A former Rohnert Park police officer accused of stealing cash and cannabis from drivers along the Sonoma-Mendocino County border is facing new federal charges.
A superseding indictment returned Tuesday by a grand jury added four new criminal counts against Joseph Huffaker, including impersonating a federal officer and falsifying records in a federal investigation.
Prosecutors say Huffaker and at least one other officer posed as ATF agents during traffic stops where they illegally seized weed from drivers on the side of the highway, and later falsified records to cover up the corruption.
“It’s been a long time, five years ago this month,” said Zeke Flatten, who says Huffaker and a yet unidentified second individual robbed him of three pounds of marijuana in December 2017 while impersonating ATF agents during a traffic stop along Highway 101. “I’m satisfied. I’m satisfied that they’re being held accountable.”
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The new indictment sheds additional light on the government’s case against Huffaker but offered no clues pointing to the identifies of other yet unnamed officers who prosecutors say may have played a role in the thefts.
“I have faith that the Justice Department is doing a diligent job in their investigation and if the evidence will get them there, I believe that they’ll indict those individuals, too,” Flatten said.
Huffaker was originally indicted more than a year ago alongside another former Rohnert Park police officer, Brendon “Jaycee” Tatum, on counts of extortion under the color of right and conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, accused of using their police powers to shake down motorists transporting cannabis.
Both officers were members of the department’s drug interdiction team, which Tatum took charge of in 2016, according to prosecutors.
Tatum pled guilty to three felonies last year, but Huffaker continues to maintain his innocence. He declined to comment on the new indictment as he left the courtroom with his attorney Wednesday afternoon.
The new charges come with an additional 33 years of potential prison time for Huffaker, who spent seven years with the department before resigning in 2019 amid a cloud of scandal.
Flatten went public with his story to independent Humboldt County journalist Kym Kemp in February 2018 and filed reports with federal law enforcement agencies.
According to prosecutors, the public scrutiny led Tatum and Huffaker to falsify a police report and issue a bogus Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety press release in an attempt to discredit Flatten’s account and throw federal agents off their trail.
Until now, only Tatum had been charged with falsifying records, one of the counts he pled guilty to last year.
Flatten and three Mendocino County marijuana farmers filed a RICO conspiracy lawsuit in federal court last year alleging widespread theft, corruption, and cover-ups among law enforcement officers policing the Emerald Triangle.
A judge has since dismissed the lawsuit but Flatten and the other plaintiffs are appealing.
