Shirakawa avoids jail at hearing that turns ugly
SAN JOSE — The punishment imposed Friday on former Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. was as expected — community service rather than jail for his role in concocting a deceptive campaign mailer on behalf of a political ally.
But what happened before then was completely out of the ordinary — a chaotic and action-packed court hearing that astounded even veteran lawyers.
The drama nearly overshadowed the issue at the heart of the hearing: Was Judge Ron Del Pozzo right to not send Shirakawa back
to jail for a second time on another corruption case? The judge ordered Shirakawa, 53, to perform 360 hours of community service over the objections of the prosecution, which recently tried to persuade the judge to lock him up for a year.
The disagreement normally would have played out sedately, part of a routine legal proceeding. Instead, it morphed into a highly unusual clash, including accusations hurled by the judge against both the prosecutor and Shirakawa’s lawyer that prompted each lawyer to rally to the other’s defense.
The atypical hearing started with the judge attempting to justify his decision, speaking for more than 90 minutes. At one point, he branded defense attorney Jay Rorty as possibly incompetent, and later threatened to hold prosecutor John Chase in contempt of court when Chase tried to say the judge inaccurately described the defense attorney’s actions. When the prosecutor refused to sit down, the judge took the extraordinary step of calling his boss, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, on a speaker phone in open court to complain.
Then when the judge asked the final, routine question before ruling, “Is there any legal reason not to pronounce sentence?” Rorty shocked the crowded courtroom by saying, “yes,” even though it was clear that the sentence would benefit Shirakawa.
Rorty then said the judge had factually misrepresented the prosecutor’s position by claiming that Chase had readily agreed to the community service sentence during a meeting in the judge’s chambers in February. He also said the judge had mischaracterized his actions by claiming he appeared to have made a significant mistake in the case. Sources say court records will back Rorty on the issue.
The fracas came after Shirakawa pleaded no contest in February to one felony count of “false impersonation” for cooking up the campaign mailer to benefit his friend and political ally Xavier Campos. Mailed to Vietnamese-voters on the brink of the June 2010 primary, it painted Campos’ opponent Magdalena Carrasco as a communist. She lost the primary by only 20 votes, or less than 1 percent, and the general election by 371 votes, or 3.7 percent. Last year, Carrasco defeated Campos in his bid for re-election.
Rorty argued and the judge agreed that incarceration wasn’t called for because Shirakawa served seven months behind bars last year after pleading no contest in a separate corruption case to misusing public funds on lavish meals and compulsive gambling. As part of the plea deal in that case, he resigned from the Board of Supervisors in 2013.
Two months ago, Del Pozzo indicated he would not send Shirakawa back to jail if he accepted responsibility for the flier and explained how his DNA got on the mailer’s stamp.
In a brief statement, Shirakawa said, “My DNA appears on that flier because I created that flier. … I regret my conduct and apologize to the voters and the Santa Clara community for my actions.” He read the statement in court Friday, nearly breaking down as he added, “I haven’t always done wrong,” referring to his military service and career as a school board trustee and supervisor.
But prosecutor Chase blasted the disgraced politician’s statement as “carefully vague,” calling upon Del Pozzo to send the former supervisor to jail unless Shirakawa divulged more specific details on how he created the double-sided campaign mailer without help from someone else, given his limited computer skills.
However, Del Pozzo on Friday noted the prosecutor initially appeared to accept his no-jail decision when he indicated in February that’s how he was leaning. He also pointed out that Rosen once said, “We need to make sure we’re putting violent criminals in jail and not overcrowding our jails with people who pose little or no risk.”
After the hearing, Rorty called the sentence “fair.” But he said he “strongly” disagrees with “some of the comments made by the judge in imposing sentence about the work the prosecutor and I did on this case. We’ll address those comments at the appropriate time and place.”
Chief assistant district attorney Jay Boyarsky, who handled Del Pozzo’s phone call for Rosen, came to the Hall of Justice at the judge’s request to calm the waters. After the hearing, Boyarsky, the office’s second in command, said prosecutors will file a document in two weeks to “clarify” some of the legal issues Chase tried to raise. “The District Attorney’s Office is immensely proud of prosecutor John Chase,” Boyarsky said, adding that the hearing was “strange.”
The judge had an ally in the San Mateo County Probation Department, which prepared the pre-sentencing report, recommending that the judge put Shirakawa on three years’ probation, with 90 days in county jail if he violated the terms of the supervision. Shirakawa has until Sept. 25 to complete his sentence.
Shirakawa told the Probation Department that he would like to manage or work for a nonprofit organization, once he gets his bachelor’s degree. Last year, he earned $27,000 as a consultant with a development company — less than a fifth of the $143,000 he earned as a supervisor. He currently relies solely on his family for financial support and shares a house with six other people, including his “recurrent” girlfriend Linda Delgado, according to the report.
The former supervisor is in poor health, according to the report. He has high blood pressure, suffers from depression and sleep apnea and was recently diagnosed with kidney disease.