Another delay in the efforts to set a trial date for Santa Clara Council Member Anthony Becker. Becker appeared in court on Sept. 13, where his lawyer, Chris Montoya, asked the judge to postpone setting a date for the trial.
Montoya said that his office received “another discovery dump” from the District Attorney’s (DA) office of approximately 1,000 pages just two and a half working days prior, on Friday. He said that this was on top of the 1,000 or so pages the District Attorney’s office had already sent over and that the people indicated that more discovery was coming Montoya’s way.
Becker’s attorney told the judge that he was “not comfortable” setting a trial date when there continue to be “discovery dumps.”
Jason Malinsky, who represents the District Attorney’s office, said that he was still pushing for a March 4 trial date. While the judge took Malinsky’s request under advisement saying it would be at the “forefront” of his mind and he agreed to a new trial setting date of Nov. 29 at 1:35 p.m.
Becker is accused of lying to a Criminal Grand Jury about whether he leaked a preliminary Civil Grand Jury report titled “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” before it was officially released by the Civil Grand Jury in October of last year.
The report accused members of the Santa Clara City Council, including Becker, of forming a voting bloc that would then vote for City policies that would support the 49ers.
Former City Attorney Brian Doyle recently filed a lawsuit against the City of Santa Clara claiming that one of the things the voting bloc did was fire him at the behest of the 49ers. In his filing, Doyle says he was the target of a “conspiracy.”
The District Attorney’s office has charged Becker with “violation of duty” stemming from the alleged release of the report and “perjury” for allegedly lying under oath about releasing the report.
Becker pleaded not guilty to both charges.
