Defendants plead not guilty in bribery case
Trial set to start Nov. 2 over the alleged exchange of special firearms permits for political donations
SAN JOSE >> The four men indicted for allegedly brokering the exchange of a sizable political donation for coveted concealed gun permits from the Santa Clara
County Sheriff’s Office all pleaded not guilty Monday and set course for a speedy trial.
Sheriff’s Capt. James Jensen, South Bay attorneys Christopher Schumb and Harpaul Nahal, and local gun manufacturer Michael Nichols entered their not-guilty pleas in a San Jose courtroom before Judge Eric Geffon. Their attorneys all opted to begin trial as soon as possible, which Geffon set to begin Nov. 2.
All four defendants were indicted Aug. 6 and arraigned Aug. 31, which started the clock for their speedy trial rights that compel a trial to start within 60 days of arraignment.
Jensen, Schumb, Nahal and Nichols were all charged by a criminal grand jury with felony counts of conspiracy and bribery. Jensen was also charged by the grand jury with seven felony counts of falsifying official paperwork, based on allegations that he illegally approved the firearms proficiency exams of select concealed gun permit recipients without them having to go to the gun range to show they knew how to safely operate their handguns.
According to the indictment, the CEO and managers with the executive security firm AS Solution, which counts Facebook executives among its clients, conspired with the defendants to obtain up to a dozen concealed carry weapons permits from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office in exchange for $90,000 in donations to com
mittees that supported Sheriff Laurie Smith in her 2018 re-election bid.
The indictment, based on more than two weeks of testimony to the grand jury, contends that AS Solution CEO Christian West and Martin Nielsen were connected to Schumb by Nichols, a friend of Nielsen’s, and Nahal, an attorney who knew Schumb and his connections to the sheriff. Schumb co-managed finances for the Santa Clara County Public Safety Alliance, an independent expenditure committee that backed Smith’s 2018 re-election.
West and Nielsen testified that through that group they were connected to Jensen, a close adviser to Smith who, according to grand jury testimony, oversaw CCW permit applications for VIP-type recipients. That VIP group included political donors as well as prominent figures like judges, professional athletes, prosecutors and retired law enforcement officers.
An initial $45,000 donation under the alleged deal was made to the PSA and came under scrutiny by the DA’s office after the Metro newspaper alerted prosecutors
to the unusually large contribution. Before Nielsen could make the second donation, he was stopped and searched by DA investigators and began cooperating with the investigation.
On Aug. 31, West pleaded guilty to similar charges as the indicted defendants, in an agreement that would result in charging and sentencing leniency in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors. Nielsen and another AS Solution manager testified they were in line for similar consideration for their cooperation.
The defendants’ attorneys have strongly criticized the grand jury indictment, making
particular note of its secretive and one-sided nature — prosecutors present evidence to jurors and marshal testimony with no cross-examination — and over the past month sought to disqualify District Attorney Jeff Rosen and his entire office from trying the case. Their rationale, in a motion authored by Schumb attorney Joe Wall, was that Rosen’s friendship with past fundraising support from Schumb posed a conflict of interest that threatened his right to a fair trial.
Jensen’s attorney, Harry Stern, piggybacked that with his own motion making a circumstantial argument that prosecutors illegally leaked grand jury transcripts — which are now public — and confidential details from the indictment proceedings, accusations that the DA’s office denied. Geffon rejected the disqualification arguments, and Stern said he would take the leak matter to the Court of Appeal for evaluation, to possibly halt the current trial timeline.
In grand jury testimony given by a DA investigator, Jensen reportedly stated that he was being directed by Sung in steering the $45,000 donation to Schumb. No testimony directly implicated the sheriff beyond her statutory authority as the sole person in her agency who can grant the permits. Both Smith and Undersheriff Rick Sung were called to testify before the grand jury but refused by invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.