Ex-cop Tanabe convicted in 'dirty DUI' scandal

Tanabe was a parent at Green Valley Elementary School Danvile, he never said he wa a police officer, he was in my house as part of cub scouts between 2001 and 2004 (est.)

Tanabe along with other officers tipped off Private Investigator Chris Butler about the attempted murder by Danville Building Inspector
Gary Vinson Collins who died in a murderous fall leaving a wife and seveal children, one that found me in Walnut Creek via my blogs.

Collins fate was nefarious, his wife was employed at IT Director at the Town of Danville where I suspect she was able to deflect or modify police reports.

By
Justin Berton

Updated


11:16 pm PDT, Tuesday, September 3, 2013



A former Contra Costa County deputy sheriff was convicted Tuesday on charges that he accepted a pistol from a private investigator in exchange for arresting two men who the investigator had baited into driving drunk in elaborate stings known as "dirty DUIs." However, jurors acquitted the former officer of a charge stemming from one of the private investigator's most startling claims - that the ex-deputy also accepted cocaine to facilitate a third
drunken driving arrest.


Stephen Tanabe, 50, of Alamo, appeared dejected after the jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco delivered a verdict that marks one of the final
chapters in a lurid saga that has now resulted in the conviction of five former Bay Area law enforcement officers. Two and a half years after his arrest,
Tanabe, a former Danville patrol officer, turned to his family in the front row of the gallery, exhaled hard, and shook his head. He was convicted on one
count of conspiracy, two counts of extortion and three counts of wire fraud, and will be sentenced in December.

Tanabe's involvement in the unseemly world of former investigator Christopher Butler, 52, began in the mid-1990s, when both men were officers for the
Antioch police force. Tim Pori, Tanabe's attorney, maintained that Butler - the government's star witness, who testified in exchange for leniency in his
own case - was a master manipulator who made a living framing people. He deemed Butler a "sociopathic narcissist" who made Tanabe his latest mark.
"This was another 'designed coincidence,' " Pori said outside court, employing a term coined by the private investigator, "where Butler took the available
evidence and framed Tanabe."
In closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hartley West portrayed Tanabe as an officer who'd sold his badge when he allegedly accepted an eighth of an
ounce of cocaine and a Glock pistol from Butler to ensure the drunken driving arrests  "His integrity was for sale," West told jurors. "And it was for
sale for cheap."
Butler was the architect of "dirty DUIs," prearranged busts of men he had been hired to tarnish. Three targeted men who testified at Tanabe's trial - a
Livermore winemaker, a Verizon executive, and a former software salesman - were in the midst of divorce or custody disputes with ex-wives who sought to
gain an advantage.
The women, prosecutors said, paid Butler to design stings in which female "decoys" approached the men online or in bars. Or actors would pose as reporters,
inviting the marks out for an "interview" over drinks.

In two stings involving Tanabe, Butler said, he arranged for his friend to park outside a Danville wine bar and arrest the victims on Butler's cue.
The sprawling scandal around Butler, which included allegations of drug dealing and prostitution, sparked an FBI corruption probe and led to the federal
convictions of Bay Area police officers from four different agencies.
One defendant remains: Mary Nolan, a divorce attorney who, according to prosecutors, hired Butler to install listening devices inside the car of a client's
ex-husband.11/12/13 Ex-cop Tanabe convicted in'dirty DUI' scandal - SFGate
During his testimony at the Tanabe trial, Butler said he was hired by Nolan to conduct a "dirty DUI" sting on a Clayton man, who was arrested and
convicted. Nolan has pleaded not guilty.
Justin Berton is a San Francisco Chronicle staf writer. E-mail: jberton@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @justinberton


Tanabe Convicted

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Ex-deputy indicted in 'dirty DUI' scheme

Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, December 17, 2011

Defendant Stephen Tanabe sits in the courtroom waiting to be arraigned in the law enforcement abuse of power case, at the Contra Costa Superior Courthouse, Thursday June 23, 2011, in Walnut Creek, Calif. Photo: Lacy Atkins, The Chronicle

A former Contra Costa County sheriff's deputy who allegedly helped a private investigator with "dirty DUI" arrests has been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Stephen Tanabe, 48, of Alamo, was indicted Thursday on four felony counts of conspiracy to extort under color of official right and aiding and abetting, in connection with the drunken-driving arrests. He is expected to surrender to authorities before a scheduled court appearance Monday in Oakland, attorneys said.

Tanabe is the fourth former law enforcement officer with ties to former private eye Christopher Butler, 50, to face federal charges. Butler pleaded not guilty to federal drug and conspiracy charges earlier this year.

In July, two former Richmond police officers who had hired Butler to carry out a retaliatory sting against two young men who once worked for them were indicted on gun charges.

In August, Butler and Norman Wielsch, 50, a former state Justice Department agent who commanded an antidrug task force in Contra Costa County, were indicted on charges connected to the alleged theft and sale of drugs.

Authorities said Wielsch had pilfered the drugs from evidence lockers. 

Tanabe pleaded not guilty this year in state court to bribery and conspiracy charges connected to two drunken-driving arrests he made in Danville in January.

Prosecutors said Butler had paid Tanabe to pull over and arrest men the detective was hired to go after. Butler was working for women in divorce cases who wanted to saddle their ex-husbands with criminal records to help them win custody battles, authorities said.

In an affidavit, a cadet-in-training who was riding with Tanabe in January said the officer used the term "dirty DUI" before he stopped a man Butler had hired him to arrest.

In a confession written by Butler and obtained by The Chronicle, the former investigator said he had supplied $200 worth of cocaine to Tanabe as payment for his involvement in one DUI stop.

Tanabe's attorney in the federal case did not respond to a phone call.

Dan Russo, the attorney who is representing Tanabe in state court, said, "It's obvious the feds are buying into Butler's perjurious lies."

Russo says Tanabe didn't know Butler was setting up the men he was arresting for drunken driving, and denies the former deputy ever took a bribe.

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