Judge orders hundreds more San Jose police officer racist texts released

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A federal judge has ordered the release of a second batch of texts from a former San Jose police officer, revealing hundreds more racist and homophobic messages over a two-month period, showing the ex-cop's disrespect of Black, Asian and gay people, as well as women and people with mental disabilities. 

In a 171-page court filing last week in U.S. District Court, it was revealed that former SJPD Officer Mark McNamara deleted his Facebook and Instagram accounts on Nov. 4, one day after the police chief made a batch of his first racist texts public. 

Civil rights attorney Patrick Buelna likened that to a criminal flushing drugs down the toilet during a raid. And in making that comparison of destroying evidence, Buelna asked U.S. District Court Judge Nathaneal Cousins for sanctions against San Jose.

Cousins has not yet ruled on that matter, but he did order the release of McNamara's texts – to unknown recipients.

Most cannot be repeated as nearly every message contains the N-word. He also often talks about drinking alcohol to excess and lifting weights.

One example is: "I wonder how long I can stay off the booze for?" to which the response was: "N---- now isn’t the time for drink! We gotta sculpt our bodies for the upcoming race war."

The first batch of texts were released on Nov. 3, when San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata revealed a slew of racist, mostly anti-Black messages that McNamara sent while he was under investigation for a still unknown criminal matter. 

One of the most searing and simple of the texts made public was when McNamara texted a friend: "I hate black people." 

In the next batch of texts, McNamara adds more vitriol to that first statement. "I hate black people more than I hate being a cop," he texted, according to the Jan. 12 court filing.

McNamara is also the white officer who shot and injured Ka'un Green on the steps of La Victoria Taqueria in San Jose in March 2022 when he erroneously thought that the young Black football player was a shooting suspect. 

In fact, many credit Green with being a hero that night for wrestling the gun away from a drunk customer with a gun.

Green survived but still has abdominal pain after being shot four times. 

McNamara resigned from the department and Mata recommended that he be decertified, never to be a peace officer in California again. 

In a deposition exclusively obtained by KTVU, McNamara defended himself, saying he wasn't a "monster," just hours before he sent more racist texts.

He then changed his story again in another deposition, when McNamara told Green's lawyers that all the slurs against Black people were jokes he learned from movies and comedians.

"He testified that he watched movies with actors like Martin Lawrence, Will Smith and Samuel L. Jackson … and standup comedy from Dave (Chappelle) that inspired him to use the racial slurs."

Former SJPD officer Mark McNamara during the La Victoria Taqueria shooting in 2022. 

Since the first batch of texts has come to light, Green and his legal team have amended their excessive force lawsuit against him and the city of San Jose to say that the shooting should now be viewed as a hate crime. 

Other examples in the hundreds of new texts show that McNamara showed prejudice to a variety of groups, beyond African-Americans. 

One text referred to McNamara's Asian doctor as a commonly known slur for a Chinese person. 

"This [SLUR] doctor said something about….and then. I can hardly understand her though," he wrote. 

His texts also repeatedly poke fun at gay people. He used the "R" word to describe people with mental disabilities and he referred to women's body parts, using slang to describe their breasts, when describing them. 

Buelna wrote to the judge that it's quite reasonable to infer that, based on the "tremendous number of racist messages in the small sample size of two months that Defendant McNamara’s social media private messages had much more evidence of racial bias and likely discussed the shooting of Plaintiff."

Buelna and his team are asking for a jury to decide compensation for Green in the case.

San Jose has still not agreed to settle the matter. 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The second batch of texts begins on page.106. WARNING: many of the messages are extremely offensive. 

Lisa Fernandez is a reporter for KTVU. Email Lisa at lisa.fernandez@fox.com or call her at 510-874-0139. Or follow her on Twitter @ljfernandez