Steven Aiello, James Wisecarver and Joshua Vincelet, former police Chief James Hyde, state agent Michael McGary and 20 unnamed Antioch officers.
Sean and Kelley O’Toole claim that Wielsch and several Antioch officers raided two of their commercial properties on Sunset Drive — one rented to a clothier and the other housing their business, Grow It Yourself Gardens. The O’Tooles acknowledged the presence of hydroponic equipment but insist that marijuana was not being grown there.
The husband and wife say that during the Oct. 14, 2009, search, the officers turned security cameras away from their search before taking cash, a handgun, business documents, marijuana, computer equipment and other property, most of which were not returned. The O’Tooles claim the officers did not record their seizure of cellphones and sales records, making it difficult for the O’Tooles to reclaim.
Pori on Thursday released short video clips, one showing a person he described as an Antioch officer turning away a video camera during a search.
A third plaintiff, Steven Daniel Lee, said he was an employee of Grow It Yourself Gardens and was searched and arrested and that his handgun and medical marijuana he was prescribed have not been returned.
Plaintiff Jennifer Lynn Curtis alleges that a search conducted at her Brentwood home June 28, 2007, that led to the discovery of methamphetamine evidence also led to the seizure of a video camera, still camera and $20,000 in cash she never got back. She claims that during second raid of her home, on Feb. 2, 2009, officers took a watch and diamond pendant worth more than $30,000 together and several thousand dollars in cash without making any record of the seizure. Pori said his client was targeted because her boyfriend was being investigated for alleged steroid sales.
Jack Foster, the fifth plaintiff, alleges that during a Jan. 5, 2010, search of his Antioch home, several weapons were seized along with dozens of marijuana plants he said were covered by a grow certificate.
A police news release of the Foster search last year reported that officers found more than 200 marijuana plants, a firearm stolen in Butte County in 2008, and that Foster had bypassed the home’s electricity meter to illegally power the operation.
Pori points out that none of his clients have been charged.
Staff writers Paul Burgarino and Rick Hurd contributed to this report.
Contact Robert Salonga at 925-943-8013. Follow him at Twitter.com/robertsalonga.
