Federal records show former Rohnert Park police officer Joseph Huffaker is now in custody at FCI Sheridan in Oregon. A federal judge sentenced him to 20 months in prison starting yesterday, although the Bureau of Prisons currently lists a projected release date of December 30, 2027—about 15½ months after his September 15 surrender date.
The imprisonment marks a small step towards justice in a scandal first brought to light by Redheaded Blackbelt early in 2018. It does not, however, answer one of the case’s most basic questions: Who stopped and took three pounds of cannabis from Ezekiel “Zeke” Flatten on December 5, 2017?
Nor does it establish how many officers participated in similar stops, how long the misconduct extended beyond the crimes charged in federal court, what supervisors and neighboring agencies knew, or why a federal investigative case associated with Flatten continues to be displayed as open in the Department of Justice’s victim-notification system. Records from cases still open, do not have to be released…