CALIFORNIA SHERIFF’S DEPUTY ACCUSED OF ACCEPTING A BRIBE

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about two former Antioch, California police officers, Norman Wielsch, who was the head of the Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET), and Christopher Butler, who now has a private detective agency. Wielsch was accused of providing drugs seized by CNET to Butler who sold them to his clients. They split the profits.

Also accused of narcotics and weapons violations was another former Antioch police, officer, Stephen Tanabe, who was working for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department. As the story went Butler represented women seeking divorces from their husbands. He would arrange for good looking women to get the husband drunk at a local bar. Then Tanabe would arrest the husbands for DUI’s in order to dirty them in the divorce proceedings.

I suspected at the time that Tanabe was being paid by Butler for his services. However I did not have any evidence of such I still don’t have any evidence but apparently the Contra Costa County District Attorney does. They filed charges alleging three counts of obstruction of justice, making false arrests and selling steroids. They say that on at least one occasion Tanabe received money from Butler for making an arrest.

As a result of the investigation fifteen cases have been dismissed and five cases have not been charged, either because the charges were no longer credible or because Wielsch and Tanabe are unavailable to testify.

Tanabe has resigned from the Sheriff’s Department and is fighting the charges. If he is guilty it is hard to think of a more corrupt way to tarnish his former badge than taking money to arrest people who have been set up for private gain. ¹