Santa Clara City Councilmember Anthony Becker pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he leaked a confidential civil grand jury report to the San Francisco 49ers last year and then lied about it.
Becker was indicted last month on a felony perjury charge and a misdemeanor charge for leaking the document — which criticized the council's cozy relationship with the NFL team — to former 49ers spokesperson Rahul Chandhok and reporters or editors at the Silicon Valley Voice.
The 49ers have played at the city's Levi Stadium since 2014 and the city's relationship with the team has long been a point of contention.
Becker, who was late to Wednesday's hearing at the San Jose Hall of Justice, was represented by public defender Christopher Montoya and did not say a word. His lawyer entered the plea on his behalf during the hearing that lasted less than five minutes. Becker also declined to comment after the hearing.
Montoya defended Backer in the hallway after his plea, telling reporters that in his experience, "first-time impressions of a case are often wrong or incomplete."
Judge Daniel Nishigaya waived Becker's $25,000 bench warrant at his last hearing, keeping him out of custody. Becker could face four years in county jail if convicted on the perjury charge. His next court date for setting a trial date is Aug. 2.
Following the plea, Jason Malinsky, the deputy district attorney for the public and law enforcement integrity unit, described the charges against Becker as "very serious."
"I think the victims here are the community," he told reporters in front of the courthouse. "The grand jury brought Mr. Becker in and had questions for him and he deceived them and the grand jury is a body assembled to serve the public, to serve Santa Clara County."
The news of the indictment has created a stir in Santa Clara, with Mayor Lisa Gillmor, whom Becker opposed in last November's election, and some residents calling on him to resign.
The case has even grabbed the attention of Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who in a rare move attended Becker's first court appearance last month. After the hearing, he told reporters the councilmember "acted in precisely the way that the civil grand jurors warned against" and was a "politician favoring deep-pocketed special interests above his constituents."
The 49ers have spent millions of dollars on city elections, including $1.4 million on Becker's unsuccessful mayoral bid last year.
However, some of Becker's colleagues, including council allies such as Councilmember Suds Jain and Vice Mayor Kevin Park, have stated the legal process should play out first before any decisions are made in regard to his status on the council. Becker has continued to attend council meetings in person.
The grand jury report in question, which was released last October, was highly critical of Becker and four of his colleagues for voting in favor of the 49ers' interests and holding closed-door meetings with the team's lobbyists. The grand jury questioned whether such actions violated state open-meeting laws.
The report was supposed to become public on Oct. 10, however, a draft of it appeared in several media outlets, including this one, on Oct. 7. The city had been provided with a copy of the report on Oct. 5, but according to the law, the report is considered confidential until it's released.
Becker was not interviewed for the grand jury report, but called it "really biased."
No comments:
Post a Comment