More than 50 cases tied to the former California cop who was exposed for sending racist text messages could potentially be thrown out, officials say.
Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen has been looking into the cases that Mark McNamara was involved in, NBC Bay Area reported. Last year, it was revealed that McNamara sent text messages using the N-word and saying, “I hate Black people.”
They were sent after the shooting of K’aun Green, a community college football player McNamara wounded at a Mexican restaurant in March 2022. Other messages that came to light showed McNamara repeatedly using the racial slur to refer to Green’s lawyer, Adanté Pointe.
“The other day this n— lawyer is like Mr. McNamara, you know we can still find you guilty of excessive force right? I’m like, hmmm yeah then (what) happens?? … Think I give a f— what y’all n— think?!???? I’ll shoot you too!!!!!” he wrote.
McNamara resigned from the San Jose Police Department and lost his certification in November amid the ongoing backlash. Chief Anthony Mata stood firm on the decision as part of his commitment to “anti-racism culture.”
“The department is committed to ensuring Mr. McNamara cannot serve as a police officer elsewhere and will work with POST to ensure that decertification happens as soon as possible,” he added.
During that time, Mata also said that the department would work with the DA’s office to comb the cases that McNamara was linked to. With Rosen moving forward on this promise, he assembled a committee that found 54 of them and sent a letter to the public defender’s office.
“There’s five cases – low level narcotics case – that we determined we couldn’t proceed in that we’d have to rely upon McNamara’s testimony and we’re unwilling to do that because we take very seriously the racism that he expressed,” Rosen told the news station.
The public defender’s office is considering dismissing 19 cases, according to the report. In addition, Rosen said he is open to other defense attorneys making an argument about any other cases McNamara had his hands in.
