ANTIOCH — The eight Antioch police officers lately positioned on go away by the town embrace investigators who texted one another racist remarks about Black males they had been investigating for alleged gang crimes, prosecutors confirmed in open court docket Tuesday morning.
Now, this newest scandal may end in fees being dismissed towards 4 males accused of conspiracy to commit homicide for an East Oakland-based gang.
At a Tuesday morning court docket listening to for 4 alleged members of the ENT gang, Contra Costa Assistant District Lawyer Simon O’Connell stated he would quickly disclose texts containing specific racism by Antioch police investigators that particularly referenced the defendants. However whether or not the disclosures shall be made underneath a court docket protecting order will not be but decided.
O’Connell confirmed as much as court docket with packets of paper roughly two inches thick and apparently containing textual content messages through which racist and different problematic language was allegedly utilized by officers. He informed a Contra Costa decide the messages had been found by an ongoing FBI and Contra Costa DA investigation into eight different Antioch officers for alleged crimes that embrace civil rights violations, fraud, bribery, and involvement in medicine.
The felony investigation — which has resulted in a grand jury listening to to think about indicting not less than a dozen present and former Antioch and Pittsburg officers — has already led to dozens of fees being dismissed in each federal and state court docket. However these dismissals happened as a result of prosecutors may decide they might not depend on the testimony of impugned arresting officers.
These newest revelations, against this, contained “unambiguous racial animus” directed particularly at Black males who had been later charged with crimes, O’Connell stated in court docket Tuesday.
The 4 defendants, Terryonn Pugh, 22, Eric Windom, 23, Keyshawn McGee, 24, and Trent Allen, 22, had been charged in August 2021 with conspiracy to homicide a number of gang rivals, in addition to two counts of tried homicide, in reference to a March 9, 2021 taking pictures in Antioch. Three different alleged gang members had been charged on a separate docket with homicide, as a part of the identical investigation right into a gang rivalry that spanned from Oakland to Antioch.
Even earlier than the revelations about racist textual content messages, the protection crew had already filed motions to dismiss fees towards the 4 underneath the Racial Justice Act, arguing there was proof of disparate therapy of Black males within the felony justice system. With ultimate arguments in these motions scheduled for April 12, the protection will now have time to beef up their motions with the textual content message disclosures.
“If there are racial overtones…clearly the protection ought to be capable of use it,” Araceli Ramirez, a lawyer standing in for McGee’s legal professional, stated in court docket Tuesday. “I feel this goes to the guts of (police) credibility.”
The eight officers on go away for alleged racism be a part of seven others who stay on go away as a result of FBI investigation — plus others who resigned after studying of the felony investigation — which have left a serious hole within the Antioch police division’s ranks. It's unclear how their absence will have an effect on the division and whether or not it might want to ask for help from outdoors businesses. The officers embrace patrol cops, SWAT crew members and detectives, a number of officers with firsthand data have informed this newspaper.
Antioch police Chief Steven Ford posted a response to the allegations final week, which he known as “a really unlucky state of affairs” and urged that the officers be afforded their “due course of” and “not tried within the court docket of public opinion.”
“Essential to notice, as a company we at all times attempt to be of service and interact in truthful and neutral policing practices,” Ford wrote.
And whereas the chief famous the division plans to “associate with a bunch of inside and exterior community-based sources to anchor a city-wide method to public security,” he didn't handle whether or not the town would want to ask for out of doors help as a result of extra officers on go away.
In the meantime the Antioch Police Officers Affiliation’s legal professional, Mike Rains, stated the investigation into the officers was not felony in nature however somewhat a “confidential personnel matter” and chided Mayor Lamar Thorpe for holding a information convention final week to announce extra officers had been on go away.
Councilman Mike Barbanica, a retired Pittsburg police officer, in the meantime addressed the controversy in a YouTube video, saying he was “very involved about staffing ranges” and acknowledged that the town “can't proceed to run a 24-7 operation the place we're continually being depleted.”
“My concern is the long run and security of the town,” he stated, noting that he thinks the town might want to search for help from allied businesses. “There are many businesses within the space that may help.”
On Monday, Mayor Professional-Tem Tamisha Torres-Walker known as out previous metropolis councils for not insisting on accountability inside the police division, which she stated lacked judicial oversight. Torres-Walker famous there have been many complaints over time of racism and brutality within the Antioch Police Division however individuals have been “keen to miss crimes that legislation enforcement commit.”