Former Contra Costa Deputy Sheriff negotiates plea agreement on gun charge, filing false police report, preparing false documents
Matthew Buckley was charged with 6 felonies for actions while serving search warrant in Antioch; former Officer of the Year will serve 3 years & 8 months in prison
By Ted Asregadoo, PIO, Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office
Martinez, California – Today, the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office reached a negotiated plea against 42-year-old Matthew Allen Buckley, of Pinole, for offenses that occurred when he was a deputy with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office.
Buckley was charged in February 2023 with six felonies and one misdemeanor related to offenses that occurred in 2020 and 2022. In a negotiated disposition, Buckley pled no contest to three felonies, including possession of an illegal assault weapon, filing a false police report, and preparing false documentary evidence [PC30605, PC118.1, and PC134]. Buckley will receive a three years and eight months prison sentence, which he can serve on mandatory supervised release if he successfully completes a six-month drug rehab program.
The case began in September 2020 when Buckley, assigned to the Contra Costa County Anti-Violence Support Effort (C.A.S.E), participated in a task force executing a search warrant in Antioch. During the operation, Deputy Buckley seized two illegal AR-15s, phones, laptops, heroin, and drug paraphernalia.
After seizing the AR 15s, Deputy Buckley authored a police report where he falsely claimed to have booked the firearms into evidence. Instead of booking the illegal weapons, Buckley separated the upper sections from the lower sections of the firearm. He returned possession of the upper sections of the firearms to the original owner, but never returned the lower sections of the firearms.
As part of this investigation the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department discovered that Deputy Buckley created false documents and signed for a judge without his consent on multiple search warrant returns for unrelated cases.
In August 2022 as the investigation was concluding, Deputies with the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office searched Buckley’s residence and found the lower sections of the AR-15s as well as a small amount of methamphetamine.
According to his Linkedin profile, Buckley worked for the Sheriff’s Office for 15 years, including his final three years and 10 months as a detective. Previously, he had worked as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Field Training Officer and then a Station Supervisor for ProTransport-1 ambulance service in Pleasant Hill. He started his work life as a Network Security Engineer for Bank of American in Concord.
In 2019, he was named the department’s Officer of the Year.
Pursuant to California Government Code, Matthew Buckley will be legally ineligible to serve as a police officer. Moreover, convicted of felony offenses, Buckley is prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition.
the attachments to this post:
CCCSheriff-patch & CCDA 2020 logo
