Amid sheriff’s race, text scandal revived
New trove of racist slurs between deputies surface in middle of close, contentious election
The president of the union that represents deputies in Santa Clara County has appealed an arbitrator’s decision to uphold his demotion for failing to report that jail guards he worked with were exchanging vile racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic slurs, including images of swastikas and Ku Klux Klan members in pointy white hats.
But by filing the long- shot legal challenge after Sheriff Laurie Smith stripped him of his sergeant’s stripes, Deputy Don Morrissey has exposed to public scrutiny a new set of deeply disturbing text messages that would not have come to light otherwise.
The controversy is playing out during a bitter election battle between Smith, who is seeking her sixth term in office, and retired undersheriff John Hirokawa, who is backed by Morrissey and the union. Smith demoted Mor- rissey in 2016 on the grounds that he failed to stop the guards and a fellow sergeant from sharing the bigotedmessages both on the job and off duty.
This news organization first reported the existence of the texts in 2015, touching off a wave of outrage and horror in the community, which was already reeling from the death of a mentally ill inmate at the hands of three jail guards who were ultimately convicted of murder. The trove of new texts was first reported by Metro.
Former Oakland police chief Howard Jordan, who investigated the text ring, concluded
that Morrissey did not send any of the illicit texts, but noted that he wrote “Hahaha” in response to a lower-ranking deputy’s text, which contained a racist slur against AfricanAmericans. The text read, “Child molester and a (racist slur)??? Justified shoot.”
Texts that surfaced in 2015 referred to Vietnamese as “g—-,’’ Jews as “k—-,’’ and black people as “n——” and “yard apes.” In the latest batch to become public, about eight deputies, including a former correctional union president who was fired, made numerous references to the prominent black slur and other thinly veiled bigoted remarks like “Happy Birthday, Buckwheat.”
After the Metro report ran, Morrissey resigned as secretary of the Peace Officers Research Association of California. Thursday, he defended himself in an email to his union membership, and showed no indication he planned
“Nobody in the department has ever been disciplined for failing to report off-duty speech. The interesting issue, once you get past this salacious stuff, is towhat extent cananemployer require employees to report on private communications on personal devices.” — Gregg Adam, Morrissey’s attorney
to renounce his presidency.
He wrote that “Smith has nothing to offer but to resurrect a series of text messages sent in 2014 through 2015 that I have previously strongly condemned and reflected on soberly with regret and motivation to learn from.”
This news organization first reported in January the arbitration over Morrissey’s demotion for failing to report the illicit behavior.
Morrissey’s appeal contends that he should have been allowed to present a privacy and Fourth Amendment argument in his defense on the grounds that the text messages were sent off- duty and on the personal cellphones of its participants.
“Nobody in the department has ever been disciplined for failing to report off- duty speech,” said Gregg Adam, Morrissey’s attorney. “The interesting issue, once you get past this salacious stuff, is to what extent can an employer require employees to report on private communications on personal devices. We didn’t get our day in court with the arbitrator.”
In a veiled shot at her November opponent — in her first runoff since she was first elected in 1998 — Smith argued Thursday that the demotion was justified, if not lenient.
“This is not a question of First Amendment rights or any other excuse. This is about right versus wrong and you cannot defend the indefensible,” Smith said in a statement. “As sheriff, I think they all should have been fired for their abhorrent behavior and for anyone to say a demotion is too severe of a penalty lacks the judgment to be sheriff.”
Hirokawa said his testimony in the Morrissey arbitration, which occurred after he retired in 2016, was limited to procedural questions about disciplinary protocols.
In his deposition for Morrissey’s demot ion case, Hirokawa equivocated about whether there is an obligation for sworn personnel to report racist remarks if they are made off duty, and that context would have to be clarified, such as whether it was part of banter. But he said Thursday that his exposure to the lurid details of the racist and sexist texts came in large part through media reports and that he would want to be privy to the same information as Smith before issuing any condemnations.
“I was shocked by in regards to the details of the texting, if accurate,” Hirokawa said. “Based on the volume of textings, I would say ( Morrissey) had a duty to report. Just taken at face value, I would say that for the union itself, it would appear at this time that he should step down. But before I start calling for that, I would want to know more information in regards towhat this appeal is all about.”
The racist texts surfaced in 2015 when the Sheriff’s Office — acting on a search warrant — seized the cellphone of Deputy Ryan Saunders, who was suspected of associating with a known member of the Hells Angels motorcycle gang. When this news organization exposed the texts, it infuriated the community, which was already reeling from the death of mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree at the hands of three jail guards who were ultimately convicted of murder.
About five years ago, Smith demoted Morrissey from lieutenant to sergeant after investigators concluded he had viewed pornography on a work computer and had tried to persuade an employee to conceal the evidence.
Hirokawa batted back notions that he is aligned with Morrissey by virtue of the union’s endorsement of his campaign. He noted that the union endorsed the previous challenger to Smith, retired Sheriff’s captain Kevin Jensen.
“He is one member,” Hirokawa said, referring to Morrissey. “They believe in me, and they see hope in me. I’m not going to discount them as an entire unit because of the act of one.”
Rev. Jethroe “Jef f ” Moore, president of the San Jose/ Silicon Valley NAACP, renewed his calls forMorrissey to step down.
“To be a leader, you have to cut it off or be removed from leadership. He has not demonstrated the ability to pull away from negative group dynamics,” he said. “Hate is hate, and right is right. You have to call them on it.”