BOY Areo hires in EPD text probe
Days after an article from the Sacramento Bee unveiled a series of “violent, sexually explicit and demeaning messages” between a squad of six Eureka police officers, the city hired San Francisco Bay Area law firm Sacks, Ricketts & Case LLP to conduct an independent, third-party investigation.
Sacks, Ricketts & Case LLP specializes in internal investigations, specifically “nuanced public sector investigations” involving the application of the California Public Safety Officers’ Bill of Rights Acts to investigations and administrative disciplinary processes, according to its website.
Eureka Police Chief Steve Watson shared a copy of the March 19 agreement with the Times-standard on Wednesday afternoon.
The agreement, signed by City Manager Miles Slattery, City Clerk Pamela Powell and City Attorney Robert Black, said the firm will “conduct an impartial administrative investigation” into the EPD officers who engaged in “inappropriate text messaging.”
“As an independent contractor, the firm has the right to determine the means, manner, and findings related to the investiga
tion,” the agreement said. “The city agrees to allow the firm full discretion to undertake the investigation and otherwise make findings without influencing or interfering with the outcome.”
The firm noted that it will provide the city with “substantially discounted public sector rates” ranging from $125 to $350 an hour and for any travel to time to be billed at half the hourly rates.
Reached by email on Wednesday evening, Watson underscored the need for a thorough and transparent investigation into the matter, adding EPD is “taking this situation with the full gravity it deserves.”
“I share in the community’s distress and disappointment as does the (Eureka Police Officers’ Association),” Watson told the Times-standard on Wednesday afternoon. “As previously communicated, we have already quickly launched an independent, outside, third-party investigation into these text messaging accusations and related concerns. We are fully committed to this process and the appropriate, legally supported outcome.”
Two of the officers in the squad, Sgt. Rodrigo Reyna-sanchez and Officer Mark Meftah, were put on paid administrative leave immediately after the Sacramento Bee’s story broke on March 17.
In the time since, protestors and a Change.org petition have called for the two accused officers to be fired citing “an extensive history of misconduct.”
“Regardless of a petition for signatures, we are obligated by law to follow policy and legal requirements for employee due process rights,” Watson said. “All officers within the department, like all public employees also have due process rights regarding their employment position. The City needs to respect the constitutional rights of all its employees, including any individuals who might have been involved in the text messages.”
As previously reported by the Times-standard, the Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act “provides each police officer in the state of California with specific rights to ensure a fair and complete investigation prior to the issuance of any discipline.”
“Additionally, the penal code and evidence code prohibit the City from publicly discussing any police officer’s performance or discipline,” Watson said. “Therefore it is the city’s policy and legal requirement not to comment regarding ongoing investigations or identify officers who may be subject to disciplinary investigations.”
Watson reiterated that he is “saddened and deeply concerned about the nature of the reports” revealed in the Sacramento Bee article but said he is “eager to get to the bottom of this and take appropriate action based on a fair but thorough fact-finding process.”
“Again, we are taking this very seriously. There is no room inside the city for the kind of language, behavior, and thinking referenced in the Sacramento Bee article,” Watson said. “What was reported does not reflect the professional standards and values to which we hold our public servants.”