Ex-officer gets 60 days in jail for five felonies

Afghanistan veteran committed crimes while serving with Antioch police

An ex-Antioch policeman who played an active role in an identity theft ring, recruited others into it and destroyed evidence when a cohort was arrested received a sentence of 60 days in jail last week.

Gary Bostick, 39, pleaded guilty to five felonies in June — four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy — but it was up to Northern District Judge Jeffrey S. White to determine his sentence. The defense argued that Bostick joined the conspiracy while still suffering emotional trauma from fighting in Afghanistan, a claim that factored heavily into White’s decision, according to prosecutors.

U.S. attorneys, citing several similar cases where defendants received lengthy prison terms, had asked White to sentence Bostick to four years and three months in federal prison, according to court records.

Bostick, who committed his crimes while he was still employed by the Antioch Police Department, is required to begin his jail sentence in December and will remain free on $50,000 bail until then. He will also have to pay approximately $113,000 in restitution and spend time on house arrest and federal probation after his release, according to court records.

A transcript of the Sept. 19 sentencing hearing has not yet been made available.

Bostick was one of 11 defendants linked by authorities to the fraud ring, a group that included his wife, Ana Bostick, and another family member, Everardo Laurian, whom authorities say Gary Bostick recruited into the conspiracy. The leader, a Richmond resident named Hugh Robinson, received a 12-year prison term this year after he took his case to trial and lost.

But Bostick’s attorney, Jeffrey Bornstein, argued in a defense memo in the court record that his client deserved a more lenient sentence because of his service as a police officer and in the U.S. military. He wrote that Bostick was still affected by his time in Afghanistan when Robinson approached him in 2013, and that he was deeply shamed by his bad decisions and by “aggressive” media coverage of the case. Bornstein also claims Bostick received bad legal advice from previous lawyers.

Bostick joined the military in 2009, while still serving as an Antioch policeman. He spent time in an “ultra-violent” part of Afghanistan in 2011 and returned “scarred by war,” Bornstein wrote. The defense memo includes several large sections — written by two doctors — that have been redacted by a judge’s sealing order. Bornstein wrote that those sections help explain Bostick’s state of mind when he committed the crimes.

“At its base, it was his patriotic decision to serve our country that set the stage for all that has transpired in Mr. Bostick’s case,” Bornstein wrote.

The conspiracy involved Bostick, his wife, Robinson and others obtaining personal financial information from dead people and using it to cash fraudulent checks. In late April 2015, days after the IRS served a search warrant at Robinson’s house, Bostick and other co-conspirators traveled to Southern California and then to Kentucky to obtain fraudulent U.S. Treasury checks. When they were successful, Bostick texted his wife and she replied, “Whoo to the mother (expletive) hoo,” according to court records.

But the feds were watching. Robinson was arrested on April 28, 2015. That same day, Bostick destroyed Robinson’s phone, his own computer and other incriminating documents in his Pittsburg home before a team of investigators could serve a search warrant there, according to a prosecution memo.

The next day, April 29, 2015, Bostick’s employment with Antioch police ended. Then-Police Chief Allan Cantando wouldn’t comment on whether Bostick resigned or was fired. Federal authorities didn’t find evidence Bostick was using his job to commit fraud, according to a U.S. attorney spokesman.

Wire fraud, conspiracy and identity-theft charges were brought against Bostick eight months later. The identity-theft charges were dropped in June, when Bostick agreed to plead guilty to the other five counts.

In arguing for a sentence of four years and three months, prosecutors cited other wire fraud cases in the Northern District of California where the defendants’ prison sentences ranged from 21 months to 63 months. They argued Bostick’s military service was outweighed by the fact that he destroyed evidence and continued to commit crimes even after he knew the IRS was investigating Robinson. They said his actions had eroded the public’s confidence in law enforcement.

“During his participation, (Bostick) helped file false tax returns, obtained fake identifications, created driving routes for the scheme and traveled throughout the United States to commit the fraud. He used the money to buy expensive solar panels, cars and a ring for his spouse,” federal prosecutors wrote. “What is worse, the defendant did all of this while serving as a police officer. He engaged in the very activity he had a duty to prevent and ignored that duty to line his pockets with the proceeds of his illegal activity. In doing so, he brought a negative light onto his fellow officers.”

One of those officers, Antioch police Det. Rick Hoffman, wrote a letter of support for his former colleague, saying he watched Bostick care for his family and always put others first.

“If anyone can recover from this and come out stronger, it is Gary Bostick,” Hoffman wrote, according to Bornstein’s memo.

Ana Bostick is scheduled to be sentenced in November.

Contact Nate Gartrell at 925-779-7174.