{"id":461763,"date":"2026-09-12T15:46:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T15:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461763\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T15:46:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T15:46:35","slug":"oakland-helicopter-cops-indicted-on-charges-of-conspiring-with-safety-inspector-to-defraud-faa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/461763\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakland helicopter cops indicted on charges of conspiring with safety inspector to defraud FAA"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 Two Oakland police officers<\/a> have been indicted on charges of conspiring with a then-Federal Aviation Administration safety inspector to obtain pilot certifications they didn\u2019t earn, allegedly circumventing required test flights and leaving a paper trail of falsified documents.<\/p>\n

The officers, Brandon Mart and David Mac, and their co-defendant, William Miller, pleaded not guilty at a Thursday court appearance where the seven-count indictment was unsealed. The charges include conspiracy, defrauding the FAA, and falsifying records to obstruct the investigation.<\/p>\n

Both officers were assigned to the city\u2019s helicopter at the time of the alleged crimes, and Miller worked as an FAA safety inspector out of Florida, the indictment says. The men allegedly schemed to lie about Mart and Mac \u2014 who have been with the department since 2015 \u2014 having taken mandated test flights in order to obtain FAA certifications throughout 2023 and 2024, lied about having taken test flights, known as \u201ccheckrides,\u201d at the Oakland airport and filled out forms with false information, according to federal prosecutors.<\/p>\n

A message to the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office was not immediately returned Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mart faces one conspiracy count, three counts of FAA registration fraud and two counts of obstruction of justice through falsification of records. The obstruction charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Mac faces the conspiracy charge and one count of FAA registration fraud. He faces up to five years in prison on the most serious charge.<\/p>\n

Miller also was indicted on the conspiracy charge and four counts of FAA registration fraud. He faces up to five years in prison on the most serious charge. His\u00a0attorney declined to comment after Thursday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

All three defendants were released on $250,000 bonds and ordered to surrender their passports and refrain from communicating with their co-defendants. They are scheduled to return to court Nov. 30 for a status conference.<\/p>\n

It is unclear what the defendants stood to gain from the alleged scheme, other than avoiding spending time doing their jobs or being paid for work they didn\u2019t complete. The indictment doesn\u2019t allege any specific amount of city funds was misappropriated through the conspiracy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conspiracy involved the submission of fraudulent documents related to at least four separate checkrides, and resulting in Mart receiving three fraudulent certifications, and Mac receiving one fraudulent certificate,\u201d the indictment says.<\/p>\n

Oakland police Chief James Beere said in a statement Thursday afternoon: \u201cToday, we learned of federal charges involving two department members. We take these allegations seriously and are cooperating with outside law enforcement agencies as they investigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe employees in question were placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the case. This is an ongoing personnel matter, and OPD cannot provide further details at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The indictments follow another recent criminal case involving an Oakland police employee. In late August, Alameda County prosecutors charged Oakland police Sgt. Kevin Arias<\/a>, who has occasionally served as an acting lieutenant, with grand theft amid allegations that he claimed $38,000 in pay for hours he did not work.<\/p>\n

The new charges also come less than three weeks before a potentially final hearing in the Oakland Police Department\u2019s bid to end more than two decades of federal court oversight stemming from the infamous Riders scandal in the early 2000s. It was not immediately clear whether the indictment would affect that process.<\/p>\n

In May, U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick said the department was on track<\/a> to emerge from the federal oversight in place since 2003. He described the Sept. 29 hearing as an opportunity to review the department\u2019s compliance with dozens of reforms before potentially releasing it from court supervision.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one can say \u2018Mission accomplished,\u2019\u200c\u201d Orrick said at the May court hearing. \u201cBut I do congratulate the city and OPD on getting this far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 Two Oakland police officers have been indicted on charges of conspiring with a then-Federal Aviation Administration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[861,862,143,863,145,144,2452,182021],"class_list":["post-461763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california-crime","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-crime","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-police","tag-oakland-police-helicopter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}