A recent political mailer by the California Association of Realtors supporting Matt Mahan quoted a 2013 San Jose Inside article in which Cindy Chavez “was called before the grand jury three times and answered ‘I don’t know,’ ‘I don’t recall’ or ‘I don’t remember’ more than 75 times in response to questions about what she knew about the trash pact.”
District Attorney Jeff Rosen, in text message blasts this month sent out by the Chavez for Mayor campaign, says “Cindy testified truthfully as a witness in a grand jury proceeding 18 years ago. After careful review, a respected Judge dismissed this as being politics.”
Rosen’s characterization of the case as “politics” doesn’t quite summarize the events. The case against Mayor Ron Gonzales was brought by respected long-term district attorney George Kennedy—who endorsed Rosen and helped Rosen unseat incumbent district attorney Dolores Carr. The case against Gonzales was dismissed by Judge John Herlihy on a technicality—the prosecution’s instructional errors to the jury.
Carr opted not to re-file the charges, which alleged that Mayor Gonzales was bribed with political support by the Teamsters when he cut a backroom deal to switch San Jose’s garbage contract to a higher priced union. The mayor then lied about it to the city council and the public, which wound up paying $11 million more in residential trash collection prices.
By misleading the council, Gonzales had engaged in a “conspiracy to cheat and defraud” the council and the public. Chavez was a close ally of the mayor, and had signed a key memo on the garbage hike.
Rosen challenged and defeated the scandal-plagued Carr, who despite being a Republican, was a close ally of Chavez. The labor union executive had made an impassioned plea to the South Bay Labor Council not to endorse Rosen. Over the past decade, however, Chavez and Rosen have since become allies and endorsed one another’s campaigns, and Rosen is now one of the most visible champions of her campaign, vouching for the truthfulness of Chavez’s sworn testimony (even though he was not involved in the case and prosecuting homicides at the time).
Chavez was never charged with any crimes, but her testimony was seen as evasive. Given her life’s work with organized labor, it was hard to fathom that the vice mayor knew so little about the union swap. Voters subsequently rejected Chavez’s 2006 bid to become mayor of San Jose.
In a political advertisement in Sunday’s Mercury News, Rosen said “Cindy did nothing wrong” and called the pieces citing Chavez’s grand jury testimony “vile accusations” that “are just not true.”
We went back over the transcripts and found that Chavez indeed provided 75 variations of not recalling or remembering key details. Lawyers often coach clients to use those phrases to sidestep a question, particularly if the witness has less than 100% certainty about the answer.
In the transcript, Chavez has a clear command of many minute details in answering some of the questions. At other times she cannot remember when or if a conversation occurred.
Here’s the first part of Chavez’s testimony for those who want to go back and read it for themselves. We added yellow highlights to the first part to make it easier to find the answers to questions for which she didn’t have the answers.
Cindy Chavez Grand Jury Testimony - Part 1
Cindy Chavez Grand Jury Testimony - Part 2
A pro-Chavez mailer sent out by the California Association of Realtors.
This article was updated to provide the second part of the testimony, additional graphics and additional information at 12:40pm on Oct. 31.
CC is in the unions’ pocket. It is not what she couldn’t remember that is the problem, it is the rest of the stinking deal that is the problem.
Vote for Mahan — hold your noise if you have to.
Oh, and the fact that DA Rosen and CC are now “allies,” tells me we need a new DA.
Mrs. Chavez:
“Why has homelessness just grown during your two-decades serving this County?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why didn’t you push back when the Health Officer pushed for kids to be out of school for multiple years, and forced them to wear masks during indoor sports?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why has Measure A been underperforming since it was approved in 2016?”
“I don’t know.”
I mean, there is a lot Chavez just doesn’t know.
Hahahahahaha!
Why are you laughing…”I don’t know!.”
Gotta give Dan Pulcrano props on this story. The history between Cindy Chavez and Jeff Rosen needs questioning and good for Pulcrano putting his name on it. . The Mercury has been Rosen’s lapdog and #1 endorser for a decade, and won’t do this work. When the local press does not question the government, we are all sunk.
Chavez took $1 million from the 49ers. Her voting record as a Supervisor is problematic and deserves oversight. This weekend cell phones in San Jose blew up from Chavez’s campaign claiming to be citing Rosen denying Cindy did anything wrong. Most folks wanted to know how Chavez got their cell numbers and felt harrassed as she used DA Rosen to deny any wrongdoing. When the county’s most powerful law enforcement officer charged with keeping public corruption in check becomes the PR manager for folks like Chavez, we need all hands on deck !
I remember her turning down my partner’s attempt to get support to build a multiple unit project in D3. Then suggesting a large contribution to a labor supported IEC at the end of the meeting. Kind of a “wink and a nod” statement…disgusting ethics.
I don’t trust politicians who blatantly lie, avoid certain lines of questioning, and try to do backroom deals such as the Strong Mayor initiative. Cindy Chavez is just that-a career politician who is power hungry and has left the Eastside a largely immigrant Latino/x/e and Asian community behind because she all about the votes and using communities as stepping stones on her way to the top. And, as a Latina Democratic woman myself, I feel insulted by this disrespect. We deserve better. I may not agree with everything Matt Mahan has done or said but I can trust him a lot more. He will actually show up during difficult conversations and he might not always say what I want to hear but he is honest. This is the bare minimum folks!
One of SJ Insides better pieces, neutral and objective. Well done.
Vote Mahan.
Thank you, Dan. This appears to be a very well written and objective article. Because of that, I’m going to need to read it two or three more times before I understand what happened. Seriously. If it was a poorly written article, the headline and the slant would immediately tell me whether Cindy Chavez was good or bad. I encourage San Jose Inside to publish more articles like this but, it’s going to be tough in this age of 10-second attention spans. This is what “We report. You decide.” would really look like. Can we readers handle it?
The primary reason lawyers tell their clients to respond to questions with some variation of I don’t recall is that if facts come to light that the person being questioned did know the answer, but that it was adverse to their other testimony, JohnMichael they cannot be charged with perjury.
Dear Community,
Another HIT PIECE on a Minority woman.
Cindy was not charged with a crime, no matter how bad it looks, NO CHARGES.
I WONDER WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE BY WOMEN ORGANIZATIONS ?
DEATHLY SILENT…..
UNLIKE KEVIN DE LEON.
WHERE IS THE CRY TO HAVE OUR DISTRICT 5 AND OTHER MINORITY LEADERSHIP, INCLUDING OMAR TORRES AND PETER ORTIZ, DEMAND THAT CARRASCOS EX-PARTNER RESIGN???
AGAIN – Media attacks those they do not support no matter who they hurt.
85 YEAR MINORITY WOMAN(GREEK AND MEXICAN HERITAGE) was out checking on Political Sign placement – and Carrasco told Print Media that she was being stalked.
No pictures of Carascos Family was ever produced.
Yet the hit piece went forward, crushing the 85 year old emotionally.
She was friends with Magdalena as President of the Plata Arroyo Neighborhood Association. Carrasco and Francis Herbert came to our Plata Arroyo Neighborhood meeting when she was elected President of the Association.
Back-Stabbing is the word. The issue was clarified and no Reyraction was ever reported, yet, still never printed.
Funny how Media favorites don’t get blasted like this article is bringing up old politically hot issues.
Kind of like people in the San Jose Spotlight Comment section.
Run the Election News not Old News – this was a Weighted Read against Cindy.
No Charges Filed – GROW up and STOP CRYING OVER SPILT MILK.
THIS IS WHY I DID NOT RUN FOR CITY COUNCIL AGAIN. I AM NOT PUTTING MY FAMILY THROUGH YOUR GARBAGE POLITICAL ATTACKS AGAIN.
I PRAY FOR CINDY AND THE OTHER CANDIDATES WHO THIS MEDIA DOES NOT FAVOR.
I AM OPEN FOR DISCUSSION.
You have my Email.
In Community Spirit,
Danny Garza
Under her leadership it will be a disaster we don’t feel safe in telling you if you are to call 911 you will not get help. why should I trust Cindy Chavez! she is a good drama Queen though.
The greedy realtors pointing fingers. How ironic, after all they have done to secure a monopoly on real estate transactions and steal homeowner’s equity.