BREAKING: Criminal Grand Jury Convenes in Sheriff’s CCW Case

Santa Clara County DA Jeff Rosen has impaneled a criminal grand jury as part of an ongoing investigation into the issuance of concealed gun permits by the office of Sheriff Laurie Smith, sources in the legal community say. However, neither the sheriff nor the District Attorney’s office will officially confirm or deny the inquiry.

The investigation into political donors and recipients of the permits—first reported by San Jose Inside last summer—has moved to the grand jury stage on Monday, NBC Bay Area reported in a Thursday night broadcast.

A $45,000 contribution by bodyguard Martin Nielsen to an independent campaign committee sparked the investigation after it was spotted in public campaign filings.

Sources close to Smith dismiss the investigation as politically motivated and say they plan to fight hard against allegations that the approval of permits was tied to campaign contributions. In going after an elected rival, sources say Rosen has gone rogue and is engaging in prosecutorial over-reach.

According to officials familiar with but not authorized to publicly speak on the case, Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker led the investigation with colleague and head of the Public Integrity Unit John Chase.

The DA would have begun the grand jury proceedings sooner had the pandemic not forced a months-long shutdown of the courts.

A DA spokesman declined to confirm the news. As did Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Dep. Jessica Gabaldon, who directed this news outlet to the County Counsel for comment.

County Counsel James Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In California, felony charges are brought either after a preliminary hearing or an indictment by a grand jury. While jurors at a jury trial decide whether a defendant is guilty or innocent, the grand jury determines whether there is probable cause to believe that the accused has committed a crime.

Defendants are not present for criminal grand juries, and in many cases unaware that the proceedings are taking place. Instead, prosecutors convene grand juries to present evidence and witness testimony to argue that they have enough cause to bring charges.

According to an explainer on the process by Shouse Law Group, prosecutors tend to use the grand jury-indictment process in cases of high media interest, involve a public official or if the allegations against the defendant seem weak.

12 Comments

  1. The top criminal in Santa Clara County, Jeff Rosen, going after other public official criminals. RECALL JEFF ROSEN!

  2. Rich is ok. 9 out of 10 times I won’t agree with him but we stay civil on Facebook. The other day he made a post that seemed supportive of the BLM riots in Portland blaming them on Trump and I pointed out the rioters burned down a local POA office.

  3. So, where is the San Jose Inside reporting on Jeff Rosen’s “anti-death penalty” policy and on the DA’s policy NOT to prosecute instances of “resisting arrest” against police officers?

    “Laws without consequences are merely advice”.

    A police officer reported an incident where a perp stopped for a traffic violation refused to show his drivers license or get out of the car.

    Can the officer call the DA’s office and have Rosen send a social worker?

  4. > The other day he made a post that seemed supportive of the BLM riots in Portland blaming them on Trump

    BLM supporters don’t deserve any slack.

    They’re Marxists, and their real message is NOT “black lives matter” but Marxist Lives Matter.

    The BLM leaders are quite clear that their agenda, among other things, opposes the idea of a “nuclear family”. Destruction of the black nuclear family, among other things, went a long way toward putting many blacks in the desperate situation they find themselves in.

    Why is it that people are NOT allowed to say “All Lives Matter”, or “All Black Lives Matter”, or “Blue Lives Matter”, or “Buildings Matter”?

    Departure from “BLM” orthodoxy seems to be a firing offense at some Silicon Valley companies.

    The ignorant or malignant or nihilist political approval seekers who mindlessly jumped on the “Black Lives Matter” bandwagon are likely going to get some payback.

    Rich Robinson and Sam Liccardo can bend their knees to the white Trotskyites in charge of BLM, but their race huckstering scam is sooner or later going to lose it’s hypnotic grip on the majority of Americans who have taken their red pill and live outside “the Matrix”.

  5. Hnn, Jabba Rich took 25 grand from San Francisco Police Officers, elects two judges with racist reputations, and he is a BLM fan?

  6. Bubble, you and others here at the San Jose Inside know I have stood up for the oppressed and that includes all, Blacks, Browns, White, Yellow, purple, and all the colors of the rainbow. You and others have criticized me for that. I DON’T CARE. The face of the oppressed is the same everywhere, community, group, race, and any place in the world. The faces of the m@therF@ckers are also the same everywhere. The Black Life Matter people are no other than crazy Bernie Sanders’ monkeys trying to get any power they can. THEY DO NOT REPRESENT the Black community, and they are not Martin Luther King like. They like AOC, Omar, Linda Sarsour, Bernie Sanders and so on. They snapped Gov. Newsom and replaced him with Ro for the Democratic convention. This because of the votes Bernie got in California. BERNIE SANDERS IS A F@CKEN DOUBLE LOSER! They did the same for KAMALA Harris. They want a “progressive” [communist] Black woman for VP such as Bass who praises Fidel Castro…oh corazón…just like Bernie Sanders. DIOS LOS HACE Y SOLOS SE JUNTAN! F@CK COMMUNISTS! Hey Bass? Fidel Castro is not a comandante. He is a F@KEN communist DICTADOR! DA Jeff Rosen only cares about his status. Whatever is popular, that is where you will find him. Talk about lack of integrity and character!

  7. A while back I went to the sheriffs office and requested a cc’d application. The officer at the front desk said “don’t bother. She won’t approve it. This is just a big waste of time for everyone”. This is exactly why black lives matter has come intonexistance!

  8. Wow, tough crowd today.

    Back to the story at hand.The argument that Sheriff Smith will make is that there are 2M people in the county and if just 1% of them actually had a CCW that’s 20,000 potential lawsuits, for the county and the tax payers. It would be pure chaos in the streets and be just like the wild west. Even though this is pure conjecture and false. But it’s the argument she will make and given the political climate of the state it will hold up.

    The reality is that people with CCWs are model citizens. They don’t get into fights, they don’t do drugs, they don’t drink and drive; most of them won’t go 5 over the speed limit. They are best behaved people in our society and avoid all conflict if possible, because if they get so much as a jay walking ticket someone in the issuing department gets notified and your CCW can get pulled. So it’s actually a very tight leash on someone and she should be promoting it if they really want control.

    The reality is that if she did issue CCWs there might be a 1 or 2 self defense situations resolved with firearms. The legal side of it might be decided quickly. However, we started having civil litigation years ago, which is just money. But more recently you have the “social justice” side of it. So even if you legitimately defend yourself or your family you can ruin your career and become a pariah. i.e. you loose everything anyway.

    A few facts on gun control laws. We know that gun control doesn’t work proven by statics. No issue location like NYC, D.C. Chicago when have far more violent crime when compared with Texas , NV, AZ, UT, CO. . .

    The origins of gun control are in fact racist. In 1865 in reaction to emancipation, several southern states adopt “black codes” which, among other things, forbid black persons from possessing firearms. To continue the twist the NRA (AKA domestic terrorist group according to SF) was founded by Democrats in 1871 with a mission to educate and improving American civilians’ marksmanship, which they still do today! There are so many obtuse laws in California now the police, sheriff, DAs and even the DOJ don’t know how to interpret them. I’ve had police tell me flat out they don’t ever charge unless it’s an add-on charge to something. That’s why they almost always have a weapons charge added in.

    The real key to this is education on firearms. We educate our kids on drugs, pregnancy, stranger danger and even Internet predators, but we don’t do anything other than tell kids guns are bad. This is just irresponsible! You can’t blow up a car with a 9mm from 100 yards away. They don’t blow up with the dreaded AR-15 either.

  9. > The top criminal in Santa Clara County, Jeff Rosen, going after other public official criminals. RECALL JEFF ROSEN!

    Well, FEXXY, you finally made the case, got the order, and sealed the deal,

    Jeff Rosen is a NON-ESSENTIAL public servant.

    https://www.sccgov.org/sites/da/newsroom/newsreleases/Pages/NRA2020/BTA-Reforms.aspx

    “DA Rosen Announces “Bend the Arc” Social Justice Reforms;
    Will No Longer Seek the Death Penalty”

    The first set of reforms include:

    > The DA will work to end cash bail in California.
    > The DA will stop requesting fines and fees from indigent defendants.
    > The DA will create a fund, with illegal money seized from criminals, that will be awarded to organizations successfully addressing race and inequity in our community.
    > The DA will immediately cease filing thousands of charges of Driving on a Suspended License for Failure to Pay Fines and Fees in Superior Court. The cases will be filed in Traffic Court as infractions.
    > The DA will automatically expunge the criminal record of those who are eligible and have successfully completed probation.

    No bail? No fines for perps who can’t pay?

    Smash car window, steal $949, buy illegal drugs to put in nose, catch, release, wash, rinse, repeat.

    Corruption? Or, incompetence? Or, stupidity?

    Do we have to decide?

    https://www.recallrosen.org/

  10. Bubble: something is missing here. >DA office will no longer give passes to privileged sex offenders and domestic violence abusers even if those m@therf@ckers perpetrators are law enforcement. NO PASSES TO PERPETRATORS OF VIOLENT CRIMES INDEPENDENTLY OF RACE, ethnic group, religion, place of origin, sexual orientation, SES, so on. Equal access to justice and due process for all! Chemical castration for child sex offenders! The last one is my next goal!

  11. Smash car window, steal $949, buy illegal drugs to put in nose, catch, release, wash, rinse, repeat.

    the state is getting out of the law enforcement business. it has already given up on the war on drugs.-

    SO.. ARE WE GOING TO GET REFUNDS FOR OUR TAXES THAT GO TO LAW ENFORCEMENT??

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