ANTIOCH — Five police officers linked to the Antioch Police Department’s racist texting scandal appear to be dodging subpoenas by falsely claiming that they are too injured to testify about the incendiary messages, an attorney claimed in court Friday.
The officers appear to be living it up — attending “pool parties” and “driving tractors” — despite their assertions in sworn documents that they could not appear in court due to “industrial injuries,” attorney Carmela Caramagno told a Contra Costa County judge on Friday.
The allegations came during the first in-depth court airing of the racist text messages — one of a series of scandals plaguing Antioch law enforcement. The contents of the text messages — and the officers’ habit of sending and receiving them with apparent impunity — rests at the core of a challenge the attorneys are making to charges against four men charged with multiple gang-related crimes — two of whom are mentioned in the officers’ texts.
The attorneys contend that the under the state’s Racial Justice Act, all four men — Terryonn Pugh, Trent Allen, Eric Windom and Keyshawn McGee — were unfairly charged, due to racist policing practices within the Antioch Police Department. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge David Goldstein has already tossed sentencing enhancements against the men, citing the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office’s apparent unfair targeting of Black people in their charging decisions.
Goldstein’s decision on the underlying...
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