President of union resigns over scandal
Morrissey out; current sheriff’s deputies union vice president Winslow is interim president until election
SAN JOSE » The president of the union that represents Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies resigned Thursday over his part in a racisttexts scandal, the second leader of an association that represents sheriff’s employees to lose his position over the exchange of vile messages denigrating people of color first reported three years ago by this news organization.
Deputy Don Morrissey’s resignation was a long-sought victory for embattled Sheriff Laurie Smith, who is seeking her sixth termin office without the support of the rank-and-file officers who belong to the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association. Several African-Ameri- can deputies, as well as the president of the local chapter of the NAACP, had called on Morrissey to resign.
Morrissey will lose the $800 a month stipend that the union paid him to serve. The current vice president of the DSA, Roger Winslow, will serve as interim president until an election is held later this year. In a brief written statement, Winslow said the leadership of the group will “be guided by a steadfast com-
mitment to the safety and security of our members, accountability across our department, and responsive engagement with the diverse community we are privileged to serve.”
In a letter sent to DSA members late Thursday, Morrissey said he hoped his resignation would pave theway for the group towin back community trust “on which every one of our deputies depends.”
“Within our association and the broader law enforcement community, leaders must not only set an example, but demand accountability when we fall short,” he wrote. “That accountability must start with me.”
The statement was met with strong words by the sheriff. Late Thursday, she criticized Morrissey for failing to fully own up to his misconduct. “Mr. Morrissey continues to deflect, distort, and distract from his complicity (in the exchange of) racist, homophobic, and sexually assaultive text messages,’’ Smith said. “His latest attempt at reputational self- preservation disparages the entire Sheriff’s Office with its reckless and unfounded accusation of institutional bias. Unbelievably, he then appoints himself as the individual to rebuild trust with the community, trust that he, as an individual, has broken. “Giveme a break -- the public is a hell of a lot smarter than Mr. Morrissey gives them credit for,’’ the state- ment concluded, “and they will see right through his latest smoke screen.”
Smith f ired Lance Scimeca, former president of the correctional officers union, shortly after the racist texts first surfaced in 2015 during an unrelated investigation for sending some of the most explicit slurs. On Thursday, the sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Morrissey had been cleared by an independent African-American investigator of sending overtly racist texts, but Smith stripped him of his sergeant’s stripes in 2016 on the grounds that he failed to stop the guards and Scimeca from sharing the bigoted messages both on the job and off duty. Morrissey did admit to chiming in — without using any racist language — to two strings of messages riddled with racist slurs against Vietnamese and African-Americans.
The texts referred to Vietnamese as “g—-,’’ Jews as “k—-,’’ and black people as “n——” and “yard apes.” In one batch, Scimeca and others made numerous references using slurs against blacks and other thinly veiled bigoted remarks like “Happy Birthday, Buckwheat.” They also used homophobic and transphobic slurs, as well as images of swastikas and Ku Klux Klan members in pointy white hats.
It was the second time Smith demoted Morrissey. About five years ago, she knocked him down a notch fromlieutenant to sergeant after investigators concluded he had spent more than an hour a day looking at pornography on a work computer and had tried to persuade an employee to conceal the evidence.
Rev. JethroeMoore, president of the local chapter of the NAACP, said Thursday he was pleased Morrissey resigned but said more work had to be done to reduce prejudice in the sheriff’s office. The pastor and Morrissey had met to discuss the situation prior to his resignation, Moore said. Morrissey also met with other community leaders.
“I’m glad he stepped down for the sake of the union and the community,” Moore said, adding that he plans to ask county supervisors to institute sensitivity training for sworn officers in the agency. “It’s a dire need for many of them.”
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. A trove of new texts surfaced earlier this year and was reported by Metro, prompting Morrissey to resign as secretary of the Peace Officers Research Association of California.
The organization had sent out a statement faulting him for not disclosing his involvement in the text scandal, claiming they learned of it through the Metro story, even though the information had been readily available since this news organization reported on the arbitration battle six months ago.