ALAMEDA, Calif. — More than a dozen police officers are under investigation in a racist text messaging probe that has rocked the Northern California city of Antioch, an investigative report released Thursday show.
A judge released the investigative report compiled by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office that included the partly redacted messages after a joint FBI and local investigation into the city’s police department.
The messages, which were sent in 2020 and 2021, detail officers’ allegedly using racial epithets and homophobic slurs, sharing racist images and casually discussing the use of “less lethal” weapons on people, including the city’s mayor, who is Black.
The majority of the roughly 114,000 residents of Antioch, about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco, are minorities.
The messages could have far-reaching implications for criminal cases linked to the officers. Authorities provided the messages last week to defense lawyers for four men charged with murder and other crimes after two of the accused were named in the messages.
An attorney for one of the men said Thursday the messages could undermine the officers’ credibility in hundreds of convictions, if not more.
“Right now there are people sitting in jail based on the word of these officers who’ve been involved in using this horribly offensive language,” said Evan Kuluk, the deputy public defender for Contra Costa County. “That is an intolerable situation.”
In a message included in the investigative report and dated April 29, 2020, Officer Morteza Amiri told an officer from a nearby department that because his agency does not record interviews on video, “I sometimes just say people gave me a full confession when they didn’t.”
“Gets filed easier,” Amiri said, according to the report.
Amiri did not respond to a request for comment Thursday night.
In another message, sent April 24, 2020, Sgt. Josh Evans allegedly used a racist slur for a Black person and said he would bury the person…
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