It took less than three hours of deliberation on Thursday, Dec. 5 to find Santa Clara City Council Member Anthony Becker guilty of felony perjury charges. On the second count of willful violation of duty, the jury found Becker guilty.
“I think that we all expect more of our elected officials, and this prosecution is a reminder of that,” said District Attorney Jeff Rosen after the verdict was read. “It’s also a reminder of the admonition that sometimes the cover up is even worse than the crime. So, the thing to do when you have done something wrong is to admit what you have done and move on.”
Becker will report to the probation office in Morgan Hill over the next two business days. Montoya asked that the probation office not speak to or interview his client about the facts of the case.
Becker will be sentenced on Jan. 31, 2025 by Judge Javier Alcala, who oversaw the jury trial. Until then, he is free on probation.
Felony perjury carries a maximum of four years in prison, but Rosen does not believe that this is a case that requires the maximum.
“I don’t think this is a state prison case, but in terms of what the level of accountability is, we’ll see what the probation report shows,” said Rosen. “I think there does need to be some accountability, whether that’s a combination of jail time and fines because this is very serious, what the defendant did.”
He dismissed the idea that Becker was somehow targeted in this investigation.
“Look, we follow the evidence, and we go where the evidence leads us. In this case, the evidence led us to Mr. Becker’s guilt,” said Rosen. “We don’t go into the investigation targeting one person or another. We have no opinion as to which city council member should be elected in Santa Clara.
“We conducted a very thorough investigation, very objective investigation and I think that the jury’s very quick verdict is a referendum on that,” continued Rosen.
Further Investigation into Leaks
When asked if this was the end of the investigation into the leak of the civil grand jury report “Unsportsmanlike Conduct,” Rosen indicated the active pursuit of more information was over.
“Absent more information, we charged the person and convicted the person who committed the crime,” said Rosen.
“We very extensively investigated it, and of course, if people want to provide us other information about why they think somebody else leaked it, or how that can be proved, we’ll certainly look at whatever people send to us,” said Rosen.
He said the bar for criminal charges is high.
“The amount of evidence we need, as you can see from this trial, is pretty substantial, given our investigation,” said Rosen. “That’s a different kind of evidence, both in quantity and quality, than the information that a reporter may need to write a story and say and suggest that someone else did something like this as well.
“The fact that others may, and I just say may have done what Mr. Becker did, does not excuse Mr. Becker from what he did,” said Rosen. “We investigated everyone, and we only bring charges when we can prove them beyond a reasonable doubt to a unanimous jury.”
The trial started on Nov. 6 with opening statements and lasted more than three weeks. The prosecution called several witnesses. One of them was former 49ers public relations executive Rahul Chandhok, who told the jury that Becker leaked the report to him. Another was Santa Clara City Council Member Suds Jain, who said that Becker told him he leaked the report.
Silicon Valley Voice’s Continuing Becker Trial Coverage:
Day 14 Becker Perjury Trial: Case Handed to the Jury
Day 13 Becker Perjury Trial: Prosecution and Defense Rest
Day 12 Becker Perjury Trial: DA Investigator Testifies to Destroyed Evidence
Day 11 Becker Perjury Trial: Investigator Holt Continues Testimony
Day 10 Becker Perjury Trial: Council Colleague and DA Investigator Hammer Home Prosecution’s Claims
Day 9 Becker Perjury Trial: Criminalist Continues Testimony on Data Extraction
Day 8 Becker Perjury Trial: “Expert” Witness Takes the Stand
Day 7 Becker Perjury Trial: Civil Grand Jury Overseer Testifies
Day 6 Becker Perjury Trial: Prosecution Enters Becker’s Grand Jury Testimony
Day 5 Becker Perjury Trial: Damage Control And Campaign Financing
Day 4 Becker Perjury Trial: Fmr. City Attorney Steve Ngo Take the Stand
Day 3 Becker Perjury Trial: Defense Tries to Paint Chandhok as the Focal Point
Day 2 Becker Perjury Trial: Chandhok Testimony Resumes
Destroyed Evidence Discussed on Morning of Becker Perjury Trial
Day 1 Becker Perjury Trial: Opening Statements, Chandhok Testimony
Jury Selected in Becker Perjury Trial
Judge Rejects Claims of Political Conspiracy Against Vice Mayor Anthony Becker
Jury Selection Begins in Becker Perjury Trial
Judge Wraps Up Majority of Motions in Becker Perjury Trial
Judge Rules on Multiple Motions as Start of Becker Perjury Trial Nears
Potential Motion to Dismiss in Becker Trial
Becker Trial Jury Selection Starts in Late October
Becker Trial on Standby, Small Business Owner Kirk Vartan Subpoenaed
No Settlement in Becker Trial; Becker Team Withdraws Subpoenas
Becker’s Attorneys Want to Investigate DA’s Office for 2020 Grand Jury Report Leak
Mayor Gillmor’s Response to PRA Request Causes Judge to Reverse Rulings
Impacted Court System Forces New Delay in Becker Trial
Judge Denies Series of Defense Motions as Start of Becker Perjury Trial Nears
Jude Barry: The Related Company Lobbyist Subpoenaed in the Becker Trial
I am glad that this is over and the jury came to the obvious conclusion that Becker is guilty of the crimes he was charged with. I am also glad to read from Erika’s quote of Jeff Rosen that he does not believe that this case is a state prison one.
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It is too bad that Becker forced upon us all the shame of having a sitting Santa Clara city councilperson and vice mayor being found guilty of perjury and official misconduct. He should have resigned and since he did not his fellow councilpeople should have forced him out if that were possible.
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So now in just the last ten years we have one councilperson found guilty of a felony while in office and another who stepped down after committing sexual harassment while in office. It is a pity that we have had to bear this shame but I hope that we can move forward and put it behind us now.
SUDS JAIN, FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CITY PLEASE RESIGN YOUR OFFICE IMMEDIATELY. YOU ARE AS CORRUPT AS BECKER FOR COVERING UP HIS CRIMES. YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ON THE BALLOT OR REELECTED. RESIGN, SUDS!!!!!
Just a quick note: A criminal case is not complete and final until the appeals of an accused person are heard and decided by a higher court. There were many challenging issues in this novel case such as: (a) what discovery should or should not have been allowed; (b) what evidence should or should not have been shown to the jury; (c) what instructions of law should or should not have been given by the trial judge to the jury; and (d) whether or not there was any selective prosecution (such as both President Biden and President Trump have recently said that they or their friends/relatives were subjected to as a result of their politics).
There were abhorrent tactics used by both Prosecution and Defense during trial but Becker and his counsel would be foolish to appeal this particular matter. I believe Jain and Chandhok’s testimony sealed the deal for the jury.
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I agree with you about selective prosecution in Rosen’s office but Becker got what he deserved in this case. Professional immaturity was the culprit for his actions, brazen attitude is why he tried to pull in others and drag this out for so long.
CSC,
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It was Becker’s professional immaturity that caused him to act as he did but it was more than just professional immaturity. He also leaked the report because of his self interest in a public relations campaign against a grand jury report critical of his improper and appearance of corruption during his bid to be elected mayor. I also think it is only realistic to think that he also did this to please the Forty Niners who were spending millions of dollars to help him get elected mayor in exactly the sort of improper and corrupt relationship that the grand jury report criticized. All of this was of course completely brazen which I agree with you completely on.
I’m more interested in finding out if Rosen will investigate the leak of the GJ report, which IMO is a bigger deal than Becker’s perjury. That has to come from the DA’s office, because we know our police is in cahoots with the likely leakers.
In any event, I’m reminded of this analysis from a few years ago about how the police doesn’t spend much time solving crimes.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/police-are-not-primarily-crime-fighters-according-data-2022-11-02/
Perhaps Miles and the SV Voice team can look at how SCPD stacks up.
Fred,
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Rosen’s investigators did investigate the leak of the grand jury report. Anthony Becker was found guilty of that. That is what the official misconduct conviction was about.
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You seem to be referring to the theory that has been pushed in this publication that someone also leaked the grand jury report to the SCPOA. There is no basis for this theory since the SCPOA did not show any signs of possessing the grand jury report before it was publicly published by the San Jose Spotlight whose Ramona Giwargis received it from the Forty Niners’ Rahul Chandhok who received it with Anthony Becker’s illegal leak. The SCPOA showed a sign of knowing that a grand jury report would be coming out and that it would be relevant to their interests by purchasing a domain name with “grand jury report” in it. But doing that did not require receiving an illegally leaked draft copy of the report. A civil grand jury is not a top secret tribunal doing what they are doing in hiding and I am sure that there were many people in and around the courthouse who knew approximately what they were working on and that this is inevitable and common.
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Maybe the SCPOA received a leaked copy. Maybe they received it from Gillmor but if they did they did not need that because Becker was corrupt and stupid and leaked it the Forty Niners who leaked it to the San Jose Spotlight who published the draft report days before the SCPOA put up anything that would show they had the report. And Becker also leaked it to Carolyn Schuk of this publication and this publication published a detailed article on the grand jury report hours before the SCPOA purchased their grand jury report website.
The report was leaked. So what.
This is NOT what he was convicted for.
What Jeff convicted him of is lying. Why don’t they convict ALL who lie under oath?
He was convicted of perjury. Not leaking a report.
There’s nothing wrong with leaking reports.
It’s called whistleblowing.
Dk,
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Anthony Becker was in fact convicted for leaking the report. That was what the conviction for official misconduct was for. It is in addition to that that he was convicted for perjury which was a criminally more serious offense. What Becker did was not whistleblowing. It is not whistleblowing to leak a draft grand jury report a few days ahead of when the final grand jury report would be made publicly available. All the arguments he helped the Forty Niners make before the public release could still be made after the public release.
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The grand jury report in question was the whistleblowing that brought to light the improper relationship that Becker and other council members appeared to have with the Forty Niners. And his illegally sending the report to them early just reinforced the truth of many of the grand jury’s findings. It is not whistleblowing to break the law to help a corporate special interest impugn a grand jury report criticizing you and that corporate special interest for having an improper relationship that you then prove to be a real problem with your illegal leaking. Especially not when that corporate special interest has spent millions of dollars getting you into office in the first place and trying to help you move up in office.