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FRESHWATER SCHOOL

Open Enrollment and Registration for TK-6 begins Dec.1st!

(Openings available at all grade levels)

Registration packets & Interdistrict Transfer paperwork will be available online at www.freshwatersd.org starting on Dec.1st, 2021.

(Deadline for Interdistrict Transfer Agreements is February 1st, 2022!) • Highly Qualified Teachers • Extended Day TK-Kindergarten • Strong Language Arts Program with full time Reading Specialist • Library • Athletics Program for Grades 5-6 • Breakfast and Lunch Program • After School Program • Rural Setting provides for Outdoor

Education Opportunities • Music Program for all grades • Band Program for grades 5 & 6 • On Site Garden • Math Intervention Program • Small Class Sizes • Instructional aide in each classroom • Swimming Lessons in grades 2 & 5 • 1:1 Student to Chromebook Ratio • Enrichment Classes • Robust Summer Learning Academy • On-site Student Support Provider • Focus on Social/Emotional Learning - PBIS/Healthy Play and Restorative Practices

RETURN COMPLETED PACKETS TO:

FRESHWATER SCHOOL DISTRICT

75 GREENWOOD HTS DR EUREKA,CA 95503

Please call 707-442-2969 or email our Secretary, Stacy Mintey, at smintey@freshwatersd.org with any questions. Former Rohnert Park Sgt. Brendan “Jacy” Tatum walks into the Phillip Burton Federal Buiding and U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco. By Sukey Lewis/KQED

Ex-Rohnert Park Cop Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy

By Sukey Lewis/KQED

newsroom@northcoastjournal.com

The former head of the Rohnert Park Public Safety Department’s drug interdiction team pleaded guilty Dec. 1 to federal charges of conspiracy to commit extortion under “color of law,” falsifying records in a federal investigation and tax evasion.

Ex-Sgt. Brendan “Jacy” Tatum and his former partner, Joseph Huffaker, were both indicted by a federal grand jury in September for their role in an unlawful marijuana and asset seizure scheme uncovered by KQED in 2018.

Tatum stood straight-backed in a dark navy suit in the wood-paneled federal courtroom in San Francisco before Judge Maxine Chesney. She methodically went over the three counts of the indictment and then asked Tatum how he pleaded.

“Guilty, your honor,” he said.

Tatum declined to publicly comment at the Dec. 1 hearing. But about an hour after the court hearing, his lawyer, Stuart Hanlon, emailed KQED about Tatum’s plea.

“My client plead guilty to all charges he is facing because he is in fact guilty,” Hanlon said. “He realizes he has made huge mistakes and that there will be serious consequences for him. He is ready to face these consequences. The first step is to admit what he has done.”

Hanlon said Tatum’s career as a “good and honest police officer” will be overshadowed, adding that Tatum would “accept the judgment of the Court.” He said his client wants to try and make up for what he has done and focus on his family.

“To say he is sorry for what he has done does not come close to expressing his regret and shame,” Hanlon added. “He knows he will go to prison, but that time will end, and he will begin a next part of his life. He does not intend to let his criminal acts define who he is.”

Zeke Flatten, a Texas-based man who was the first person to come forward with allegations that he was robbed of cannabis by police officers posing as ATF as he transported south from Humboldt County, sat watching this unfold in the courtroom. After the changeof-plea hearing, Flatten said Tatum’s guilty plea marks the “beginning of the end” of the years-long case.

“It was amazing to hear him plead guilty,” Flatten said. “I think it kind of just solidified everything.”

Huffaker has so far pleaded “not guilty” to all the charges. Huffaker’s lawyers declined to comment on what Tatum’s admission of guilt means for their client.

More than three years ago KQED, in partnership with the North Coast Journal and independent journalist Kym Kemp, first reported allegations from a string of motorists who said that Rohnert Park police officers improperly seized cash and marijuana from them during traffic stops along the border of Mendocino and Sonoma counties — 40 miles north of the small suburban town of Rohnert Park.

Tatum was in charge of Rohnert Park’s drug interdiction and asset forfeiture efforts. Between 2013 and 2018, the team led by Tatum seized around $3.6 million from motorists under civil asset forfeiture provisions that allow law enforcement to take cash they suspect is connected to criminal activity. Much of that money was turned over to his department.

Tatum’s team also seized at least two and a half tons of marijuana during that time, according to documents obtained and analyzed by KQED. In 2015, Tatum was publicly recognized by the city for his efforts.

However, after motorists came forward claiming that the cannabis seized by Rohnert Park officers was being transported legally, KQED found that destruction orders for hundreds of pounds of marijuana were missing. Tatum also had a history of dishonesty and was found by a federal jury in 2018 to have violated a couple’s constitutional rights during a warrantless search.

Tatum has now pleaded guilty to using