New civil rights lawsuit targets Antioch Police alleging rampant, racially-based misconduct
A third civil rights lawsuit has been filed against the City of Antioch and its police department on behalf of seven people alleging they were victims of police misconduct, including being shot, beaten, racially profiled, and bitten by a police dog.
There are now a total of 20 people suing the city and the police department in a widening misconduct scandal involving the Antioch Police Department.
In a press statement Friday morning, civil rights attorney John Burris said the new lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, will be related to the two prior lawsuits and be litigated jointly before the same federal judge. As with the other lawsuits, the suit seeks to hold the City of Antioch and its Chiefs of Police responsible for harm caused to plaintiffs by police department's "unconstitutional and unconscionable race-based policing, racial profiling, and criminal conduct by Antioch police officers."
Read the latest complaint:
As in the previous suits, the lawsuit also seeks federal oversight to change the policies and procedures of the department.
"Many Antioch police officers engaged in a pattern of despicable race, misogynists, and excessive force policing that debased the safety and sensibility of the people of Antioch," said Burris in a prepared statement. "This and our other lawsuits intend to eradicate the rot that exists within the department that allowed officers to feel comfortable that their open expression of racial, misogynist, and homophobic bigotry, along with the disregard of constitutional rights, would be unchecked by supervisors and or commanders.
Nearly four dozen Antioch police officers have been implicated in corruption probes involving alleged racist policing, routine use of excessive force, and fabrication of evidence.
In August, federal agents held a series of raids and arrested officers from both the Antioch and Pittsburg police departments following an indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in San Francisco. Ten people were charged under four separate indictments; the charges include civil rights violations, wire fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and falsification and destruction of records in a federal investigation, according to prosecutors.
Over the past 22 months, both police departments have been under investigation. In early 2022, the Contra Costa DA's office first confirmed that officers were being investigated for multiple offenses, including "crimes of moral turpitude."
The FBI then investigated officers for alleged drug distribution, bribery, excessive force and civil rights violations. During their investigation, racist text messages among officers were also found. As a result of the investigation, nearly half of the officers in the Antioch Police Department were placed on leave, including several in management positions.
Police Chief Steven Ford abruptly resigned in August after joining the department last year. Ford was a 32-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department and following his hiring he had set out to reform the agency.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office has also launched a civil rights investigation into Antioch PD.