Judge releases names of 17 California cops accused of sending racist texts and memes

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The names of 17 California-based police officers suspected of using racist epithets, jokes and memes in text conversations are now public information.

According to the East Bay Times, Contra Costa County Judge Clare Maier issued a warning before releasing the names, saying the filthy nature of the communications could incite further racial hatred or animosity.

However, she argued that the California evidence code should not be used to protect text information, including the identities of Antioch police officers. Maier said the inflammatory communications began in September 2019 and continued until January 2022, when FBI agents seized officers’ phones and other items.

The names of police officers from 17 Antioch, Calif., are now being publicly tracked as part of an investigation into text messages they allegedly sent containing racist jokes, memes and slurs. (Screenshot/YouTube.com/ABC7 News Bay Area)

I had my eye on Antioch for a long time, civil rights lawyer Adante Pointer said Friday, according to the Times. It’s proof that people who watched Antioch already knew it’s full of officers who don’t deserve to wear the badge.

The list of beleaguered officers includes Rick Hoffman, the head of the Antioch Police Association. Hoffman, who has frequently criticized Antioch mayor and police reform advocate Lamar Thorpe, is one of eight Antioch officers on furlough because of the texts. Six other officers whose alleged criminal activities are already being investigated by the FBI Devon Wenger, Eric Rombough, Andrea Rodriguez, Calvin Prieto, Morteza Amiri and Tim Manly, who has resigned, are also listed.

Although Maier did not specify what each officer sent, she described the messages as deeply disturbing and aimed at members of the black and Hispanic community.

Investigators accused Rombough, Manly and fellow officers Jonathan Adams, Scott Duggar, Joshua Evans, Robert Gerber, Brock Marcotte and Thomas Smith of mentioning four suspected members of an Oakland-based ENT gang in texts sent over a period 10 days in March 2021, when Antioch police were tapping suspects’ phones.

Courts in Contra Costa County will determine whether or not the messages are sufficient grounds to drop any charges against the people the officers were investigating. This includes anyone that officers explicitly mentioned in the texts and any black or Latino person being investigated or detained because they may claim to have been discriminated against because of their race.

It’s no wonder the public has lost faith in law enforcement, Pointer said, The Times reported, and why we see black and brown people overrepresented in the criminal justice system when people who administer it are racist.

The evidence will likely resurface in other criminal trials involving these particular police officers and the other lawmen mentioned by Maier: Aaron Hughes, Brayton Milner, John Ramirez and Kyle Smith.

The FBI is investigating allegations of fraud, corruption, drug distribution and civil rights violations related to the use of force within the Antioch and Pittsburgh police departments. The agency discovered the officers’ texts last month after executing search warrants at the homes of several officers, who arrived at the police station to confiscate phones and other personal belongings.

Michael Rains, the lawyer representing the Antioch police, said he had not received any text messages and was unaware of their alleged content.

Racial conflict has been simmering for years in the Northern California city of about 100,000 as gentrification in the West Bay area has uprooted residents of San Francisco, Oakland and Richmond and moved them to the deep East Bay.

Antioch had 65% white population in 2000. According to census data, the black population has grown from 10% to 20% over the past two decades, the Times notes, while white residents make up 39% and Latinos or Hispanics 34.5%. percent of city residents.

According to Mayor Thorpe, the Antioch Police Department would absolutely face staffing issues due to the number of officers currently on furlough. But if that’s what they’re doing (making racist and homophobic lyrics), he said, I don’t want them here.

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