Ex-Pittsburgh cop avoids both prison and felony conviction in assault weapons case

Armando Montalvo, a Pittsburg officer from 2015 to 2022, was charged Thursday with four felonies for allegedly illegal possession and sale of AR-15s. (Photo provided by Pittsburgh Police)

PITTSBURG — A former Pittsburg police officer was sentenced to six months' probation after pleading no contest to two misdemeanors as part of a plea deal that required prosecutors to drop four felony gun charges against him, according to records.

Armando Montalvo, 29, pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor obstruction charges in March. In exchange, prosecutors dropped four criminal charges related to the possession and sale of assault rifles, records show.

Montalvo was sentenced to a brief period of probation that is expected to end in September, according to court records. Montalvo joined the Pittsburg Police Department in 2015 and resigned in 2022, when the investigation came to light. He was indicted two years ago.

Montalvo was the first of 14 Pittsburgh and Antioch police officers indicted as part of a sweeping corruption investigation by the FBI and the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, but his case was only tangentially linked to a much bigger scandal. Prosecutors said at the time they found evidence that he illegally possessed assault rifles and sold them to another person, while investigating other officers' phones.

The other 13 East Contra Costa officers were charged with crimes including accepting alcohol as a bribe to clear traffic tickets, wire fraud, violent civil rights violations and drug distribution .

The FBI also uncovered a parallel scandal that still continues in Contra Costa; After seizing Antioch officers' phones, officers came across numerous racist, sexist and homophobic texts and memes on chats involving dozens of officers. So far, that has resulted in officer firings and disciplinary action, motions to dismiss dozens of lawsuits and special circumstances enhancements in a multi-defendant gang case denied by a judge.