Cops swore up and down they caught the gunman.
Khalil Owens fired the weapon that killed 25-year-old recent college grad Marvin Jackson Jr., they figured. The victim’s brother—who got caught up in the scuffle that led to the June 27, 2015, shooting in San Jose—said so himself, claiming to see the 20-year-old suspected gangbanger flash a gun under his shirt just before the fatal fight.
Owens spent three months in jail and faced a possible life sentence before his attorney convinced prosecutors to dismiss the charges after a closer look at the evidence. Turned out, video and eyewitness accounts pointed not to Owens but to a 27-year-old convicted felon known as Gregory “G-Stacks” Thompson.
A recorded call from Thompson to a sibling dispelled any doubt when he described being at the scene of the crime and lifting his shirt while arguing with the victim’s brother.
Prosecutors say jail calls offer a wealth of evidence—sometimes exculpatory, more often incriminating—that can prove additional crimes or protect victims and witnesses. But how easy should it be for them to tap into those conversations? For months now, Silicon Valley’s top law enforcement officials have waged a quiet war over how to answer that.
Sheriff Laurie Smith, who oversees the county’s two jails, maintains that she has a duty to protect sensitive call data by requiring prosecutors and anyone from an outside agency to obtain permission from the courts to eavesdrop on inmates. District Attorney Jeff Rosen insists that his staff attorneys should have click-to-listen access because, like the Department of Correction (DOC) under Smith’s charge, it’s no “outside agency,” but part of the same government family: the County of Santa Clara.
Public Defender Molly O'Neal
Should prosecutors prevail, they stand to gain what in this county would be unprecedented access to a surveillance tool prone to ethical pitfalls, if not outright abuse.
Yet officials have kept the debate from public view by handling it as a contract issue instead of what defense lawyers consider a major policy change. And, of concern to inmate advocates, apparently without soliciting input from directly impacted parties like Public Defender Molly O’Neal.
“Unfettered access by the DA without any check or balance is dangerous,” she cautions. “Attorney-client privileged calls are subject to DA interception, client calls that are not related to any particular case will be subject to free listening at any time, allowing for fishing expeditions at the expense of inmates who may simply be talking to loved ones.”
People accused of crimes have a constitutional right to private calls with their lawyers. Any policy that affects how the government protects that right merits more accountability than the county’s provided in this case, defense attorneys argue. “Open, public hearings on the proposal should be held,” O’Neal says, “so that the public may be heard and the action is transparent.”
Instead, it appears the motion to add the DA to the contract with Global Tel-Link—and to a new agreement for electronic tablets with Legacy Inmate Communications—comes before the Board of Supervisors on May 21 as a cursory line in a long slog of budget items.
Call Brawl
Sheriff Smith set off the fray last fall by abruptly imposing new rules on prosecutors who wish to tap inmate calls. Instead of a rote administrative form, jailers began to require a subpoena or warrant. The move stoked already simmering tensions between the sheriff and Rosen, who called the new policy a threat to public safety.
“Timely access to unprivileged jail calls is essential,” the DA wrote in a Jan. 8 letter rebuking Smith’s decision, “not only to the effective prosecution of criminals, but also to the safety of victims and witnesses.” He added: “Your change in policy effectively confers upon inmates an expectation of privacy to which they are not legally entitled and needless hurdles to your law enforcement colleagues.”
Except for communication with their attorneys, which are supposed to be registered on a do-not-record list, inmates have no reasonable expectation of privacy, Rosen argued. They receive several clear warnings that their conversations are being recorded, such as signs by the phone booths and audio reminders at the outset of each call.
Rosen also touted the economic benefit of wiretaps.
“An incriminating jail call can often lead to the early resolution of a case without a trial,” he wrote before rattling off examples to prove his point. “Recently, jail calls were the crucial piece of evidence influencing Efren Cervantes to accept a guilty plea to first degree murder, saving taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.”
In the case against an accused abuser from Santa Clara named Noe Mejia, prosecutors spent a lunch break from cross-examination to request recordings of the defendant’s calls to the victim. The jail complied, disclosing calls that “were extremely compelling and disturbing,” Rosen said, showing that Mejia had no remorse for the injuries he inflicted on the victim and that he even tried to get her to lie to get him out of trouble.
“So it’s fuck me, then?” Mejia reportedly asked the victim in one of the calls. “You’re just going to let me sit in here? You gotta get me outta here.”
After the prosecutor played the recording for the judge, Mejia opted to plead guilty.
“Often inmates with pending cases will attempt to influence witnesses by appealing to their sympathy or through threats,” Rosen said. “This criminal dynamic is often found in domestic violence cases, which involve a unique dynamic between the defendant and the victim. It is also common in violent criminal enterprises like human trafficking, gang assaults and the distribution of narcotics. Inmates can dissuade witnesses through direct threats, or by plotting with people on the outside who might carry out actual assault. Monitoring these communications in the appropriate cases is essential to preserving the integrity of the system, holding criminals accountable and maintaining public safety.”
Whether Sheriff Smith’s policy prevents that is an open question.
Officials from the DA’s office say they went from receiving about 70 to 100 calls a month to almost none at all once the jails set the subpoena-or-search warrant standard in October. “Since that time, we have obtained jail recordings in a very small number of cases where we spent a considerable amount of resources to obtain an unnecessary search warrant for communications that are not legally privileged or confidential,” DA officials said in a written statement.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen (left) and Chief Assistant District Attorney Jay Boyarsky.
More than the hassle of extra paperwork, Chief Assistant DA Jay Boyarsky says, is the principle. “How long does it take to get a warrant?” he repeats when asked as much. “That’s a bit of a red herring because we’re not necessarily investigating a new crime. You shouldn’t really be seeking a search warrant if something isn’t a protected item. You don’t need a search warrant if something is in plain view.”
Jail officials who spoke on background accused prosecutors of abusing the system. Sheriff Smith didn’t comment for this story, but in a March 29 memo to the Santa Clara County Police Chiefs Association, she explained how she only issued her directive in response to a “significant increase” in demand from the DA. “The requests submitted by their office totaled more minutes of telephone calls than all other agencies combined,” she wrote. “As an example, one request provided to the District Attorney’s Office on Oct. 18, 2018, yielded 81,400 minutes (1,357 hours) of recorded telephone conversations.”
Before she cracked down, Smith said, requests soared from hundreds to thousands a month, and began coming by email and phone with stated reasons that seemed suspect. That’s well beyond the 70-to-100 monthly average DA officials estimated. As of April 1, however, she eased up a bit, promising to no longer require court orders for “certain copies” of jail calls—as long as they serve a legitimate investigative purpose.
Boyarsky disputes the notion that his office overwhelmed jail staff. “I’ve heard that before,” he says with a laugh. “Can you imagine if people criticized police officers for being too dogged? You know, it’s like, DA Rosen hires prosecutors to get to the truth, and evidence is where the truth is. And if we have access to evidence, we’re going to get it. It’s not like, ‘Hey, we want 30 hours of phone calls from this guy,’ and then someone at the jail needs to get 30 hours of reel-to-reel tape or something. They’re not burning cassettes or DVDs. That’s how it might’ve been 40 years ago, but nowadays, it’s all digital, and it’s all in the cloud. It takes minutes—just the press of a button, and here’s 10 hours of calls.”
In his January letter to the sheriff, Rosen also expressed concern about the search warrants tipping off inmates about prosecutorial surveillance. “This obviously defeats the purpose of obtaining these calls to discover evidence of the current crime, other crimes, threats to witnesses or victims or to expose an error in charging,” he wrote.
Deputy Public Defender Michael Ogul says he applauds the additional layer of accountability and finds it disheartening that the DA would contrive a workaround.
“Now, they’re at least required to give notice to the individuals and the courts,” he says. “I mean, the DA can already obtain this information. They just have to go through a relatively simple procedure of giving the court notice and saying they have a basis for requesting these calls. It’s pretty easy to issue a subpoena.”
To Ogul and a host of his colleagues, it seems the DA simply doesn’t want to give anyone a heads up. “Why is it so difficult to obtain the data for a subpoena that you need to do it this way?” he asks. “They’re really trying to eliminate oversight.”
If anything, Ogul says, local officials should trend in the opposite direction in the wake of high-profile slip-ups by Global Tel-Link, which last year blamed a software glitch for recording more than 1,000 privileged jail calls in Orange County.
“There’s no question that a jail call is a very important part of prosecution,” legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Steven Clark says. “A lot of cases have risen or fallen on jail calls, so the DAs want that information.”
Try as one might to warn defendants that they’re being recorded, they often become desensitized and slip up. When family members ask a new inmate what happened that led to the arrest, it’s hard not to answer.
But attorney-client privilege is sacrosanct, and Clark says the jail phone taps could use the added safeguard of judicial review. “To me, the biggest concern is whether the DA will inadvertently stumble across conversations with lawyers,” he says. “It’s just so devastating, I don’t care how much you try to sanitize it.”
There’s protocol for when that happens, of course, but by then the damage is done, Clark says. “It’s very difficult to unring that bell.”
Game of Telephone
This is by no means the first time the DA has lobbied for a straight line to jail calls. Nor is it the first time the Sheriff’s Office has required prosecutors to get a judge’s go-ahead in exchange for recordings. The DOC enacted the court-order standard in 2007 and 2014, but DA officials say Sheriff Smith gave them no prior notice before doing it this last time.
More than a decade ago, the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury investigated jail calls in response to a complaint that a prosecutor unlawfully acquired audio of an inmate’s conversation with his attorney. The 2006-07 team of civilian watchdogs found that the phone system lacked sufficient safeguards to keep privileged phone calls from ending up in the hands of prosecutors. The report also noted how recordings requested by prosecutors were previously made available without question and without notifying the inmate or his or her lawyer.
“However, DOC’s newly established policy, dated Jan. 16, 2007, restricts the release of any recording without a court order,” the civil grand jury report stated. The DA’s office groused about the practice then, too, saying the extra time involved in securing a court order hampered its ability to prosecute criminals and intercept non-privileged calls for safety reasons. However, the report said both the DOC and the DA agreed that “thousands of taxpayer dollars are wasted due to the latter’s failure to pick up or use requested inmate non-privileged telephone calls after they have been laboriously extracted and saved for the prosecutors’ use.”
A few years later, the DOC would revert to its past practice of less formal data sharing with the DA. And jail officials say they continued to grapple with an influx of requests from the DA’s office that required considerable time and effort to process. In 2014, the DA’s office requested remote access to relieve stress on jail resources. Rosen pitched a deal that would grant a small number of trained prosecutors access to the calls, reportedly similar to arrangements in Colusa, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Humboldt, King, Lake, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Placer, Sacramento, San Diego, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus, Sutter and Yolo counties.
Not many jurisdictions have a distinct DOC like Santa Clara’s, however. The department’s existence has long complicated the question of who’s ultimately in charge of the jails. Sheriff Smith has used that ambiguity at times to distance herself from abuses—such as the systemic failures that came to light in wake of the 2015 murder of inmate Michael Tyree by three deputies—and, alternately, to proclaim independence from County Executive Jeff Smith.
“This county is unique, yeah,” Boyarsky says. “But ... the county executive has oversight responsibility for these jails.” As well as the contract, he adds.
County executive Smith says the sheriff’s refusal is part of her ongoing effort to assert control and evade accountability by “establishing a moat around her office.” He cited her resistance to having a jail management software system under civilian control as another example of trying to “segregate off as much information as she can about the jail and separate it from the county.”
Four years after Tyree’s murder precipitated a massive reform effort, the county is still in the process of creating an independent oversight office, and Smith believes that conflicts like the one over jail calls reflect a broader lack of cooperation from the sheriff. “I think that just indicates that she’s trying to protect herself politically from the risk of having an oversight monitor, which the board is working on,” the county executive says.
The county CEO also blames Sheriff Smith for problems with the botched rollout of the new Odyssey software at the Santa Clara County Superior Court, which left police officers throughout the region with faulty information about the status of thousands of warrants. Jeff Smith says the software switch would have been relatively seamless if the sheriff agreed to his preferred data-sharing arrangement. Guarding access to the jail calls is an extension of the same problem, he contends.
Sheriff officials, for their part, flat-out deny the CEO’s characterization, saying the Odyssey project fell under the purview of his IT Chief Ann Dunkin and the courts—not Laurie Smith. The bottom line, the CEO says, is that “the county is a team effort, particularly when it comes to criminal justice.” There necessarily “has to be a free flow of information,” he says. “It has to be protected and appropriately confidential, but the system doesn’t work if somebody refuses to share the appropriate data.”
Whatever the case, O’Neal says, it shouldn’t be assumed that inmates have no privacy at all. And it shouldn’t matter if the DA considers itself part of the same agency as the DOC—some information is better left hard to come by. “They should still have to explain why they need access to particular inmates’ calls,” she says.
Meanwhile, O’Neal notes, a host of critical questions remain unanswered. Like, who at the DA’s office will have access to the calls? How long will they store the data? What’s the standard for determining what calls they’ll listen to? What’s the process for ensuring they don’t intercept privileged calls? And why isn’t the current process adequate?
DA spokesman Sean Webby says Assistant DA Brian Welch gave county counsel a 12-year-old surveillance policy that addresses those concerns. “A process is already in place to maintain confidentiality of attorney-client communications, and there will be no change to this procedure when we are provided access,” Webby says. “This is not a laborious process because the communications are easily identified as confidential by the telephone number of defense attorneys in a database maintained by the [DOC]. Calls to registered lawyers are not recorded by the system.”
Further, he adds, Rosen “understands that defense attorneys want to protect their incarcerated clients” from self-incrimination or getting caught committing new crimes like witness intimidation. “By contrast,” Webby says, “we use jail calls to protect victims, witnesses and jurors as well as exonerate innocent inmates.”
O’Neal bristles at the DA’s rationale.
“It is pretty insulting to say that our only interests are that our clients not incriminate themselves as well as to portray their only interest being to protect victims and solve crimes,” she says. “The fact of the matter is that unfettered access to jail calls is intrusive and should be restricted to cases where there is an articulable reason to listen in.”
Bad Reception
Benee Vejar spoke to her husband every day during the four years he spent at San Jose’s Main Jail as a pretrial detainee. Overwhelmingly, she says, the conversations had nothing to do with the case that landed her partner and father of her three young kids behind bars. But they still got mined for anything remotely incriminating.
In a phone call from jail one day, Vejar, who worked as a mechanic at the time of his arrest, gave his spouse directions about how to pack up his tools in labeled bags for an upcoming move. According to Vejar, prosecutors interpreted the innocuous exchange as a coded confab about drugs. “Our lawyer told me, ‘Did you know they wanted to arrest you?’” she says. “I was going to get charged as an associate because of that jail call. It was crazy. My kids would have been left alone.”
Vejar has spent the past several years working for civil rights non-profit Silicon Valley De-Bug as an advocate for families like hers who got caught up in the criminal justice system. As an activist, she says she’s sat through countless court hearings where gang investigators testify about intel garnered from jail calls in which the mundane aspects of people’s lives are dissected for incriminating evidence.
“Aren’t you supposed to have evidence first and then get them arrested?” she asks. “Instead they’re putting people in there and then trying to add charges to force a guilty plea. And they’re admitting it. That’s bullshit.”
The practice of adding charges from jail call evidence seems to contradict county officials’ professed commitment to reversing mass incarceration, Vejar adds. “If this is the way they do things,” she says, “our families are never going to get home.”
To Jose Valle, an ex-inmate and fellow Silicon Valley De-Bug organizer, it’s especially cynical for the DA to frame jail call surveillance as a cost-saving measure. “There should never be a point in our present day where saving money by not going to trial should be a goal,” he says, noting how more than 90 percent of cases nationwide end in a plea deal. “Everyone has a right to go to trial; everyone has a right to due process.”
Javier Rios, a private criminal defense attorney, says he’s had to listen to untold hours of intimate conversations between defendants and their families. So many of those recordings made him question whether prosecutors requested more calls than reasonably needed. Legalities aside, he says, he questions the ethics of extending the already far-reaching boundaries of jail surveillance.
“There’s no expectation of privacy in the jails, that’s true,” he cedes. “But on a human level, I have to wonder—is it right? Is it fair?”
Benee Vejar says a phone call with her incarcerated husband almost got her arrested when prosecutors misinterpreted a
conversation about packing up car parts as a coded exchange about drugs. (Photo by Jennifer Wadsworth)
Informative, balanced, and well reported as always from Jennifer Wadsworth.
long, unreadable, partisan reporting as always from Jennifer Wadsworth.
Jeff Rosen, instead of trying to win cases by cheating on privacy laws, you should focus on prosecuring local law enforcement who engage in abusing their spouses, children…and where there are big bruises, and other injuries requiring medical treatment. JEFF ROSEN IS A FRAUD OF DA. RECALL JEFF ROSEN!
JEFF ROSEN, this is the victim’s text to her mother a day after the violent physical attack by her father: ” [A] attempted to choke me yesterday after behaving aggressively towards me for the last two years. He lied to the police and told them I had hit him. If [B] and [C] hadn’t opened their bedrooms’ doors, I believe [A] would’ve injured me or worse. [A] then kicked me out out to the streets. I have just become homeless because I tried to protect myself [by calling the police] from his violent outburst.” The victim was yesterday 05/14/19 at the Gilroy Police Department again to request her father be arrested for the attack. The commander took pictures of the bruises visible to the eyes. The commander at one point asked her why she waited this long to go back to the police station. He asked this before seeing the bruises and in an attemp to discredit the victim. He pressured her so much that she responded she has anxiety. Her mother who was there with the victim then told the commander what the victim has done since being kicked out of the home. On the day of incident victim called a friend where she spent the night and manage to go to work next day. The following day she called her mother and manage to continue working. Her mother took her to different stores to buy what she needed since her father “A” did not let her take anything out of her home. Mother also drove her to her medical appointment. She has several bruises and pain on her neck. She has a follow up appointment tomorrow, and she also requested mental health support through her private Insurance. She has been working daily. Today the victim requested a civil stand by. She was at her father home and requested police to be there. She was hoping to obtain her passport and other important documents. She waited more than two hours for the police to arrive. The father did not open the door. He was there. The police told her she had to call him to arrange a day and time to pick up the items. Father is not responding calls. WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR WOMAN TO BE PROTECTED FROM THE PHYSICAL ATTACK OF HER FATHER A FORMER SAN JOSE POLICE OFFICER AND CURRENTLY WORKING FOR THE SHERIFF’s office? This DA office has given passes to this man in the past for similar criminal behavior. The evidence is there. ARE YOU THERE JEFF ROSEN? HOW MUCH DO WE PAID THIS FRAUD OF A DA? RECALL JEFF ROSEN!
VICTIMS of the Santa Clara County corrupted systems and judiciary, I urge you to report your stories here. Let’s show the BS we gave FOR public officials from the DA office, judiciary, attorneys, county supervisors, and more. They are not too big to fail. SPEAK UP!
If these jerks can spy on Trump and get away with it, then you know damn well their doing it to you.
It’s time to end Commyfornias one party Progressive/Socialist monopoly. Vote them all out , hell impeach the bums !
Good for Laurie Smith standing her ground when it comes to county CEO Jeff Smith and DA Jeff Rosen. Remember, Jeff Rosen is married to a judge and can’t catch public corruption when it lands on his desk and is tied up with a bow.
The Santa Clara County Grand Jury blasted the performance of Mr. Rosen and his overpaid staff in 2016-2017 and again in 2018. Nothing has changed, except the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors keep giving Mr. Rosen more taxpayer money to waste.
Mr. Rosen has prosecuted for politics, thumbed his nose at the first amendment. spied on local residents and wasted more taxpayer money than any elected official in Santa Clara County’s history. He just prosecuted Scott Largent for protesting the county’s family courts after refusing to enforce Mr. Largent’s custody and visitation orders for nearly three years. The DA, on the eve of trial, dropped that case after Mr. Largent got a real defense (paid at taxpayer expense after Ms. Perez was caught cheating defendants represented by the county’s IDO). When Largent got rid of IDO lawyer Dmitry Stadlin and subpoenaed the county’s former presiding judge, Patricia Lucas, the court’s General Counsel, Lisa Herrick, and Supervisor Joe Smitian, Mr. Rosen’s office dropped the ridiculous charges. Or maybe……..it was the video filmed by a local journalist that Mr. Rosen just didn’t want a jury to actually see.
Let us not forget that Mr. Rosen’s office has been repeatedly blasted for prosecutorial misconduct (sending innocent people to jail), for cheating taxpayers (he was investigated by the Attorney General for misusing funds the first year he was in office). In the 8 years Mr. Rosen has been in office it seems he only gets murder convictions when there is no dead body ( Sierra LaMar).
And last but not least, in 2012 Mr. Rosen thought it was brilliant to prosecute a man who beat up the Los Gatos priest who had molested him and his brother for most of their childhood. But hey, makes sense to prosecute folks who are raped by men wearing black robes or protesting the county’s family courts instead of actual rapists, murderers and crooks.
Go get em Susan Bassi!!! Keep up the fight and never back down!!! Great work below letting Rosen and his thugs know their days are numbered silencing our first amendment rights.
So sad this incompetent DA is prosecuting you for filming police misconduct.
When Rosen goes to jail maybe you can take over….
Enjoy the Video…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_kdRBGKgkw&t=38s
My question is: WHAT ARE WE WAITING TO RECALL HIM? My first $1000 donation is waiting. Nor the police, or judiciary, or other public officials will stop this abuse against women and children of this county. These are the same people that brag about and have conferences on Commercially Sexually EXPLOITED Children. Yet, they let active pedophiles get away with it or give them four days in jail in they are privileged by race and Social economic status. They give passes to domestic abuser. Evil does not destroy evil. Corruption cannot bring righteousness. No one is going to do this for us. WE GAVE TO DO IT FOR OURSELVES, children, and those after us. RECALL JEFF ROSEN AND THE SANTA CLARA COUNTY PUBLIC CORRUPTION!
Supervisor Chavez and Córtese, you both have all details regarding this case. The mother of the above victim has shared details with both of you and the Gilroy Murder Suicide Case. Both of these cases are very similar. Both women experienced domestic violence by their then San Jose Police Department offficers husbands. Both women called Gilroy police to receive support. Gilroy Police not only failed to write appropriate reports of Domestic Violence, they ignored the victims. One woman was killed by her husband who then killed himself, leaving to boys without a mother and a tremendous trauma. In this current case, the Gilroy Police acted the same way. The woman in this case managed to leave the home and reported this man’s addiction to porn, including child porn, violent behavior, and financial abuse after the marriage. Just few months after the official divorce, this man engaged in forging ex’s signatures on IRS form to option return of tax reports they filed together while marriage. The IRS sent two checks; he cashed one. The later incident is this recent attack on his young adult daughter who was paying rent to him. It appears we have to wait until this guy actually kilss someone for hopefully Gilroy Police and Jeff Rosen start doing something. JULIA A EMEDE this is your beloved SANTA CLARA COUNTY Sheriff Deputy you protected when he was going to be fired by the Sheriff at the beginning of the child porn investigation. DA office has also record of all of this man’s illegal acts. RECALL JEFF ROSEN!
Criminals’ rights, endless. Victims’ rights, still near zero.
The story began with an innocent inmate in jail for three months. Maybe in state prison, but not everyone in county jail is a criminal.
True dat. There are at least five innocent people in County. But if you ask them, they are all innocent.
Looks like Ole Jeffrey “Frozen” Rosen is at it again…. He is notorious for rigging the judicial process in our county and this must stop now. This is just the tip of the iceberg folks and the community is getting tired of our rights getting set aside. You look at this “Muppet” of a District Attorney wrong and he will stick his thugs on you and ruin your life.
He is more concerned about protecting other Judges and Lawyers and could care less about the public that he swore to serve.
I just hope when the Department of Justice kicks down his front door that they give me the honor of putting on the handcuffs…. Now that would make my day….big time…
Recall Rosen?? or Arrest Rosen?? Now that’s more like it….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcOxVO_897c
Scott, the supervisors of this county are as guilty of Rosen’s actions as he is. They have allowed this DA and the rest of his assisstants to scam our community. The bad news for ROSEN is that this community is tired of his illegal acts and ready to fight against him. ROSEN MUST BE RECALL AND FEW COUNTY SUPERVISORS TOO!
The mother of this young victim went in person to Dave Córtese’s office while her own DV was being mishandled by the Gilroy Police. The supervisor’s assistant took report and stated they would call back. They never did. Zoe Lofgren is also well aware of the details of this case. The mother reached out to her while all this corruption was happening. She did nothing other than sending the mother back to the same persons engaged in this corruption. This was expected since Lofgren is part of the SANTA CLARA COUNTY judiciary Community. The victim of this most recent case is waiting for the police report to be completed and ready to be picked up. She requested it last week. The family will hire a private law firm for a civil case since they are sure Rosen’s office won’t do anything. SHAME ON YOU JEFF ROSEN! Zoe Logren, you should focus on the local corruption instead of the Washington corruption. If you cannot handle and counter act local corruption; how do you expect to counter act Washington’s? SANTA CLARA COUNTY Hall of SHAME: ROSEN, EMEDE, Lofgren, Córtese, Chavez, Gilroy Pilice Department…Julia A Emede is now working at the family court. She was working in the criminal main Hall at the county, DV unit, when she engaged in protecting this former SJPD officer and deputy. This former SJPD former officer retired in “good standing” in 2008 even when his violent traits cost the Department to settle a suit related to his aggression. His aggressive recordings have even been used by the department when training new officers as an example of innapropriste police behavior.
This recent young victim stated that her father tried to “brainwashed” her to believe she hit him firts after the police left. When he noticed he couldn’t, it was then when he “kicked her out of the home. This young victim was born and raised in the Gilroy community, and she is well known by the local community and all of her teachers since preschool. She does not drink or use any type of substances. She graduated from a Christian private university. The big crook in this family is her father, former San Jose Police Officer and SANTA CLARA COUNTY Sheriff deputy. This SANTA CLARA COUNTY judiciary has caused tremendous harm to these young siblings. They both were outstanding students, sibling attending classes at UC Berkeley at the age of 14 for future doctors. This young woman named one if America’s brightest kids by a well known University for scoring over 95% on state tests. After mother discovery and reporting of this man’s child porn. She became the enemy of police and the judiciary who worked hard to protect this man’s job. Even when both parents we’re given join custody, father engaged in emotionally and physically alienating the mother from her children. The court never enforced visitation even when mother hired a forensic psychologist who presented evidence to the court of psychological abuse of a minor. The family court ignored the child porn, DV, animal cruelty, financial abuse after marriage, and many other illegal situation. The minor child suffered depression and even had suicidal ideation at one point of the long divorce process. The emotional, financial, and vocational attainment of these two youths have been significantly affected by their criminal father and the SANTA CLARA COUNTY Family Court corrupted system!
The victim stated on the day of the attack and while talking to the police, her father took other phone in the house and started blaming her for the attack. She requested a copy of report to the Gilroy Police Department. To today, they have not call to inform the victim of report bring ready for pick up. Victim still has pain on the neck that comes and goes; she has a follow up appointment this week for this injury. She will also see her regular provider for continued bleeding. She started her period a day after attack. She has been bleeding heavily for weeks. While the bruises may be almost gone, physical and emotional markers point the the emotional distress caused by her father attempting to choke her, and she fearing for her life. WHO PROSECUTES CRIMINAL LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THIS COUNTY?
TODAY the mother of the victim called the DA’s office to inquire about status of case. Investigator stated not to know about the case. It has been weeks now. Mother also contacted Gilroy Mayor Velasco both via phone and email. She emailed the mayor several pictures of the significant bruises on daughter’s body. She also asked when the report will be ready. Victim requested a copy of report a week ago and no call has been received from the Gilroy police. During the mother’s own DV case all these institutions played hot potatoes too. She then was told the statute of limitation had expired by the south county DA. To this she asked if statute of limitation expires because others failed to do their work? She reported timely and kept pushing. Then they direct you to take your claims to the family court where noting is done! THIS IS A BIG PUBLIC SCAM SYSTEM CAUSING FAMILIES THEIR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH IN ADDITION TO TREMENDOUS FINANCIAL BURDEN. In Santa Clara County we have a family court destruction center! Criminals are now lisenced by the California and SCC Bar and blessed by DA JEFF ROSEN.
Supervisor Deputy District Attorney Vishal Bathija has all details of this case, to before attack on this victim. Mother met with him and then detective Mindy Zen from Morgan Hill Family Justice. Mother also reported all details of case to Supervisor Córtese. His then Communication Director Janice Rombeck met with mother and took her complaint on public corruption. Cortese’s office never responded to this complaint as they stated. It was the same for former Gilroy mayor. He resigned few week’s after mother reported to his office. Then was the Gilroy interim mayor, and now Velasco. Victims are not being co-dependents; they are doing the right thing. It is a symtem under the leadership of corrupted public officials the HAS failed them! To today women have not overcome the gender pay gab and are still treated as second class citizens by men that came to this world by a vagina!
THE following number 800-572-2782 is the Battered Women Net number that connects victims of Domestic Violence to local agencies working with this population. It appears to be useless as some other local agencies. The victim called the number to ask with support with a restraining order. Someone from the local YWCA let a message almost a week after. No actual connection has been done. If this was a victim like many others with no resources, she would be at this point on the streets being revictimized. I do not see a point giving women this phone number.
ALL this PUBLIC CORRUPTION has been reported to the San Francisco FBI. These corrupted public officials appear to have the immunity and power to freely scam the SANTA CLARA COUNTY community!
The victim called the Gilroy Police Department today to inquire if report is ready for pick up. It takes a long time for a call responding officers DECIDED was a family issue and not even took the time to take pictures of injuries. She was told report is pending. The victim saw her medical doctor today and was prescribed medication for menstrual bleeding that started the day after her dad attempted to choke her and has not stopped. This incident happpened at the beginning of the month. She met with her private mental provider yesterday. It would be important for the state and private insurance to counter this cortuption that is causing medical health conditions to people and these private insurance or MediCal have to pay to treat.
06/03/19/update: yesterday the victim contacted the Gilroy mayor to inquire about the police report. It has been almost a month since the DV incident and the police was called to the home. The father contacted the victim last week stating she needed to pick up her stuff. Victim was there yesterday morning, but father refused to let her in. This time the Gilroy Police was there within 15 minutes of the civil stand by request. Last time it took them two hours. Yesterday, as the father noticed police was there, he requested to talk to the officer by the side and started to trush the victim’s mother. When the victim called the Gilroy Police at the beginning of May after father attempted to choke her, the father interrupted the victim’s call with the police and attempted to persuade them to believe his version. The officers responding to the call believed him and not even took pictures of the visible injuries. Ron Velasco, I hope you repky back to the victim’s email…!
Is there anyone who can help me understand how long it takes for a police department to complete a report they determined it was a family issue. They not even took pictures of victim’s injuries. Gilroy Police when will the report be ready? It has been more than a month! Has Gilroy Police sent report to JEFF ROSEN’s office? Mayor Velasco, do you ever respond to victims of domestic violence that email you to inquire when a report will be ready? It has been more than a month since former San Jose Officer and current? SANTA CLARA COUNTY deputy, her father, attempted to choke her. She went in person to request a copy of report. She has not heard back from the department or you Mr. Mayor Velasco!
The victim called today the GPD. She was told the report was completed mid. May and sent to ROSEN. Nor the Gilroy Police nor DA called the victim about the report being completed. This even when victim requested in person at the A Gilroy Police Department. Based on this case alone, it appears victims are let alone and uninformed after being physically assaulted and requesting charges against their aggressors. If there are any supportive services for them, they are not informed of that either. The YWCA has not contacted the victim even after she requested support with filing a restraining order against her aggressor, father & former San Jose Police Officer and current? SANTA CLARA COUNTY sheriff’s deputy!
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and very broad for me. I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it