A court hearing to determine whether Northern California police officers who traded racist text messages violated a state law aimed at eliminating racism in the criminal justice system began Friday, with up to eight officers expected to take the stand...
Defense attorneys for four men charged with murder and attempted murder in a 2021 shooting subpoenaed the officers to testify about heavily redacted text messages made public in April by the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office. The attorneys were expected to argue before Judge David Goldstein that their clients, two of them mentioned in the text messages, were unfairly targeted based on their race.
Antioch Police Chief Steven Ford was also subpoenaed to testify, but Goldstein ruled Friday he did not need to appear because his testimony was not relevant to whether the officers sent the texts or showed racial bias when investigating and arresting the men on trial. Ford was not the police chief at the time.
Mathew Martinez, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said the officers were subpoenaed so they could explain in court why they sent the texts. But “they’re all unavailable, indefinitely,” he said.
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