Former Rohnert Park officer pleads not guilty to new federal charges

A former Rohnert Park police officer accused of taking part in a notorious North Coast plot to shake down motorists for pot and cash has pleaded not guilty to additional federal charges filed against him in an extortion case that also involves a former sergeant.

Joseph Huffaker entered his plea Thursday in the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California, according to federal court records. His hearing lasted about three minutes.

Earlier this month, a grand jury indicted him on charges of impersonating a federal officer, falsifying records and aiding and abetting.

Huffaker, who was employed by the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety from 2012 to 2019, was indicted last year on federal charges of conspiracy to commit extortion and extortion under color of law.

A status and trial-setting hearing is scheduled for Jan. 18 before Judge Maxine M. Chesney in San Francisco.

A second defendant, Brendan “Jacy” Tatum, pleaded guilty Dec. 1, 2021, to federal extortion charges in his role as a peace officer, falsifying police reports and tax evasion. He was indicted in September 2021 and is scheduled to be sentenced April 26.

Tatum led the city’s controversial asset seizure efforts, aimed to disrupt the flow of illegal drugs into the county. His work netted Rohnert Park hundreds of thousands of dollars, but prosecutors said he and Huffaker teamed up on traffic stops along Highway 101 where seized marijuana and cash was either unreported or went missing.

Tatum was accused of extorting at least $3,700 in cash and 85 pounds of marijuana from motorists. Huffaker is accused of being involved in at least two of these alleged incidents.

Tatum led Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety’s Drug Interdiction Team from 2014 until 2017. Team members were tasked with conducting traffic stops to seize illegal drugs — efforts that were in addition to their regular duties.

Members of the Drug Interdiction Team were required to document and submit seized property as evidence. According to department protocol, Sonoma County judges had to sign off on any destroyed narcotics.

Federal prosecutors said Huffaker and Tatum shook down drivers on Highway 101 for cash, pot and property without documenting the stops or the evidence they seized.

Prosecutors allege the men pretended to be agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The defendants allowed motorists to go if they did not contest the seizures, and did not report the contraband to their department.

“In these instances, the officers were not on duty, did not have body-worn cameras, were not in uniform and wore no insignia indicating they were with the Rohnert Park department, claimed to be ATF agents, and did not use a marked RPDPS police vehicle,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.

Rohnert Park’s police force reported taking in more than $2.4 million between 2015 and 2017 through asset forfeitures, more than any other local law enforcement agency.

Authorities began to investigate the team in 2018 when a driver reported that he’d been unlawfully stopped and his marijuana taken by suspicious officers. More complaints from other motorists followed.

Following the conspiracy allegations first reported in 2018 by North Coast journalist Kym Kemp and KQED and broadened in an investigation by The Press Democrat, the Rohnert Park agency was thrown into tumult. Tatum resigned amid an internal investigation and then-Public Safety Director Brian Masterson abruptly retired. Huffaker was paid $75,000 to resign in 2019 after an internal investigation found he had engaged in misconduct.

In early 2020, Rohnert Park paid $1.5 million to settle federal civil rights lawsuits filed by motorists who accused Tatum and Huffaker of robbing them of money and marijuana after they were pulled over on Highway 101 near the Mendocino County line.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi