These police officers were members of extremist groups on Facebook

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These police officers were members of extremist groups on Facebook

This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.

We wanted to know whether police officers nationwide were members of extremist groups.

That’s not a simple task, but we found one way to do it. We learned that on Facebook – at the time – you could download the membership rolls of private groups. So, we downloaded the names of members of two different kinds of groups we identified on Facebook: extremist groups and police groups.

We loaded those roughly 1 million names into a database and asked a simple question: How many people were members of at least one extremist group and at least one police group?

It would have taken years to deeply examine all 14,000 hits that surfaced, so we selected a fraction of the list to vet. We worked to verify whether users were actually police officers by reviewing their biographies or photos or matching their names in police records. Sometimes that was easy. Other times, identities were cloaked behind aliases. Sometimes people turned out to not be police officers at all – they’d just joined the police groups as supporters.

We started with a list of more than 1,200 extremist groups compiled by Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University and leading expert on extremism on Facebook. Squire, who has been scouring Facebook for extremists for a couple of years, methodically works through the platform, searching for groups with names that denigrate people by race, religion, gender or sexuality or that contain code words used by extremist movements. And because Facebook recommends new groups based on what Squire searches for, she would find new groups that way, too. When we reviewed the groups, we removed some from the list because we did not believe they met the criteria.

We ultimately identified almost 400 users we confirmed were indeed either currently employed as police officers, sheriffs or prison guards or had once worked in law enforcement. We then tried to join as many of the closed extremist groups as we could to see what members, and in particular officers, were saying inside.

In a series of stories, we’re laying out what we saw: officers engaging in conduct that calls into question their ability to serve their communities without prejudice. More than 50 police departments took action or launched internal investigations after we called them with our findings.

We thought the public should have this information, too. These law enforcement officers wield tremendous power in their communities, making decisions that affect the freedom, safety and lives of people across the country. So, we’re publishing this list.

We’re not listing the names of every officer we confirmed. Some of the officers were added to the groups by other people, so we couldn’t be sure they knew of their membership. Many closed groups didn’t allow us in, so we couldn’t document the behavior of cops we knew were members. We may update the list with further confirmations.

(If you’re a reporter interested in getting tips about possible matches in your community, sign up for our reporting network.)

When compiling this list, we focused exclusively on officers who we could confirm were still actively working, rather than retired, and met at least one of the following criteria: interacted with an extremist group, proactively joined an extremist group, or posted denigrating content on their own public pages and were members of extremist groups.

When officers posted denigrating content, we’ve included screenshots of some of the material they’ve posted.

The officers below were all members of extremist Facebook groups and have interacted with at least one of those groups, either posting their own content or commenting on the posts of others.

In some cases, the officers made posts or comments that denigrated people based on their race, religion, sexuality or gender identity. Others we were only able to see interacting with the group in a more mundane way, but this confirmed that they were active members of the group.

Groups are listed with others based on similar themes of hate or extremism. Read a description of each category.

Atascosa County Sheriff David Soward sent this email in response:

"Chief Thompson stated he doesn't participate in that group's conversations. He does research Condeferacy (sic) and US history due to his great great grandfather serving in the Condeferate (sic) army. He doesn't have any issues and does not conform with hate groups or their activity. I did not see anything whatsoever that he did that is in violation of policy or law or any type of radical behavior or conduct. If there is, please send it to me.

“I would certainly not allow illegal conduct or employees to be involved with hate group activities. Thank you for contacting me."

We joined the group and found several posts about committing violence against people who disrespect the Confederate flag. The group disappeared from Facebook during our research.

We also attempted to contact Thompson via Facebook, but we haven't heard back.

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The Boundary County Sheriff's Office hasn't responded to our inquiries.

Schuman didn’t respond to a request for an interview.

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The Brantley County Sheriff's Office hasn't responded to our inquiries, nor has Whisenant.

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We sent Bulloch County Sheriff Noel Brown a letter informing him of Kelley's activity on Facebook and followed up with a phone call. We have not heard back.

Kelley did not respond to calls for comment.

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We haven't heard back from the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office about Moody's Facebook activity, nor have we heard from Moody.

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The Department of Veterans Affairs Police Department has not responded to our inquiries.

Reached by phone, Rocca said he signed up at an Oath Keepers tent at a motorbike rally, but he never attended or organized any meeting and had soured on the group.

“After a few years of watching them, I saw they were going down a path I didn’t like and were getting too radical, and that they weren’t what I wanted to involve myself in or be attached to,” Rocca said.

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When we tried to interview Cornwall-on-Hudson Police Chief Steven Dixon, he said to never call him again. "Call the FBI, call the terrorism watch list, call whoever you want," he said.

In an interview, Terwilliger defended his post and called our reporting “bogus,” saying, “I’m not answering any of your questions.”

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The Erie County Sheriff's Office hasn't responded to our emails or calls.

We also attempted to contact Gibson via Facebook, but we haven't heard back from him.

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Grant County Sheriff Brian Ours hasn't responded to our letters and calls, nor has Rohrbaugh.

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An internal affairs lieutenant at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail contacted us to say he is investigating.

We attempted to contact Sunukjian via Facebook and also asked the internal affairs lieutenant to ask Sunukjian to call us. We haven't heard from him.

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As a result of our investigation, he was fired from the Harris County Sheriff's Office in February. He appealed his firing, but it was upheld. The Sheriff's Office sent us this statement:

"Deputy James Thomas’ employment with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office was terminated on Friday, Feb. 1 following an internal investigation that confirmed multiple violations of policies governing employee conduct. These policies state that ‘an employee’s actions must never bring the HCSO into disrepute, nor should conduct be detrimental to the HCSO’s efficient operation. … Personnel who, through their use of social media, cause undue embarrassment or damage the reputation of, or erode the public’s confidence in, the HCSO shall be deemed to have violated this policy and shall be subject to counseling and/or discipline.’ ”

Thomas' attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said Thomas is hurt by the allegation that he’s racist. “There’s never been any allegation that he has been racially prejudiced,” DeGuerin said.

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We haven't heard back from the Hudson County corrections director, Ronald Edwards.

Harden didn’t respond to attempts to contact him.

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The Independence Police Department said its internal affairs department was looking into the matter, but we haven't heard back from it.

Thompson didn't respond to a Facebook message.

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In early May, the King County Department of Adult & Juvenile Detention sent us this statement: “Officer Fowler is leaving King County employment on May 27. We will provide this information to our Internal Investigations Unit for review. Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.”

We also attempted to contact Fowler via Facebook; he hasn’t responded.

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The Licking Police Department, where Burton is the chief, has not responded to our inquiries.

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A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said the department is investigating Valdez’s posts.

A call to Valdez was not answered.

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The Louisiana Department of Corrections emailed to say that it is currently reviewing the information we provided but that this is a “personnel matter into which there is an open investigation, which we cannot discuss.”

Reached by phone, Crosby refused to answer our questions and simply said, "Put this in your report: Don’t call me at work again."

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Luray Police Chief Bow Cook said he has spoken with Molina, and he has no concerns about his activity on Facebook.

“I’m confident he's not a member of an anti-government militia,” Cook said. “A lot of cops are into guns, but Henry Molina is about the furthest officer I know from that stuff.”

Molina didn’t respond to requests for comment by phone and Facebook.

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We haven't heard back from the Mississippi Highway Patrol despite leaving several messages, nor have we heard back from Smith.

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An internal affairs investigator at the New York Police Department said that after a complete investigation, the case was closed as unsubstantiated. “The investigation was unable to clearly prove or disprove that the subject officer made the offending posts,” the investigator said.

We attempted to reach Paulsaint via Facebook, telephone and email. We exchanged text messages with someone at a number listed publicly for Paulsaint, but that person claimed not to be Paulsaint. Shortly after our communication, Paulsaint's account disappeared from Facebook.

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The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision hasn't responded to our inquiries.

Patterson didn’t respond to a request to be interviewed.

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The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision hasn't responded to our inquiries.

Feimer hasn't responded to Facebook messages.

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The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision told us that Keezer was employed by the department but was on leave. The department didn’t comment on his activity.

Keezer said in an interview that he wasn't on leave and that he participates in the group to persuade racist Odinists to change, though we could not verify this. Keezer also said that he's served in the military overseas and that he has no problem with people of color or of other religions.

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Detectives from the Passaic County Sheriff's Office said they're investigating Pehush's Facebook activity.

Pehush hasn't responded to calls or Facebook messages.

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The Portland Police Bureau carried out an internal affairs investigation but concluded that no action was necessary because “as the posts in question all occurred prior to the member's employment with PPB, no jurisdiction existed for the enforcement of a policy related to a member that was not employed at the time of the violation.”

Salmestrelli couldn’t be reached for comment.

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We haven't heard back from Ravalli County Sheriff Stephen Holton about McWhirter's activity on Facebook.

Reached by phone, McWhirter refused to answer questions.

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Rocky Top Police Chief Jim Shetterly didn't respond to emails or several messages.

We attempted to contact Johnston via Facebook and left him messages at the department. We haven't heard back.

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Simpson County Sheriff Jere Dee Hopson hasn't responded to numerous emails and phone calls.

Blythe didn't respond to messages on Facebook.

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Sylvania Police Chief Shane Burke said he would discuss personnel matters only in person and wouldn't talk to us over the phone.

We attempted to contact Dews via Facebook, but we haven't heard back from him.

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The Texas Department of Public Safety told us an investigation into Lashlee's postings is ongoing.

We also attempted to contact Lashlee via Facebook, but we haven't heard back from him.

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Warren Police Chief Bruce Spiewakowski said he wouldn't respond to our inquiries because this is a personnel matter.

Mellen hasn't responded to email or Facebook messages.

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We haven't heard back from the West Vincent Township Police Department or from Fritz.

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Westchester County informed us that it had launched an internal affairs investigation into Fumuso's Facebook postings.

A spokesperson for the county also provided the following statement:

“While it is not our practice to comment on private personnel matters, we would like to assure the public that Westchester County does not condone hate speech, or other rhetoric meant to intimidate or alienate any member of our community. Westchester is a county rich in diversity. Our County workforce exercises tolerance, and we pride ourselves on behaving in a manner that is professional and courteous always. Any allegations will be taken very seriously.”

In an interview, Fumuso defended his postings and said that he retired from the department after the internal affairs investigation but that his retirement wasn't connected to the investigation.

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We received the following response from Deputy Chief of Police Kelly Gass at the Winchester Police Department:

“We have spoken to Sergeant Howard about the group. He stated that he became a member of the group because of the title ‘Confederate Brothers and Sisters.’ He had family members that fought in the Civil War and likes reading about the history of the time period. He stated that when he started seeing racist speech and memes that he unfriended the group. You should find that he has unfriended the group several months ago.

“You should find that Sergeant Howard has only been a member of Facebook for about a year and this is the only social media outlet that he has ever been exposed to.”

However, Facebook shows that Howard had been a member of the group for at least two years. Howard joined the group himself and wasn't added to the group by another member.

Administrators of the group pose the following question to would-be members: "This group is sometimes racist does this bother you?"

Howard didn’t respond to a request for comment sent via Facebook.

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The Wisconsin Department of Corrections hasn't responded to our inquiries.

In an interview, Best acknowledged that “some people” could view his membership in the group as problematic. However, he said that while some members of the group hold racist, Islamophobic, homophobic and anti-Semitic views, he does not.

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Wyandotte County Sheriff Don Ash sent us the following response via email: “At this point, we cannot determine that Holt has violated our policy regarding Speech, Expression and Social Networking.”

Holt didn’t respond to an interview request.

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York County hasn't responded to our inquiries.

We attempted to reach McHale via Facebook, but we haven't heard back from him.

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These officers proactively joined an extremist group themselves, though we couldn’t determine whether they interacted within a group, in many cases because we couldn’t get inside.

Until late 2018, Facebook allowed users to invite friends to join groups. The invitees would receive a notification telling them they had been added, and depending on each user’s algorithm, the user’s news feed might include content from the group. But it’s possible that cops could have been added to groups without realizing it.

That doesn’t apply to this list of officers, because they sought membership in these groups themselves.

Groups are listed with others based on similar themes of hate or extremism. Read a description of each category.

The Chicago Police Department forwarded the information we sent to the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability, which has not, to our knowledge, taken any action or made any recommendations regarding Tully.

We also attempted to contact Tully via Facebook. We haven't heard back.

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The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Professional Standards Unit told us that it is looking into what we found, but said it had not concluded its investigation.

Bush declined an interview request.

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Savannah airport Police Chief Sedrick Rivers told us that he is taking this case very seriously and that the information we uncovered has been instrumental in helping him draft new policies for social media use at the department. Rivers hasn’t said whether he is taking any disciplinary action.

Ramsey hasn't responded to calls or Facebook messages.

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The Union County Sheriff's Office thanked us for bringing this matter to its attention, saying it would address it with Grigg, but we haven't heard anything further.

We attempted to contact Grigg via Facebook, but he didn't respond.

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In several of these cases, we don’t know whether these officers also were posting inside closed groups, because we’re not a member of the groups they’re in. But we could see denigrating content they posted publicly.

Groups are listed with others based on similar themes of hate or extremism. Read a description of each category.

The Abbeville Police Department hasn’t responded to multiple phone calls and emails.

Reached via Facebook Messenger, Quinn defended his posts. "Its also my responsibility to detect possible threats to my community all the way up to and including my country,” he wrote. “Think about this, majority of crimes are committed by minorities (black, hispanic, etc) per FBI statistics yet I don't ‘prey’ on any particular one nor do I look down on anyone that's been to jail or prison. We all do something stupid, right?"

According to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, 68.9 percent of arrestees in 2017 were white.

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The Chicago Police Department forwarded the information we sent to the Chicago Civilian Office of Police Accountability.

Moravec didn’t respond to our attempts to contact him.

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Georgia State Patrol Major Tommy Waldrop hasn't responded to our inquiries.

Massey hasn't responded to phone calls or Facebook messages.

According to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, 68.9 percent of arrestees in 2017 were white.

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The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office hasn't responded to our inquiries, nor has Pellegrin.

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Kingsville Police Chief Ricardo Torres hasn't responded to numerous emails and phone calls, nor has Brown.

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Lawrence County Sheriff Brad DeLay said he hasn't received any complaints about Crites.

He didn't respond to repeated phone calls and emails. We also emailed Crites, contacted him via Facebook and made several calls to his home and office numbers. We haven't heard back.

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The New Jersey Department of Corrections sent us the following statement: "We can confirm that there is a New Jersey Department of Corrections employee named Joseph Bonadio. We are aware of the allegations referenced. These allegations will be investigated and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken, if warranted."

Bonadio hasn’t responded to messages sent via Facebook.

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We have not received a response to our inquiries from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

We also attempted to contact Kelley via Facebook, but we haven't heard back from him.

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Researchers Daneel Knoetze and Michael Dailey contributed to this story. It was edited by Andrew Donohue and Matt Thompson.

Will Carless can be reached at wcarless@revealnews.org, and Michael Corey can be reached at mcorey@revealnews.org. Follow Carless on Twitter: @willcarless.

Often present themselves as benign history groups but contain racist content.

Militia groups that spread anti-government conspiracy theories, part of a broader movement that has cultivated domestic terrorists.

Trade in content that is derogatory toward non-white people, non-Christians and the LGBTQ community.

While many claim to take aim only at jihad-inspired terrorists, most of the groups we accessed denigrate Muslims in general.

Portray women as evil, greedy and jealous. Anti-feminist.