Two Ferguson police officers and a court clerk are out of jobs in the wake of a devastating U.S. Department of Justice report that says their emails were indicative of rampant racism in the city's legal institutions.
Capt. Rick Henke and Sgt. William Mudd, who reportedly resigned on Thursday, were identified by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as the officers.
Ferguson city spokesman Jeff Small on Friday identified the fired worker as court clerk Mary Ann Twitty. She did not immediately respond to an Associated Press message seeking comment on her home telephone.
BuzzFeed News' Jim Dalrymple II published a June 2014 photo that he says was posted to Twitty’s Facebook page; it reportedly shows her standing with Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III and Darren Wilson, the former police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown.
Others who shared a screenshot of the image on Twitty’s Facebook page revealed it was her cover photo -- the highly visible image at the top of one's profile page.
Here's the screenshot of Mary Ann Twitty's Facebook, as she quickly will be taking it down. pic.twitter.com/tNVqWIIdPC— TC (@tchopstl) March 6, 2015
Sources told the Post-Dispatch that Henke "was associated with an email from 2008 suggesting that President Barack Obama would not be president for very long because a black man can't hold a job," and that Mudd "was associated with an email from 2011 suggesting that CrimeStoppers paid a black woman who terminated a pregnancy," according to the report.
Those emails were among at least seven cited in the DOJ report.
just some of the outrageous and disgusting emails sent between Ferguson PD and court officials (from DOJ report) pic.twitter.com/1dq4EwEjjp— Megan Specia (@meganspecia) March 4, 2015
Henke was seen in an August 2014 video interview with local television station KSDK regarding "thousands of threats" that were made against the Ferguson Police Department and city council.
Here's #Ferguson Police Captain Rick Henke giving an interview to @ksdknews in Aug. 2014. Resigned on Thursday pic.twitter.com/i2DyxiAbHL— Brian Ries (@moneyries) March 6, 2015
His name remains listed on the City of Ferguson's website as a contact for the Division of Field Operations -- "more commonly known or referred to as Uniformed Patrol" -- suggesting he is (or was) fairly high up in the organization.
Meanwhile, a LinkedIn page for William Mudd still identifies him as a "Sergeant at City of Ferguson Police Dept."
Mudd was listed as a defendant in a 2005 civil rights lawsuit against the City of Ferguson and other unnamed officers that was ultimately dismissed.
Ferguson Police Sgt. William Mudd, who resigned on Thurs., is listed as a defendant in 2005 Civil Rights lawsuit pic.twitter.com/lQuBezIr0Q— Brian Ries (@moneyries) March 6, 2015
He was awarded a Medal of Valor -- an award "presented in recognition of a conspicuous act of bravery exceeding the normal demands of police service" -- in 1993, according to a 2012 document hosted on the City of Florissant's website.
Emails to Capt. Rick Henke and the Ferguson Police Department went unanswered Friday afternoon. A St. Louis County police official told Mashable they only heard those names in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. "I have not heard that from anyone in police work," the person said.
Ferguson city leaders will meet with DOJ officials in about two weeks to provide a plan for ways to improve the police department, following Wednesday's scathing report, Mayor Knowles said Friday.
Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday, the Justice Department was "prepared to use all the powers that we have, all the power that we have, to ensure that the situation changes there," which could mean "working with them to coming up with an entirely new structure."
When asked if that included dismantling the police force, Holder responded, "If that's what's necessary, we're prepared to do that."
Additional reporting by The Associated Press