A growing coalition of social justice leaders is demanding San Jose City Hall release text messages between councilmembers that allegedly include racist and derogatory remarks, two weeks after San José Spotlight broke a story about the inflammatory conversation.
The Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet of Silicon Valley and AFRO-Upris joined the NAACP of San Jose/Silicon Valley to call on city leaders to make the texts public, and plan to hold a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday to demand answers.
“These revelations, reportedly stemming from a private text thread, are both disappointing and troubling. As community members and leaders within the Black community of San Jose — we demand that this matter be handled with care, transparency, and a sincere commitment to justice,” the two groups wrote in a letter Thursday co-signed by the NAACP.
Councilmembers Domingo Candelas and Peter Ortiz are accused of participating in a text thread — along with disgraced ex-Councilmember Omar Torres and a handful of community leaders — which included use of the n-word and referred to Mexicans as “scraps,” a slang term used to refer to Southern California gang members. Multiple law enforcement sources told this news organization the messages were discovered when authorities seized Torres’ phone during an investigation related to child sex crimes. The conversation also reportedly included Candelas’ Chief of Staff Teddy Adera, Working Partnerships USA Transportation Policy Director Huascar Castro and Brenda Zendejas, community relations manager for the San Jose Downtown Association and Ortiz’s partner.
One other group will join Tuesday’s news conference — balancing calls for accountability with concerns the issue is being politicized.
The Race Equity Action Leadership (REAL) Coalition, a network of nonprofit leaders committed to dismantling systemic racism, said in a letter Friday it supports the three organizations in their “call for care, truth, and accountability” in response to the text conversation. They also called for more information about law enforcement’s role in the disclosure of the texts.
La Raza Roundtable leaders, in another letter, said Candelas and Ortiz have historically been champions for minority communities. The group defended the councilmembers’ character.
Neither Ortiz nor Candelas responded on Friday to requests for comment about the letters and news conference.
Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmember Bien Doan have also demanded the texts be made public, while seven of their City Council colleagues have remained mum and did not return requests for comment.
The Black community groups’ letter calls for “a clear accounting” of who was involved in the group thread, including the names of its participants and any role played by law enforcement.
“We recognize that in certain situations materials subject to police investigations may be legitimately shielded from public view,” the letter reads. “However, in this situation it appears that evidence of the allegations was sent to investigators by former councilmember Torres — not because it was requested or directly relevant to a criminal case — but perhaps to circumvent public scrutiny.”
The mayor previously voiced concern to this news organization about allegations of a cover-up.
“I’m especially concerned by the claim that some in City Hall subsequently tried to shield these messages from public view by claiming they are essential to an ongoing investigation,” he said. “If the texts fall under the city’s usual standards for public disclosure, they should be made public to maintain trust with our community.”
City Attorney Nora Frimann previously told San José Spotlight the city is limited as to what records it can disclose during ongoing investigations. On Friday she said that hasn’t changed.
Doan told San José Spotlight the city should follow through on its commitment to transparency by releasing the texts.
“Existing policies should be followed to ensure that all records of communication relating to city business are made available to the public if they are requested. If these records do exist, they should be subjected to PRA and FOIA laws,” he said.
Former District 5 Councilmember Nora Campos is also demanding answers.
“The alleged use of the n-word and derogatory references to Mexican individuals, as well as disparaging comments about neighborhoods and schools in low-income areas, are not only offensive — they betray the trust placed in our public servants,” Campos said. “Let me be clear: the use of the n-word is unacceptable in any context. It is not a joke, not ‘just a word,’ and not something that can be brushed aside.”
Seven of Mahan’s colleagues — Vice Mayor Pam Foley and Councilmembers Rosemary Kamei, Pamela Campos, Carl Salas, David Cohen, Michael Mulcahy and George Casey — haven’t addressed the allegations about the group text thread.
Of those councilmembers, Pamela Campos was the only one to respond to requests for comment. But she didn’t take a position on the texts’ disclosure.
“Councilmember Campos and her team are committed to treating everyone with professionalism and respect. That standard guides how we operate and serve the community,” her spokesperson Kiyomi Honda Yamamoto told San José Spotlight.
In addition to discovering the group text thread as part of the investigation into Torres, law enforcement sources previously told San José Spotlight city officials sent investigators their unsolicited emails about Torres, which resulted in them being shielded from the public.
The allegations of the group text thread follow Torres pleading no contest to three counts of felony child molestation last month. He faces a maximum 24 years behind bars, with a sentencing hearing scheduled for Aug. 29.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article quoted the NAACP president as saying La Raza Roundtable would attend the news conference.
Story updated June 20 at 6:21 p.m. Original story published June 20 at 2 p.m.
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
NAACP-SV-BLKC -Afro UPRIS Joint Statement
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