Police officers in California reportedly sent several text messages to one another that were sexually explicit and at one point called a person suspected of having COVID-19, “outbreak monkey.”
Six officers from the Eureka Police Department were members of the chat, according to a Wednesday report from the Sacramento Bee. The department’s chief, Steve Watson, said he wasn’t aware of the messages until they were sent to him by the outlet and that an investigation into the texts has been launched.
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Two of the officers, Sgt. Rodrigo Reyna-Sanchez and Officer Mark Meftah, appear to have been the ones most commonly engaged in the vulgar comments, according to the report.
In one exchange, Reyna-Sanchez appeared to mock homeless people having sex in public. The outlet provided pictures of those texts.
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“Oh boy!! Trog sex!!!” he wrote.
“Hey sex is sex, you put that s— on front of me ima watch,” Meftah responded. “And i did, for like 10 minutes …”
In another exchange, the officers reportedly discussed a woman who is known to shoplift and has a history of mental health issues.
“Get pics of her rack!!” Reyna-Sanchez wrote.
“Saggy ol udders,” Meftah responded.
“Have her stand on her head!!” Reyna-Sanchez wrote back.
To which Meftah allegedly replied, “I’d still look, obviously.”
On July 4, officers were called to respond to an incident involving a woman who reportedly had a history of mental illness. The Eureka Police Department told the Washington Examiner that Meftah was the officer who responded. It is unclear whether this was the same woman addressed in the other texts.
“She sounds hot!!!” Reyna-Sanchez said, according to screenshots of the conversation. “In this cold chill, I bet she got some hard nipples!!!” adding, “If she’s going to insist I going topless, she needs to get her some 44DDs!!! And not the 38 longs she has!!! They look like beaver tails!!”
In April 2020, Reyna-Sanchez allegedly told the group that they had been asked to check on a resident of the area who was believed to have contracted COVID-19.
“My plan if I had to go there was to knock as lightly as humanly possible on the door, give him an eighth of a second to answer, and then leave,” Meftah allegedly said.
Reyna-Sanchez later updated the group, reportedly saying, “So the outbreak monkey on L st has been contacted by eoc and is code 4… evidently they just called him until he answered and they’re good with that.”
After a man, who was arrested with an arsenal of loaded guns, a silencer, and other equipment, including body armor that previously belonged to Reyna-Sanchez, was released from jail, the sergeant allegedly wrote, “He also had one of my tac vests that I had loaned to code enforcement!! Face shoot the f—–!!!”
In January, Meftah allegedly wrote to the group, discussing a planned response to a protest that month.
“I’ll beat those f—— hippies down,” he said.
Reyna-Sanchez did not respond to the Bee‘s requests for comment. Meftah responded to the outlet in what appears to have been a text intended for Reyna-Sanchez.
“Dude left a voice mail, too,” he said, questioning what someone was “trying to do (to) us/you???”
“Well, that’s awkward…” Meftah wrote, seconds later.
When asked about the texts, he said, “Ah, well, I’ve no comment on that. None of that sounds familiar,” adding, “I’m going to terminate our conversation as I’m preparing to drive.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“There’s no excuse if these comments were made,” Watson said in an interview with the outlet. “We need to investigate it, look into it, and take appropriate action just to make sure that the values of this department to our community are projected in everything that we do.”
Brittany Powell, a public information officer for the department, told the Washington Examiner that the department’s chief would issue a statement later on Wednesday. She did not say whether any officer had been suspended in light of the reporting.
