ANTIOCH, Calif. — For years, Antioch Police Department officers routinely used private text messaging groups to flout their racist views, using slurs in front of superiors without fear of reprisal.
The horrific language was also common at work, the texts show, even in front of internal affairs investigators. Officers joked about harming Black residents — one offered to buy a “steak dinner” for anyone who shot Mayor Lamar Thorpe with a projectile used on protesters. Others joked about committing civil rights violations and eliciting false confessions.
The comments were met with laughter, indifference or praise, according to a 21-page report obtained by the Mercury News that details dozens of racist texts shared between nearly two dozen officers over two years.
“I’ll bury that n-----r in my fields,” Sgt. Joshua Evans texted Officer Morteza Amiri on April 24, 2020, according to the report. He later added, “And yes….it was a hard R on purpose.”
“Haha there’s no accidents with you on that,” Amiri responded.
The 21-page report, authored by Contra Costa District Attorney Senior Inspector Larry Wallace and obtained on Tuesday, is one of two such documents. The second one, which remains out of the public’s view for now, reportedly contains attempts at humor alongside pictures of Black men, hospitalized with injuries caused by Antioch officers, according to multiple people who’ve seen the report firsthand.
In the text messages, at least one officer openly admitted to being a racist, while others made remarks that left little doubt, according to the report. One of the officers even boasted to a colleague at another city that he can use the N-word “even in group messages with supervisors and IA (internal affairs) sergeants” without repercussions.
The messages contain references to Black people as “gorillas,” “monkeys,” and “water buffalo,” and numerous homophobic slurs. In February 2021, Officer Eric Rombough texted Evans, “At least I got to 40 that f-----,” referring to the use of a gun that fires rubber projectiles.
The texts were discovered amid an ongoing FBI and Contra Costa District Attorney criminal investigation of more than a dozen current and former Antioch and Pittsburg police officers. A federal grand jury is currently weighing charging officers with assault under color of authority, fraud, distribution of steroids and cocaine, as well as eliciting false confessions and accepting bribes to make traffic tickets go away.
On Friday, Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Clare Maier agreed the texts should be released to attorneys in a four-defendant gang attempted murder case, without a protection order. Maier ruled that the material, while offensive, did not deserve the same protections as details of the criminal probe.
In one text message regarding a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020, an officer texted other officers that he would buy a prime rib dinner at a fancy San Francisco steakhouse to anyone who uses a .40 mm launcher — one with less lethal sponge bullets — at Mayor Thorpe.
When told of the text messages, Thorpe told the Mercury News he was “blown away” by it.
“Here I am trusting them. There are times where I’ve asked the police department to circle by house, because my daughter’s there by herself,” Thorpe said Tuesday. “And this is the type of animus they have toward people like me and my daughter? I’m just so disgusted right now. I can’t even describe it.”
Councilman Mike Barbanica, a retired Pittsburg police officer, said he wanted to wait for the investigation to play out all the way through before commenting on the scandal in detail.
“I don’t support in any way any racist-type comments or statements and things of that nature,” Barbanica said. “But, if an officer is going to be held accountable, I don’t want to step out and start making comments and possibly create a situation where that officer can no longer have to be held accountable.”
A call to Michael Rains, an attorney who represents Antioch police officers, was not immediately returned.
In December 2020, Rombough texted Evans, “I was bummed that beast was so fat cuz he didn’t bruise up very fast,” referring to a Black man who was ultimately charged with a felony in federal court, only to have the case dismissed when Romough’s alleged crimes were discovered.
“It never looks good on black (sic) guys,” Evans responded, according to the report. Rombough reportedly shot back, “Just like jobs and responsibilities.”
In one exchange, Evans acknowledged that a woman “called me a racist cop.” Sgt. Rick Hoffman, the president of the city’s police union, laughed at the comment and said, “Well, she has a point.”
“I never said I took offense to it,” Evans answered. Then another officer, Tom Smith, chimed in, adding that “Josh isn’t a racist. He just hates women.”
Hoffman’s remark was one of only two mentioned in the report. The other refers to a text in 2021 that read, “If anyone tries to grab my personal phone I’m gonna smash it,” after a colleague shared a news story about the Oakland Police Department seizing police officers’ phones in the wake of a social media scandal there.
Following the murder of Floyd in Minneapolis, Rombough texted a civilian a meme making light of Floyd’s death.
Referring to a young woman who is a prominent police reform advocate in Antioch, Evans made a racist and sexualized remark in September 2020. Later that month, patrol officers Calvin Prieto and Andrea Rodriguez talked about aggressively ticketing Black people. In March 2021, Officer Jonathan Adams, referring to Black people, wrote, “Bro. They all look the same” and Rombough responded, “I feel like I’m at the zoo.”
In November 2020, Officer Brock Marcotte asked a group of colleagues what they were up to. Rombough responded, “Violating civil rights,” according to the report.
Rombough is one of the Antioch officers on leave while the FBI investigates him and six others. Devon Wenger, Rombough, Rodriguez, Prieto, and Amiri remain on unpaid leave over the criminal investigation, while two others under investigation — Tim Manly and Daniel Harris — have resigned, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
The texts weren’t limited to the Antioch police department’s inner circle. Amiri texted a Brentwood officer, “Since we don’t have video I sometimes just say people gave me a full confession when they didn’t. Gets filed easier.” That remark was made in April 2020, roughly a year before the City Council voted to equip Antioch officers with body cameras.
Seven months later, Amiri told the same officer, “It’s commonly used around the PD (police department),” referring to the N-word. When she responded, telling him, “Given the time I wouldn’t say that out loud,” Amiri doubled down, the report says.
“Even in group messages with supervisors and IA Sgt’s,” Amiri reportedly wrote back. “Matter of fact it was said just today in our group thread with multiple supervisors in it.”
When asked what should happen to those involved in the exchange of racist comments, Mayor Thorpe had a clear message.
“They shouldn’t be in this department – that’s for sure,” he said. “Every last one of them. Whoever knew should not be here. Whoever kept quiet, we don’t need them. They can go for all I care. We don’t need them here.”
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