Two Oakland Police Department officers were arraigned in a federal courtroom Thursday on charges of conspiring to defraud the Federal Aviation Administration, with both of them working in the department's helicopter unit. Brandon Mart and David Mac pleaded not guilty after a federal grand jury indictment against them was unsealed during the hearing, while William Miller was indicted on one conspiracy charge and four FAA registration fraud counts.
The charges, first reported by The Mercury News, land at a precarious moment for a department that has spent more than two decades under federal court oversight and was hoping to shed that supervision this month. Mart faces one conspiracy charge, three FAA registration fraud counts, and two obstruction of justice counts, according to the outlet's reporting on the indictment. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the most serious charge, while Miller and Mac each face up to five years in prison on their most serious counts. Mac was charged with one conspiracy count and one FAA registration fraud count.
The Mercury News account did not detail the defendants' release terms. They are due back in court for a status conference on November 30. William Miller's attorney declined to comment after the hearing, and it was not immediately clear whether Miller remained employed by the department. The Oakland Police Department's communications team did not respond to a request for comment on the indictments or the officers' current job status, the outlet reported.
A Department on the Verge of Ending Federal Oversight
The timing could hardly be worse for a police department that has completed dozens of reforms and was actively seeking to end federal court oversight that began in 2003. That oversight stems from Delphine Allen v. City of Oakland, the landmark civil rights lawsuit filed after the 2000 Oakland Riders scandal, in which four officers were accused of beatings, planting evidence, and falsifying reports — a case that ultimately involved 119 plaintiffs and an $11 million settlement, according to KQED.
In May, federal monitor Robert Warshaw reported that OPD had, for the first time in the consent decree's 23-year history, achieved compliance with all 51 court-mandated reform tasks, as detailed by Courthouse News Service. U.S. District Judge William H. Orrick congratulated the city and the department on their progress that same month, saying the department was on track to leave federal court oversight, but he also cautioned that no one could say “mission accomplished.” Orrick had set September 29 as the date for a hearing to review whether OPD maintained sustained compliance before deciding whether to formally end the monitorship — a date that now arrives less than three weeks after this week's indictments.
Third OPD Employee Facing Charges in Weeks
The federal indictments mark at least the third time in the past couple of weeks that an Oakland Police Department employee has faced criminal charges. On August 28, Alameda County prosecutors charged Sergeant Kevin Arias, who has occasionally served as an acting lieutenant, with grand theft of personal property, accusing him of logging $38,000 in hours he did not actually work. Hoodline previously reported that Arias was charged with stealing $38K from the department after an internal timecard audit flagged the discrepancy. Public compensation records show Arias earned $168,000 in base salary, $94,000 in overtime, and $59,000 in other pay in 2025, with his total 2024 compensation recorded above $400,000 in public pay databases, according to The Oaklandside.
Following the charges against Arias, the department said it was working with city management to deploy upgraded time-tracking technology and expand routine timecard audits, according to a statement from the City of Oakland. City officials noted the fraud in that case was uncovered through an internal audit rather than an outside complaint. The Mercury News identifies Brandon Mart and David Mac as helicopter-unit officers, and this week's indictment implicates both of them alongside a third officer.
New Oversight Role Meant to Outlast the Monitor
Anticipating the eventual end of federal supervision, Oakland opened recruitment in August for a newly created Constitutional Policing Administrator position, paying between $175,000 and $263,000 annually, intended to embed executive-level reform oversight within city government once the monitor departs. Judge Orrick endorsed the role as pivotal to long-term compliance, Hoodline reported in its coverage of Oakland's first constitutional policing chief. That civilian infrastructure builds on Measure S1, which Oakland voters passed in November 2020 with 81.27% approval, expanding the independence of the civilian Police Commission and establishing an independent Office of Inspector General.
Permanent Police Chief James Beere, who took over departmental leadership during the final compliance reviews, has publicly credited federal monitor Robert Warshaw with raising departmental standards. Beere was sworn in as permanent chief after serving as interim chief. The fraudulent-document offense described in the case carries a general maximum sentence of three years, with five years applying only to specified controlled-substance-related violations.
The indictments also arrive amid broader federal law enforcement activity in Oakland. With the September 29 status hearing now looming, Judge Orrick's court will have to weigh whether this month's criminal cases undercut the department's case that constitutional policing has taken hold inside OPD.
