OAKLAND -- In the first of several expected guilty pleas involving rampant corruption in an elite Contra Costa County vice squad, a former San Ramon police officer was taken into federal custody Thursday after admitting to nine felonies and misdemeanors.
Louis Lombardi, a 39-year-old Discovery Bay resident, admitted to stealing at least $40,000 in cash, as well as guns, jewelry and other property, while executing search warrants as a police officer and as an agent for the Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team, assistant U.S. attorney Hartley West told a federal magistrate. Of the four officers charged in connection with the scandal, Lombardi is the first to take a plea deal. His former vice squad commander, Norman Wielsch, and former private investigator Christopher Butler have given lengthy confessions to prosecutors and are expected to follow.
If they do go to trial, Lombardi would be called as a witness against them, said his attorney, Dirk Manoukian.
"My own opinion is any trial in this case is unlikely," Manoukian said.
Funded by the Department of Justice and manned by officers from Contra Costa police agencies, CNET was suspended in February when Wielsch and Butler were arrested on suspicion of selling stolen drug evidence. A fourth defendant -- former Danville Deputy Stephen Tanabe -- is also being prosecuted for alleged crimes involving Butler, including a purported scheme to set up men going through divorces for DUI arrests that could be used against them in family law court. Tanabe denies the charges.
All four men, each being prosecuted at the state and federal level, had pressures in their lives that made them succumb to temptations that law enforcement officers face every day, Manoukian said.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Lombardi was in a place in his life where he was not strong enough to pass up those temptations and unfortunately ended up in the position he's in," Manoukian said.
Attorneys would not comment Thursday on what punishment Lombardi is likely to receive when he is sentenced April 18. He struck a deal with federal prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to all counts and agreed to cooperate with the government in its prosecution of Wielsch and Butler, Manoukian said.
The charges at face call for more than 60 years in prison and more than $2 million in fines.
Prosecutors gave a ballpark range of the sentence they'll recommend, but an upcoming probation report and the judge's discretion would factor heavily in the final determination, Manoukian said.
Lombardi was a law enforcement officer for more than 20 years and served on CNET under Wielsch from 2005 to 2009.
In addition to the thefts, Lombardi admitted in court that he conspired with Wielsch and Butler to launch a marijuana grow operation and sold marijuana and methamphetamine acquired through CNET activities. He said Butler once paid him for surveillance work with a stolen 9 mm Smith & Wesson pistol that he tossed in the Delta in Discovery Bay upon hearing that Butler and Wielsch had been arrested.
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