Rohnert Park cop at center of investigation into drug seizure

Rohnert Park Public Safety Sgt. Brendon “Jacy” Tatum is no longer employed by the city amid an investigation into a mysterious drug seizure in Mendocino County, city officials said Friday.

Tatum has previously been decorated by the city for his work seizing suspected illegal drugs and cash on Highway  101, often far outside city limits, even outside Sonoma County.

But questions surrounding a December 2017 traffic stop in Mendocino County led the city earlier this year to put Tatum and another officer, Joseph Huffaker, on paid administrative leave and launch an investigation.

Zeke Flatten, the driver who was pulled over on Dec. 5 near Frog Woman Rock in southern Mendocino County, said he believes he was robbed of 3 pounds of cannabis by two police officers in an unmarked patrol vehicle.

No local, state or federal law enforcement agency has so far come forward to say its officers were involved.

Huffaker remains a city employee, Rohnert Park Assistant City Manager Don Schwartz said. He declined to describe the scope of the investigation other than to say they are looking into Flatten’s case.

“Jacy Tatum is no longer employed by the city,” Schwartz said. “I can just say two things: He’s no longer employed by the city and the investigation continues, and that’s all I can tell you.”

Tatum, 35, had served in the department for 15 years and was promoted to sergeant in 2015.

Schwartz said California laws barring release of police personnel information prohibit him from answering questions about the exact end date of Tatum’s employment or the reason for his departure, such as whether he quit or was fired. He also said those laws prevented him from describing the scope of the investigation.

“We’re investigating what happened regarding Zeke Flatten and his concerns,” Schwartz said.

Tatum’s lawyer couldn’t be reached Friday.

Flatten was pulled over on southbound Highway 101 between Hopland and Cloverdale in Mendocino County about noon Dec. 5 as he drove from Garberville to Santa Rosa. Flatten, who lived part time in California at the time and has since moved, said he was a licensed driver and had a medical marijuana recommendation issued in California.

The officers arrived in an unmarked dark SUV with California exempt license plates and wore generic police vests and no visible badges or uniforms, according to Flatten. They told Flatten they could search the vehicles of people with medical marijuana recommendations, he said.

The officers opened a sealed box they found in the trunk holding 3 pounds of cannabis Flatten said he had received from a family friend in Humboldt County. They took it and left without citing him for a traffic violation or drug crime.

“He said, ‘We’re with the ATF. Marijuana is taking over in California like cigarettes, you may get a letter from Washington,’?” according to Flatten. “He handed (over) my license and rental car contract and said, ‘Have a nice day.’?”

For six months, Flatten has been trying to figure out who pulled him over. Flatten contacted the FBI and sent letters to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and grand jury asking for an agency to step forward and identify the officers. He’s called reporters, trying to get his questions answered.

FBI spokesman Prentice Danner said the agency looked into Flatten’s complaint but dismissed it after determining Flatten didn’t seem credible because the facts in his version of what occurred on the side of the highway conflicted with those provided by the Rohnert Park Public Safety Department.

A copy of the Rohnert Park incident report received by The Press Democrat redacts the name of the driver, but Danner confirmed the name on the report was Ezekial Flatten.

“If there was an abuse of power, for sure, our public corruption squad is here for just that reason,” Danner said. “But this didn’t measure up to that.”

But those diverging facts - key details including the make and model of the vehicle, the time of day and the amount of marijuana - reveal questions about Rohnert Park police’s presence in Mendocino County and the accuracy of the department’s official police reports.

From the outset, Flatten said he believed it was tribal police with the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians who pulled him over because he viewed the tribal police department’s website and said one of the officers looked like the tribe’s then-Chief Steven Hobb.

But in February, Flatten’s name turned up on an internal Rohnert Park police report for a Dec. 5 traffic stop. Tatum was the author.

Rohnert Park officers - most notably Tatum - are known for patrolling an area known in the cannabis trade as “the Gauntlet,” the portion of Highway 101 in southern Mendocino County and northern Sonoma County viewed as a gateway between the marijuana-?growing Emerald Triangle region and the San Francisco Bay Area.

During an interview last week, a lawyer representing both Rohnert Park officers under investigation said Tatum mistakenly added Flatten’s name to a report about an incident involving another driver. That driver had 30 pounds of cannabis in a Mercedes-Benz in addition to bottles of concentrated cannabis, according to a police report obtained by The Press Democrat. Flatten was driving a Kia SUV, according to his car rental records.

Tatum wrote the police report with Flatten’s name after being asked to do so by the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, according to Justin Buffington, an attorney with Pleasant Hill-based Rains Lucia Stern St. Phalle and Silver.

Tatum apparently produced the incident report about the traffic stop weeks after it occurred, and he hadn’t documented the name of the Mercedes driver because the officers may not have checked his driver’s license through dispatch, his lawyer said.

“They got the wrong name,” Buffington said. “The name was wrong, and the date of the incident (was wrong). People make mistakes, but they rely on information given to them.”

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman said he did ask Rohnert Park police to put out information about the December traffic stop, if it was theirs, in order to clear up the confusion. Flatten had sent complaints to the Sheriff’s Office and the Mendocino County Grand Jury.

“I certainly did that because there was this discussion and underlying thought that it was someone from our agency” who pulled Flatten over, Allman said. “I can clearly say that neither the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office nor the (Mendocino) Major Crimes Task Force had any involvement with this incident.”

On Feb. 13, Tatum issued a news release about a December traffic stop on Highway 101 near the Mendocino-Sonoma county line. In the statement, he noted that “no other agencies including the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office or Hopland Tribal Police were involved or assisted with the investigation.”

Hobb, who briefly served as police chief for the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians late last year, said during an interview he was not involved in any traffic stops for law enforcement purposes on Highway 101 in December, including the one involving Flatten. Hobb said tribal police “don’t have authority to do traffic stops off the reservation.”

“The guy (Flatten) is a drug dealer, I don’t know why you’re following up on it,” Hobb said during a June 14 phone call. “Drugs are bad. Marijuana is bad. You just want to spew lies.”

Hobb said he left the tribal police chief job because the tribe’s involvement with marijuana cultivation meant “I couldn’t do my police work,” then he softened his tone, adding “there are decent people there trying to get by.” Hobb said he has a job at a different department, but he declined to say where.

Hobb said he has never collaborated with Rohnert Park Public Safety officers on drug interdiction cases or other investigations, nor has he collaborated with Mendocino County law enforcement because tribal police aren’t recognized under the same laws governing state law enforcement.

Hobb said the tribal police don’t drive the type of vehicle Flatten said was used by the officers who pulled him over - what appeared to be a dark-colored Ford Explorer Police Interceptor SUV.

“It 100 percent wasn’t me, no,” said Hobb. “That guy (Flatten) shouldn’t be trafficking marijuana.”

For his part, Flatten said he doesn’t believe Tatum was involved in his traffic stop. But he said it was wrong for Tatum to include his name on an internal police report about a criminal investigation that didn’t involve him.

“I’m pretty sure Jacy wasn’t there,” Flatten said of the day he was pulled over. “But he committed other crimes against me. He framed me when he wrote that report.”

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.