Records: Deputy had tried to arrest wife

Documents show new details about fired Alameda County deputy

A former Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy who was fired in 2016 committed serious policy violations that weren’t publicly revealed until recently, according to records obtained late last year through a records request by the California Reporting Project.

Among the newly publicized misconduct charges that got Dep. Travis Brannon fired were allegations that in 2015, Brannon — on duty and in full uniform — attempted to arrest his then-wife during a domestic dispute after he poked her in the chest and she slapped him across the face. Later in the incident, Brannon allegedly attempted to pull over his wife as she drove to a family member’s home, but didn’t report to dispatch that he’d activated his emergency lights.

“During the argument, you poked your wife in the chest

with your finger and she, in turn, slapped you across your face,” in the parking lot of a Castro Valley hospital, the report says. “You advised your wife that you were going to take her to jail, and you pulled her hair with one hand while attempting to handcuff her with your other hand. You managed to bend your wife over the hood of your patrol vehicle and you struggled with her until you both stopped fighting.”

Brannon’s then-wife suffered a bruise on her knee during the attack, the report says.

These allegations are the latest public revelations involving Brannon, who in 2016 was fired for allegedly telling his wife he would “have her killed and fed to pigs if she ever did or said anything to hurt his job as a deputy,” according to court records. Brannon — who was charged with 18 misdemeanor counts of violating a restraining order intended to protect his wife — was also accused of boasting to her that he was affiliated with the Hells Angels motorcycle club.

Ultimately, Brannon was sentenced to one day in jail and three years probation after pleading no contest to one of the 18 charges in 2016. The other 17 counts were dismissed as part of a plea deal, court records show.

After the August 2015 argument at the hospital parking lot, Brannon’s wife went to the Eden Township Substation to report her husband. It was there that, during an argument, he allegedly threatened to kill her if he lost his job. After filing the report, she drove to a family member’s home; Brannon allegedly tried to pull her over.

“Although you claimed in our interview that you only flashed your emergency lights momentarily to let your wife know that you were following her, our statement conflicts with video surveillance captured from a neighboring residence which shows that your emergency lights were still on as you pulled up to your wife’s (family member’s) home,” the report says, adding that Brannon violated at least two department policies.

Additionally Brannon was accused of keeping methamphetamine in his garage; internal investigators clearly didn’t believe his excuse that he had simply forgotten to destroy the drugs, writing in a report that evidence he’d been using meth was also uncovered. Brannon reportedly claimed his friend, who was doing some landscaping at his home, inadvertently left the drugs there.

Whether or not he was using drugs, he violated policy by failing to inform the department of the drug’s existence, the report says.

“If, in fact, you had innocently discovered a bag of crystal methamphetamine on our property that did not belong to you, you would have or should have immediately disposed of the drugs and/or reported the discovery to law enforcement officers. You did neither,” the report says, later adding, “At a minimum you yourself admit that you were in knowing possession of an illegal drug before you destroyed it in violation of a Health and Safety Code Section 11377(a).”

On top of all that, Brannon’s wife allegedly located three cellphones in their garage, which Brannon claimed he recovered from Castro Valley High School students during his job as a school resource officer. That claim was “not credible,” the report says, adding without further conclusion that, “drug dealers or buyers often possess multiple phones to prevent law enforcement from identifying who they are or what phone they utilized while engaging in buying or selling of drugs.”

Brannon was on leave when the Sheriff’s office learned of his association with the young woman who went by the pseudonym Celeste Guap, and was at the center of the Bay Area police exploitation scandal. Dozens of officers were investigated and disciplined — and others charged, with varying degrees of success — for sexual misconduct or sex crimes involving Guap. She did not publicly name Brannon as one of the officers.

This story was produced as part of the California Reporting Project, a collaboration of 40 newsrooms across the state to obtain and report on police misconduct and serious use-of-force records unsealed in 2019.