A former police officer was found guilty of extorting marijuana and money from California drivers more than three years after another officer admitted guilt in the plan. Both men were pretending to be federal agents.
Federal court records show that starting in December 2017, Joseph Huffaker and Brendan Jacy Tatum, who were both working as police officers in Rohnert Park, pulled over cars they thought had a lot of marijuana and told them “they were federal agents to scare them.”
According to the prosecutors, the officers were not in uniform or on job when they stopped the cars, and they did not have body cameras on them.
prosecutors say that Huffaker and Tatum told drivers that they worked for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and then took their cash and weed. Prosecutors wrote in court papers that both men then sold the marijuana they were accused of stealing during the illegal seizures.
Attorneys for the government said that they would try to arrest people who “contested the property seizures.”
Four counts of conspiracy to commit extortion, extortion, conspiracy to falsify records in a federal investigation, falsifying records in a federal investigation, conspiracy to impersonate a federal officer, and impersonating a federal officer were found guilty of Huffaker, 40, of Rohnert Park on July 11. The news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California said this.
McClatchy News asked Huffaker’s lawyers for reaction on July 14, but they did not respond right away.
U.S. Attorney’s Office says Tatum, who was also charged with the crime, pleaded guilty in December 2021. Tatum’s lawyer, Stuart Hanlon, told McClatchy News that he testified against Huffaker in court.
Hanlon, who was hired by Tatum, said in an email on July 14: “Soon after his arrest, Jacy Tatum took responsibility for his illegal and criminal actions as a police officer in Rohnert Park. He pleaded guilty to all charges and retired from the police force.”
Hanlon also said, “He hoped his good friend Joe Huffaker would do the same, but he didn’t.” “Mr. Tatum knew that as part of taking responsibility, Tatum had agreed to tell the truth in Huffaker’s trial, which included saying that Joe had been involved in the crime.”
In February 2018, someone told the FBI that they had “been shaken down by police officers on the highway.” This is when the FBI started to look into Huffaker and Tatum.
About two months before, Huffaker and Tatum were accused of stealing 23 pounds of marijuana from a driver during a traffic stop on December 18, 2017. Court papers say they told the driver they would arrest him if he didn’t give up the drugs.
Lawyers for the government say Huffaker worked for the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety from 2012 to 2019. It takes about 50 miles to drive northwest from San Francisco to get to Rohnert Park.
Prosecutors say that from 2014 to 2017, the police had a “interdiction team” whose main job was to stop cars “along Highway 101 between Cloverdale and Rohnert Park in order to seize illegal drugs.”
As per the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Huffaker and Tatum were charged with exporting “significant quantities” of cannabis from drivers about 11 months after the department stopped the interdiction team.
Prosecutors say Tatum and Huffaker lied about a traffic stop and marijuana arrest in December 2017 so the FBI would not look into the citizen’s report of a drug deal on the highway.
Prosecutors say they then gave the false report to the FBI agent in charge of the probe.
While Huffaker is free on bond, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said that he will be sentenced on October 15.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian said, “No traffic stop should turn into a walk-around.”
“Huffaker’s actions made many law enforcement agencies suspicious, but thankfully they moved quickly to look into it and find his plan,” Missakian said.
The meeting for Tatum’s sentence is set for September 3, according to the prosecutors.
Tatum knows that he could go to jail, Hanlon told McClatchy News.
Hanlon said, “He doesn’t like that Huffaker was found guilty and wishes that Tatum had admitted to his crimes so Tatum wouldn’t have had to testify.”
Tatum was linked to the case, so Hanlon said he and his wife started an egg business and another business to help with California wildfires.
“He had been a great police officer for 13 years before he did these bad things,” Hanlon said. “Saying he feels bad about them is not enough to show how sorry he is.” Now, the only thing he can do is accept his sentence and start building his new life.
