A former Richmond police officer charged with obstructing a federal investigation into his off-duty security business said Tuesday that he will plead guilty.
Raymond Thomas, 31, admitted in a hearing in U.S. District Court in Oakland that he had sought to thwart the investigation by trying to retrieve an illegally purchased gun from one of his security firm's employees.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken said Thomas faces a maximum 20 years in prison when he is sentenced. A sentencing date has not been set.
Thomas had originally pleaded not guilty. His plea change came less than three weeks before he was scheduled to go to trial with co-defendant Danny Harris, 34, a former Richmond police officer who was indicted for allegedly making an illegal "straw purchase" of a firearm.
Thomas and Harris quit the Richmond police force in April, shortly after The Chronicle reported the FBI was investigating their off-duty company and their connection to Christopher Butler, a private investigator at the center of a police corruption scandal in Contra Costa County.
Prosecutors said Thomas and Harris had bought guns for two young men who worked for their security business, Strategic Alliance Group, in September 2010. The purchases were illegal because the men were under 21, prosecutors said.
After the young men complained to authorities about working conditions, Thomas and Harris tried to retrieve one of the guns and retaliate against one of the young men, prosecutors said.
Thomas wrote a letter to one of the young men saying the gun legally belonged to him, and the officers also filed a small-claims action against the man, prosecutors said.
With the Police Department investigating their side business, the two officers hired Butler to discredit their supervisor by luring him into having an extramarital affair while on duty, prosecutors said.
The officers also arranged with Butler to try to have one of the young men arrested for drunken driving, prosecutors said.
Thomas allegedly paid the private detective $1,800 to arrange the two stings.
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