Ex-Pinole cop takes felony, avoids jail on charges that he secretly recorded sex for ‘Mafia’ texting group

The now-former Pinole patrol cop was charged with secretly recording two women inside his East Bay home.

RICHMOND — As part of a plea deal, a Pinole police officer who resigned after learning he was under investigation has pleaded no contest to a felony charge for secretly recording sex with a woman at his East Bay home, court records show.

The deal allows 25-year-old Anthony Luciano Vasquez to avoid jail time, but requires him to serve 120 days of house arrest and two years probation. If he stays out of trouble for two years, he can petition to get the felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor, restoring certain rights that felons are ineligible for, like being able to possess guns.

As part of the deal, prosecutors dropped misdemeanor charges in a separate misdemeanor domestic violence case, which involved him allegedly grabbing a girlfriend during an argument.

Vasquez was charged in 2021 after his own cousin tipped off authorities. The police investigation found that Vasquez “sent out secretly recorded sex videos and pictures” to a text message group called “The Mafia” that included 17 people. He was charged with secretly filming two women, one of whom has filed a lawsuit against him and the city of Pinole.

Investigators say that Vasquez’s cousin was part of “The Mafia” texting group and only reported the sexting when he and Vasquez had a falling out over a family matter. The cousin initially tipped off Pinole police, who opened an internal affairs investigation and informed the DA’s office.

Vasquez resigned from the Pinole police department in June 2021, three months before he was charged, when he learned of the investigation. The lawsuit alleges that other law enforcement officers in the Bay Area were involved in the “Mafia” texting group, but the court documents do not name those people. At a Jan. 23 status conference, the plaintiff’s attorney indicated he would add additional defendants soon.

Had Vasquez’s case gone to trial, it is likely he would have argued that the filming was consensual; his attorney said in a September 2021 interview that it was.

Vasquez spent part of one day being booked and almost immediately released after the charges were filed. Because of that, he gets one day’s worth of credit for time served in his house arrest term, court records show.