A federal judge denied a former Rohnert Park officer’s request for a retrial Wednesday, April 15, and rescheduled sentencing for the same day as a co-defendant who testified against him in a case stemming from allegations they posed as government agents to steal cash and cannabis from motorists on Highway 101.

Joseph Huffaker and Brendan “Jacy” Tatum are scheduled to be sentenced May 6 by Judge Maxine Chesney in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Huffaker, convicted by a jury in July after 90 minutes of deliberation, was supposed to be sentenced Wednesday before Chesney said she was concerned “the government got someone to cooperate down, not up.”

Tatum, a former sergeant with the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety, has been identified as the key player who brought Huffaker into the extortion operation. He was charged but entered a plea deal in December 2021 to secure a lighter sentence before testifying against Huffaker last year.

Huffaker’s sentencing had been delayed on numerous occasions since July and Tatum’s was consistently rescheduled to follow, but it wasn’t until Wednesday that Chesney questioned that arrangement. She asked federal prosecutors for their sentencing recommendation for Tatum, only to be told it had not been finalized.

After scheduling both men to appear May 6, Chesney said, “In all likelihood I’m gonna take Mr. Tatum first in terms of sentencing.”

Huedell Freeman, a Mendocino County cannabis grower who settled with Rohnert Park in 2020 over a 2016 traffic stop believed to have been part of the scheme, was among those in attendance for Huffaker’s sentencing. While he expressed frustration proceedings were again delayed, he said he would return May 6.

“They made me suffer and I want to see them pay the price,” Freeman said.

The trial grew out of a yearslong scandal involving Rohnert Park’s drug interdiction team, a unit disbanded in early 2017 after California legalized recreational cannabis.

Prosecutors said Huffaker and Tatum used their training to pull over drivers, pose as agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and seize marijuana and cash that was later sold for profit.

Tatum testified he’d been committing thefts for years before Huffaker got involved. The latter’s attorneys have maintained Tatum orchestrated events and was therefore more culpable in the thefts.

Cracks began to develop following a Dec. 18, 2017 traffic stop. That night, two California Highway Patrol officers happened upon Tatum and Huffaker. One of them knew Tatum and this created a trail after complaints about traffic stops arose.

In February 2018, the FBI and the Sheriff’s Office contacted Tatum about a separate stop Dec. 5, 2017. Prosecutors say Tatum and Huffaker were not involved in that incident but tried to cover their tracks by issuing a press release and police report that borrowed details from a Dec. 18, 2017, stop.

Tatum resigned in March 2018 after an internal investigation began.

Then-Public Safety Director Brian Masterson abruptly retired soon after. Huffaker was later found to have violated department policy and left the force in 2019 with a $75,000 settlement in exchange for his resignation.

He was charged in 2021 and court proceedings progressed slowly as Huffaker cycled through a half-dozen attorneys, including one who died.

Prosecutors requested a sentence of 63 months in prison plus three years of supervised release and $23,000 in restitution. Huffaker’s current defense attorney, Karen Landau, requested three years of probation with home confinement and community service.

Last month, Landau filed a motion for a retrial citing Tatum’s testimony about the police report contradicted statements he made when reaching a plea deal and pleading guilty in December 2021.

The version of events offered on the stand upped Huffaker’s culpability in the obstruction allegations.

According to Landau, Tatum initially said he prepared the report on the Dec. 5, 2017, stop himself after talking to Huffaker by phone and receiving emailed information about the traffic stop. During trial, Landau argues, Tatum said Huffaker met with him at the police station on Feb. 20, 2018, to finalize the report together.

Furthermore, Landau argued, a former Rohnert Park records clerk relayed to investigators that Tatum alone approached her on Feb. 20, 2018, to revise the report after it had already been submitted.

Chesney didn’t think the argument supported a retrial.

“It’s not shown to be enough inconsistency to be false,” she told Landau.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com.