A major police misconduct case that complicates the Oakland Police Department’s two-decade-old federal oversight program involves alleged wrongdoing by eight officers, at least four of them high-ranking commanders, according to a recently published city report.
An investigator with the Oakland Police Commission’s Community Police Review Agency—the city’s civilian police watchdog—found the eight officers engaged in a range of serious violations, including obstructing an internal affairs case and failing as commanding officers and supervisors to properly oversee their subordinates and carry out their duties. One officer was found to have lied.
The number of officers disciplined and the specific violations have not been previously reported.
Little is known about the case and state law may forbid the city from disclosing details publicly at this time. The city has treated the matter with a high level of secrecy, walling off people who in the past have had access to the records of similar cases.
According to earlier reporting about the case, Deputy Chief Drennon Lindsay, Captain Kevin Kaney, Lt. Hamann Nguyen (who was an acting deputy chief at the time of the incident), and Sgt. Mega Lee are among the eight officers facing discipline. Two people with knowledge of the case say that Sgt. Jason Skrdlant (who was an acting lieutenant at the time of the incident) is also facing discipline. Skrdlant did not respond to requests for comment.
The case centers on allegations that at least three officers obstructed an internal affairs investigation that OPD opened in 2022 to look into possible bribery, perjury, and witness intimidation by OPD homicide investigator Phong Tran. Tran’s actions resulted in two men being freed from state prison after their murder convictions were overturned by a judge. High-ranking OPD supervisors allegedly failed to oversee the internal affairs case examining Tran’s actions, to ensure that it was fairly handled, and Tran was allowed to return to work as a homicide investigator even though he would later be criminally charged by the district attorney.
The Tran case was carried out by Sgt. Lee. Her direct supervisors were Sgt. Skrdlant and Captain Kaney, according to city records.
The one publicly available city document that includes information about the new CPRA case examining how the Tran investigation was handled does not identify any of the eight officers by name, so it’s unclear at this time which specific violations might apply to each officer. But the document underscores the unusually wide scope of the investigation and the severity of the allegations. Since it was placed under federal court oversight in 2003, OPD’s ability to hold its officers accountable for misconduct has proven to be one of the most vexing reforms imposed on the department.
Although the Police Commission investigator’s findings are final, the accused officers still have a right to appeal, and they could overturn the discipline through what’s called a “Skelly hearing” or in arbitration if a neutral hearing officer agrees that CPRA’s findings or the level discipline the agency is seeking are improper.
The Community Police Review Agency investigated OPD’s internal affairs process
The newly available document that sheds light on the case is a list of investigations recently completed by the Police Commission’s Community Police Review Agency, the team of civilians who independently examine allegations of OPD misconduct. The document includes information about a case identified as “23-0459,” which was opened in March of last year by CPRA.
CPRA normally publishes its recently completed investigation list as part of routine updates it gives to the Police Commission. However, the agency always removes identifying information such as officers’ names. CPRA published its findings for 23-0459 in the commission’s Apr. 25 meeting agenda.
By reviewing past meetings of the Police Commission and other records, and talking with several sources who have knowledge of the case, The Oaklandside was able to confirm that 23-0459 is CPRA’s examination of how OPD’s internal affairs division handled the allegations that Tran bribed a witness and committed perjury in a 2016 murder trial, resulting in the wrongful convictions of two men.
According to the document, the Community Police Review Agency investigated nine officers in total. Only one of the officers was cleared of wrongdoing. The rest were found to have committed at least one of three types of violations.
According to the CPRA list, three officers obstructed the internal affairs process, meaning they took steps to prevent OPD from thoroughly and fairly investigating the bribery and perjury allegations against Tran.
Investigators determined that one of the officers who obstructed the internal affairs process also was not truthful, meaning they lied at some point, either while obstructing the Tran case or later when talking with investigators.
Four of the officers violated their official duties as commanding officers to ensure that officers working under their authority didn’t break the rules. Commanding officers include captains, deputy chiefs, assistant chiefs, and the chief of police. A fifth officer was faulted for the same violation in their role as a supervisor, working either as a lieutenant or sergeant. One officer is also being disciplined for a “performance of duty” violation, meaning they failed to adequately do their job.
It’s not unusual for CPRA cases to look into allegations against multiple officers at the same time. However, it is unusual for so many high-ranking police officials to be disciplined for serious wrongdoing like obstructing a case or allowing this to happen.
Officer Phong Tran is charged with perjury and bribing a witness
The current turmoil inside OPD all traces back to alleged criminal conduct by a homicide investigator roughly a decade ago.
Allegations that OPD Officer Phong Tran bribed a witness and committed perjury first surfaced four years ago when Giovonte Douglas appealed his murder conviction for the 2011 shooting of a man in North Oakland. Douglas and co-defendant Cartier Hunter were both convicted of the killing after a 2016 trial that hinged on the testimony of a key witness, Aisha Weber.
Douglas’ attorney discovered in 2022 that Weber had recanted her claims of having been an eyewitness to the shooting. She said she lied about the case after receiving multiple cash payments from Tran. Tran later acknowledged giving Weber cash before the trial but he defended his actions, saying Weber was being intimidated and threatened by people linked to the defendant.
The cash payments along with an allegedly inconsistent statement Tran made while on the witness stand about when he’d first met Weber led an Alameda County Superior Court judge to overturn Douglas and Hunter’s convictions.
OPD was notified by then-District Attorney Nancy O’Malley’s office in August 2022 about the allegations against Tran. In response, OPD opened an internal affairs case to examine the claims. Sgt. Mega Lee was the investigator who handled the case. Lee eventually concluded that Tran had done nothing wrong. “[I]t may be acceptable practice for investigators to provide financial aid [to witnesses] without proper documentation,” Lee wrote in her final report. The allegations that Tran “compromised” a criminal case by paying the witness and lied were “unfounded” she wrote, meaning the wrongdoing never happened. Lee’s report was approved by Acting Lt. Skrdlant and Captain Kaney.
In April 2023, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price filed charges against Tran for perjury and witness intimidation. Tran’s next court date is June 17.
Around the time District Attorney Price charged Tran, the Oakland Police Commission’s CPRA agency opened its case looking into how OPD handled the accusations against Tran.
The implications of the case for OPD’s federal oversight program are unclear. Jim Chanin, a civil rights attorney who is party to the lawsuit that brought about the reforms, wrote in a letter to members of the media two weeks ago that the city has refused to allow him and his co-counsel John Burris to review the investigations into Tran’s actions and how OPD handled the case. He said without access to the facts, he can’t form an opinion as to whether or not he thinks the city can finally hold OPD accountable when there is wrongdoing at high levels within the department. “The integrity of internal affairs investigations and consistency of discipline are at the heart of the consent decree, and such failures were responsible for the conduct unearthed during the Riders scandal in 2000 and the sexual exploitation scandal of 2016, among others,” Chanin wrote.
Last week, federal Judge William Orrick, who oversees OPD’s compliance with the reforms, postponed a hearing from June 4th to September 4th. No reason for the date change was given.
