Months after being accused of corrupt misconduct by a civil grand jury, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith has lastly issued a defiant response.
In accordance with courtroom papers filed on Tuesday, March 1, Smith argues 4 of the seven counts within the accusation towards her are legally inadequate and ought to be dismissed.
“I’m gratified that the civil grand jury dismissed probably the most critical allegations,” Smith advised San Jose Highlight. “For the counts remaining, they’re specious at finest.”
Final December, a civil grand jury formally accused Smith of granting hid weapon licenses to donors and political supporters and mendacity about accepting items. The accusation adopted months of probes into Smith’s administration of the county jail system by the Board of Supervisors, which voted no confidence in her management. Smith can also be a possible goal of the California legal professional normal, which is investigating attainable civil rights violations dedicated by her workplace.
The grand jury seems to have thought of however not pursued a number of different counts, together with an allegation that Smith obtained a bribe from somebody making use of for a hid carry license. These counts have been crossed out within the accusation.
Smith initially didn’t enter a plea, and her legal professional Allen Ruby unsuccessfully requested the courtroom for extra time to assessment the 30 volumes of grand jury transcripts to deal with insufficiencies within the accusation.
Ruby declined remark.
In her response, Smith argues the accusation doesn’t allege she issued a hid carry weapon license to any unqualified folks, or that she denied a license to any certified candidates. She additionally claims the depend is inadequate as a result of it makes use of ambiguous phrases like “distinguished” and “VIP” to explain the alleged recipients of licenses.
“Who precisely is a ‘distinguished particular person’ locally? An elementary faculty principal? What concerning the assistant principal?” the courtroom file reads.
The second and third counts accuse Smith of failing to analyze purposes for hid carry weapon licenses. Smith argued the burden isn’t on the sheriff to analyze the place candidates have good trigger to obtain licenses. In accordance with Smith, the accusation does not allege any particular incidents the place she failed to analyze licenses, past imprecise references to “VIPs.”
Smith can also be difficult a declare that she did not cooperate with the county’s request for data of an inner affairs investigation.
Smith’s objections don’t point out three different counts that accuse her of accepting an illegal present in early 2019 within the type of tickets, foods and drinks at a San Jose Sharks hockey recreation. The accusation additionally claims Smith allegedly did not disclose this present and dedicated perjury by omitting it.
As a high-level public official, Smith’s case entails a tangle of jurisdictions. The case is being heard in San Mateo County, and the San Francisco County District Lawyer’s Workplace is representing the folks towards Smith. Final month, the courtroom refused a request by the Santa Clara County District Lawyer’s Workplace to seal a portion of the grand jury testimony from insurance coverage dealer Harpreet Chadha.
Chadha is going through felony fees for allegedly bribing undersheriff Rick Sung for a hid carry license. Santa Clara County mentioned unsealing Chadha’s testimony may violate his constitutional rights as a felony defendant. The courtroom determined to unseal the testimony, noting Chadha and Sung have each requested or not it’s made public.
A spokesperson for the San Francisco District Lawyer’s Workplace advised San Jose Highlight the workplace cannot touch upon the case.
As Smith fights this corruption probe, she has given no indication whether or not she intends to run for reelection, and the submitting deadline is March 11. The June main is simply three months away and Smith faces a crowded area of keen opponents.
