‘Get Pics of Her Rack!’: Cops Reportedly Kept Vile Group Chats About the Homeless, Mentally Ill

Two Northern California police officers are on paid administrative leave after a newspaper reported they’d sent sexually explicit and sometimes violent text messages last year regarding crime suspects, homeless people, and people experiencing mental illness—including comments about women’s breasts. 

“Upon learning the details of the content in these reported communications, I, like you, was deeply saddened and disturbed,” Eureka Police Chief Steve Watson said in a statement on the department’s Facebook page Wednesday. “While the exchange that reportedly occurred between officers was something that appears to have taken place on private devices, the subject matter discussed professional duties and was profoundly upsetting.” 

Photos of the alleged group messages sent between six officers—but primarily led by two, Sgt. Rodrigo Reyna-Sanchez, a supervisor, and Officer Mark Meftah—were provided by an anonymous source to the Sacramento Bee. Watson said an independent outside investigator will carry out a probe into the allegations after his department received “copies of the materials” from a Bee reporter. 

The officers had allegedly made inappropriate comments about shooting someone in the face; the sexual activities of homeless people; a person believed to have COVID-19; protesters; a suicidal veteran who pointed his weapon at police before they shot and killed him; and the bodies of women with known mental illnesses, according to messages seen by the Bee.

While discussing a woman with a history of mental illness who was known to shoplift, for example, Reyna-Sanchez reportedly wrote, “Get pics of her rack!!” 

“Saggy ol udders,” Meftah replied, according to the Bee.

Then, on July 4, when officers were dispatched to a woman who police knew had a mental illness, Reyna-Sanchez allegedly commented, “She sounds hot!!!”

“In this cold chill, I bet she got some hard nipples!!!” Reyna-Sanchez said in messages seen by the Bee.s

Allegedly, he later added that if the woman were to continue to go topless, she should “get her some 44DDs!!! And not the 38 longs she has!!! They look like beaver tails!!”

Additionally, while apparently speaking about homeless people having sex in a public space last May, Meftah allegedly wrote that he was “disappointed that none of you assholes seemed interested in the hot trog sex I got to interrupt” in town. According to photos of the messages published by the Bee, Meftah said he had watched the people for about 10 minutes. 

In the past, reform advocates have argued that police officers are ill-equipped to handle people in crisis, including those living outdoors or experiencing mental distress. 

A Humboldt County grand jury accused Eureka of essentially criminalizing homelessness to little positive effect in a damning report in 2019. The report noted that a police department survey of 190 homeless individuals found the majority were struggling with mental illness or drug and alcohol abuse. 

“This does not paint a portrait of a population that would respond well to citations, arrests, and constantly being moved from place to place,” the report read. “From our interviews with the homeless and people who work with the homeless, law enforcement efforts only create more exhaustion, mental anguish, and the need for drugs to mask those states.”

But the officers’ alleged comments weren’t just restricted to the homeless or mentally ill. In April of last year, when a man arrested with guns and other equipment bonded out of jail, Reyna-Sanchez allegedly expressed outrage. The man possessed body armor that had belonged to him, according to the Bee. 

“He also had one of my tac vests that I had loaned to code enforcement!! Face shoot the f-----!!!” Reyna-Sanchez wrote, according to the Bee. “He was one of my first arrests!!! Sent him to prison for a minute!!”

Reyna-Sanchez had fatally shot a robbery suspect a decade prior, but was cleared of wrongdoing, according to the Washington Post. The man had pointed a gun at an officer. 

And, speaking about a person with suspected COVID-19 on April 4, after Reyna-Sanchez mentioned that officers needed to check on the resident, Meftah allegedly responded, “My plan if I had to go there was to knock as lightly as humanly possible on the door, give him an eighth of a second to answer, and then leave.”

Reyna-Sanchez later referred to the resident as an “outbreak monkey,” according to messages seen by the Bee. 

A working phone number for Reyna-Sanchez could not immediately be located, and he did not comment on the alleged messages to the Bee. VICE News also could not immediately reach Meftah, who declined to comment to the newspaper.