NAACP chapter retracts its claim about union leader

‘ We appreciate the retraction from the NAACP,’ the deputies union said in a statement

SANJOSE » The president of the San Jose/ Silicon Valley chapter of the NAACP issued a statement Thursday saying he was wrong when he claimed earlier this year that the president of the Santa Clara County deputies union used a racial slur to describe Asian Americans.

The NAACP president, Rev. Jethroe Moore, had made the claim about union president Don Morrissey, saying that “in a sworn deposition he (Morrissey) admitted to using the word ‘gooks’ to describe Asian-Americans.”

Moore’s formal retraction came after the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association called the allegation “libelous” and sent a cease-anddesist letter to the NAACP.

“Through this current press release, I, on behalf of myself and the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, am issuing a formal retraction of that statement,” according to Thursday’s press release about the retraction.

The DSA commended the group for the retraction.

“We appreciate the retraction fromthe NAACP,” the statement said. “This is an important step toward building a more productive relationship between the organization and the union.”

However, Moore’s statement also said he and the organization stand behind the primary message of the February press release. The group called for the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association to release hundreds of racist texts exchanged by a group of deputies and jail guards. Moore also had questioned Morrissey’s fitness to serve as union president.

In response to the NAACP’s call to release the texts, a DSA spokesman said

Thursday that the union does not have them.

Morrissey coujld not be reached for comment. But his lawyer, Gregg Adams, said he and the union leader cannot release the texts — even in redacted form— because they are part of multiple, ongoing personnel investigations.

Morrissey was cleared by an independent investigator of sending racist texts, but he did admit in a depo- sition viewed by this news organization to chiming in — without using any racist language — to two strings of messages riddled with racist slurs against Vietnamese and African-Americans.

Sheriff Laurie Smith demoted Morrissey from ser- geant to deputy for failing to to report that jail guards he worked with were exchanging the viletexts — both on the job and off duty — including images of swastikas andKuKluxKlanmembers in pointy white hoods. Morrissey’s demotion — for violating his duty to report misconduct that could discredit the Sheriff’s Office — included a 15 percent pay cut and will ultimately reduce the size of his pension.

Morrissey has acknowledged he did not stop the ring but contends the demotion was unduly harsh.

An arbitrator recently sided with Smith and upheld the demotion.

The sheriff fired the president of the correctional officers’ union, Lance Scimeca, for sendingmany of the racist texts.