(05-25)
13:05 PDT DANVILLE -- A
former Danville police officer pleaded not guilty Friday to new charges that he
committed wire fraud when he allegedly exchanged text messages with a private
investigator to coordinate drunken-driving arrests later dubbed "dirty
DUIs."
Stephen
Tanabe, 48, appeared in federal court in Oakland, where prosecutors added
charges to existing counts of fraud, conspiracy, and extortion under color of
official right.
Prosecutors
say Tanabe worked with Christopher Butler, 50, a private eye hired by women
allegedly seeking to have their husbands set up for drunken-driving arrests.
The men were usually in divorce or child custody battles, prosecutors said.
In
May, Butler pleaded guilty to seven federal criminal counts and said he had
paid Tanabe with cocaine and a handgun to make three arrests on his behalf.
In the
new indictment, prosecutors said Butler and Tanabe had exchanged text messages
to coordinate two arrests and had discussed Tanabe's compensation in a third.
Prosecutors
said Butler's phone showed that minutes before the Jan. 9, 2011, arrest of a
man outside a Danville bar, the private eye texted Tanabe, "They are up +
heading for the door."
Tanabe's
attorney, Tim Pori, said prosecutors were using an obscure law usually applied
to politicians who use the telephone to accept bribes. According to the
indictment, the server for Butler's phone is located in Kansas and the
allegedly illegal communications with Tanabe crossed state lines, making the
exchange a federal crime.
"This
kind of prosecution is esoteric and this is not the way the statute is normally
used," Pori said.
Tanabe
resigned last year from the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, which
employed him as a Danville officer. The charges against him carry a maximum
20-year prison sentence and $250,000 fine.
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