MARTINEZ -- A federal prosecutor told a judge Tuesday that she plans to file additional criminal charges against a former Danville police officer indicted in connection with a scheme to set up men for drunken-driving arrests.
U.S. Assistant Attorney Hartley West would not comment on the nature of the charges pending against Stephen Tanabe but said she plans to file them before Tanabe's next federal court date March 20. Tanabe's criminal case stems from a probe into allegations of rampant corruption involving an elite Contra Costa County vice squad.
Tanabe has pleaded not guilty to a December federal indictment that charges him with two counts of extortion, one count of aiding and abetting in extortion and one count of conspiracy to extort -- all "under color of official right" by abusing his position as a police officer.
He denies allegations that former private investigator Christopher Butler paid him in drugs and guns to make DUI arrests on men whose spouses were seeking leverage in divorce and child-custody cases. Butler, Tanabe, former Central Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team commander Norman Wielsch and former San Ramon officer Louis Lombardi also are being prosecuted in Contra Costa County as part of the police corruption scandal that started with Wielsch and Butler's arrests one year ago.
Lombardi was taken into federal custody last month after admitting to nine felonies and misdemeanors in the first conviction to result
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