Former Rohnert Park Officers Get Federal Prison Time; Victims Say Case Covered Only Fraction of Alleged Crimes

Composite image take from two separate photos on City of Rohnert Park Police & Fire. On the Left Joseph Huffaker and on the Right Jacy Tatum.

As former Rohnert Park officers Joseph Huffaker and Brendon Tatum were sentenced to federal prison yesterday for extortion and corruption crimes along Highway 101, victims said the official narrative presented in court and in the DOJ’s final press release left out years of criminal behavior and, in particular, minimized Huffaker’s role.

The two were sentenced for charges related to a marijuana extortion scheme that prosecutors said involved stopping motorists along Highway 101, posing as federal agents, seizing cannabis through threats and intimidation, and later selling it for large sums of money.

Senior U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney sentenced Huffaker to 20 months in federal prison and Tatum to 30 months. Both men also received three years of supervised release.

The Department of Justice press release described the case against Huffaker primarily as a December 2017 conspiracy involving a handful of extortions and a subsequent cover-up. But trial testimony, court filings, and interviews with men who say they were targeted by the officers paint a broader and more complicated picture — one that stretches back at minimum a year before the narrow window emphasized in the government’s final statement.

One of those men, Huedell Freeman, said he was stopped and robbed by Huffaker and Tatum roughly a year before the December 2017 incidents that became the centerpiece of the federal prosecution.

According to Freeman, he was transporting 47 pounds of cannabis southbound on Highway 101 in late December 2016 when the two officers driving northbound flipped a u-turn near Cloverdale and pulled him over in an unmarked black vehicle.

Freeman said Huffaker approached his window first.

“The first thing out of his mouth is, ‘Do you have marijuana in the car?’” Freeman recalled. “And first thing out of my mouth was, ‘Yes, I do.’”

Freeman said he had permits, paperwork, and a contract with a Los Angeles dispensary, but quickly realized none of that mattered.

“They were there to steal it immediately,” he said.

Freeman brought a case against the City of Rohnert Park and ultimately received roughly a $300,000 settlement. Freeman credited our early reporting with forcing broader attention onto the allegations.

“Your story really broke it open and made it to where they couldn’t ignore it anymore,” he told Redheaded Blackbelt this week.

Freeman states that earlier alleged robbery directly conflicts with statements made about Huffaker’s sentencing, which implied he only participated in misconduct during December 2017.

“It’s a lie,” Zeke Flatten said Wednesday night in a phone interview. “Huedell Freeman was out there today, told the press they robbed him a year prior in December 2016, and Huffaker was definitely an aggressor… .”

Flatten, whose own allegations against the officers helped trigger wider scrutiny years ago, argued the final DOJ release substantially narrowed the scope of what came out during the proceedings.

“If you turn any way, any corner you want on this, you’re going to find something that contradicts the DOJ press release,” Flatten said.

At trial, Tatum testified extensively about years of marijuana theftsthat went far beyond the December 2017 incidents highlighted in Wednesday’s release. He admitted stealing marijuana meant for destruction, burying evidence outside official channels, selling seized cannabis for profit, and making over $400,000 in illegal money.

Tatum also described how extortion stops worked.

Drivers were often presented with what prosecutors characterized as a coercive choice: surrender the marijuana or risk jail.

Flatten said the official language used in court documents and press releases softens what those encounters actually felt like to the motorists involved.

“The wording of the press release seems to sterilize [what occurred],” he said.

Flatten described initially fearing for his life during his own alleged encounter with the officers because they appeared to be armed men in an unmarked vehicle identifying themselves as ATF agents. “I saw no badges, no patches, no name tags, they had guns,” he told us. Though he says he quickly came to the conclusion he wasn’t likely at risk of dying, nonetheless the situation was very concerning.

Huffaker and Tatum were charged with extortion under color of official right, and they got essentially less than two years and three years respectively.

Normally, California law allows an additional 10-year sentence enhancement when a person personally uses a firearm during certain felonies, including robbery. California law states, “a person who, in the commission of a felony personally uses a firearm, shall be punished by an additional and consecutive term of imprisonment…for 10 years.”

The DOJ release Wednesday focused heavily on the extortion conspiracy between Dec. 5 and Dec. 18, 2017. But the original criminal complaint alleged misconduct dating back to at least August 2016.

Federal prosecutors ultimately secured convictions against Huffaker for conspiracy, extortion under color of official right, obstruction, falsifying records, and impersonating a federal officer. Tatum pleaded guilty in 2021 and cooperated with prosecutors.

Both Freeman and Flatten said they remain conflicted about the outcome.

Freeman said he was grateful some accountability finally arrived after nearly a decade, but believes many victims never came forward because they feared retaliation or scrutiny themselves.

“I swear at least 25 or 30 people I spoke to…either told me they had been victimized by the same guys or knew somebody that had,” Freeman said.

Flatten similarly said the sentences felt low compared to the conduct described in testimony.

“The term extortion is the nice term for it,” he said. “It’s essentially robbery.”

Though both men sharply criticized the narrowness of the prosecution and the relatively short sentences, Freeman spoke with surprising compassion about Tatum after an encounter between the two in the courthouse hallway during trial.

Freeman said Tatum stopped him privately and apologized.

“He said, ‘I want to apologize. Things got out of hand. I got carried away. I lost my way. I forgot what was important to me, and that’s my family,’” Freeman recalled.

Freeman said he accepted the apology and shook Tatum’s hand.

“There was nobody else in that hallway,” Freeman said. “He didn’t do it for show.”

He described a very different interaction with Huffaker after Wednesday’s sentencing.

“Huffaker has not looked me straight in the eye the whole time I’ve been there for many days of that trial,” Freeman said. “Today…I stared at him, and he finally turned his head and our eyes met. He immediately turned away and kept scuffling off down the hallway.”

Huffaker is scheduled to begin serving his sentence on Sept. 15, 2026. Tatum is scheduled to report to prison on Jan. 11, 2027. Though the federal case has now concluded, both Freeman and Flatten said they believe important questions remain unanswered about when the criminal activities started and who else might have been involved.

Earlier Chapters:

• Former Undercover Officer Involved in Developing Cannabis Products Accuses Hopland Tribal Police Chief of Theft, Corruption, and Civil Rights Violations
•  Outraged: One Man’s Two Month Quest From the FBI to the ATF to Expose What He Says Are Corrupt Police Officers in Mendocino County
• Rohnert Park Police Officers Being Investigated Following Two Incidents Where Humboldt County Cannabis Was Seized Under Suspicious Circumstances
• ‘Highway Robbery’: Drivers Allege Rohnert Park Police Illegally Seized Cannabis, Cash
• What Happened to 800 Pounds of Marijuana Seized by Rohnert Park Police?
• City of Rohnert Park Hires Police Practices Expert to Address Corruption Allegations
• Former Rohnert Park Police Sergeant Faces Credibility Questions as He Testifies in Court This Week
• Rohnert Park Police Officer Accused of Misconduct in Case Involving Pounds of Humboldt County Marijuana Agrees to Resign for $75,000
• City of Rohnert Park Settles for $415,000 in Lawsuit Alleging Its Officers Stole Cannabis From Travelers Just After a Second Suit Alleging More Corruption Was Filed
• Another Settlement in Case First Reported Here of Rohnert Park Officers Illegally Seizing Cash and Cannabis
• Two Rohnert Park Police Officers Named in the Case Involving Theft of Humboldt County Marijuana Indicted in Federal Court This Morning
• US Attorney’s Office Brings Charges Against Two Rohnert Park Police Officers in Story We Broke Here
• Former Sergeant and Head of a Drug Interdiction Team Pleads Guilty to Charges Resulting From Law Enforcement Officers Stealing Humboldt CO. Cannabis
• Lawsuit Alleges Members of CDFW and Mendocino County Sheriff’s Dept Conspired to Steal Marijuana, Guns, and Cash
• Cash, Guns and Cannabis Highlighted in Civil Case Amended Against Top Law Enforcement Officials in Mendocino County Last Week
• Five Years Ago This Month, Police Officers Robbed a Texas Man in Mendocino County; One Suspect Now Faces New Charges
• Two Officers Outed on This Website Now on California’s POST Decertification List
• Ex-Cop Convicted of Seizing Marijuana Illegally Faces Few Consequences for Secret Cannabis Grow, Reports KQED
• Former Rohnert Park Officer Whose Crimes Were First Reported by RHBB Convicted on All Six Counts in Cannabis Theft Case
• Badges, Guns, and Stolen Marijuana: Podcast Revisits Emerald Triangle Police Corruption Case
• Sentencing Set May 6 for Two Former Rohnert Park Officers in Humboldt Cannabis Theft Case