A year after an embarrassing text group chat was leaked to Denver police internal affairs investigators, two of the three police officers who were fired are getting a second chance to wear the badge again in smaller agencies. 

9NEWS reported on the terminations of Meagan Joy, Scot Persichette and Rodrigo Basurto who were among 40 officers in a text group thread in March of 2024. 

After Joy asked if anybody wanted to go to target practice, Basurto wrote “should go to the migrant hotel on 6th and Federal and shoot them there lol plenty of targets in there.”

Joy responded with “LMAO” and included a laughing emoji. 

Persichette asked “..when we doing this?” 

Persichette also wrote “don’t be a snitch” when someone suggested it wasn’t smart to be making such jokes in the thread. 

After the trio were terminated in 2024, 9NEWS Investigates has learned Persichette has been hired as an officer in Keenesburg. According to the police department social media posting, he was recently training with a school resource officer (SRO) at a school.

After this report aired, Chief James Jensen wrote to 9NEWS.

“Officer Persichette is a probationary police officer undergoing a period of field training. Inasmuch, he did a one-week rotation with the SRO as part of that training. He is not an SRO and I have no plans for him to become an SRO.”

“I think they should have done their due diligence when they hired him,” said Sonny Subia, the state director for the League of United Latin American Citizens in Colorado. 

Subia is also a state certified school expulsion officer who works with SROs. He called the hiring of Persichette “disturbing.” 

“Those are the people who are the face of the department. And sometimes these are the first times kids have any interaction with officers. And of course, you know, it’s going to get out that he was fired for making some racial comments, and it’s going to be disturbing to some of the kids that are there,” Subia said.

In a statement from Keenesburg Chief of Police James Jensen said Persichette felt “genuine remorse” 

“People mess up. What tends to define us more is what we do afterward: whether we own it, make it right, and keep trying to be better. I believe in second chances for those who show accountability and dedication to public service, and we are confident in his contributions to keeping our community safe,” Jensen wrote. 

Basurto, who is an immigrant himself and received his U.S. citizenship in 2022, was recently hired in the City of Sheridan, which is just south of Denver. 

“I believe in second chances. If your loved one lived an admirable life and then made a mistake, I believe we would all want them to have a second chance,” Chief Jeffrey Martinez wrote. 

Online state records show Meagan Joy is still state certified to be a police officer, but she is currently not employed. 

To read more on this story, and others, visit The Denver Gazette’s news partners 9NEWS.