Dominic Caserta Posts Bail, Faces Arraignment on Fraud, Forgery Charges

Former Santa Clara City Councilman Dominic Caserta, facing an arrest warrant on felony fraud and forgery charges, has posted bail in San Benito County, according to prosecutors.

Caserta is to be arraigned on the charges May 13 in a Santa Clara County Superior Court courtroom in Palo Alto, said Steve Dal Porto, deputy district attorney.

Caserta is represented by Sam Polverino, a well-known criminal defense lawyer in San Jose.

Superior Court Judge Paul Bernal signed a $30,000 arrest warrant on Feb. 16, based on charges filed in January by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

Caserta is accused of forging six Foothill-DeAnza Community College pay stubs for 2021 – even though he last worked for the college in 2019 – in seeking to obtain a $690,000 loan from Finance of America Mortgage.

He also is accused of submitting a false employment verification form for 2021, in which he said his salary for the year as a part-time instructor was $81,142, and forging the signature of a district employee.

Caserta could not be reached for comment, and Polverino did not respond to inquiries.

Caserta, 47, is a former high school teacher who ended his campaign for county supervisor and withdrew from public life in 2018 after San Jose Inside published interviews with several women who accused him of sexual misconduct.

Prosecutors in August 2018 decided against filing criminal charges against Caserta after investigating the sexual misconduct complaints.

A leaked personnel file obtained by San Jose Inside in May 2018 showed that Caserta had been disciplined by Santa Clara Unified School District multiple times since 2002 for sexually harassing students, and at least 15 people filed police reports against him. As a result of the public backlash, Caserta left his teaching position at Santa Clara High School and local community colleges, withdrew from the race for Santa Clara County supervisor and resigned from the Santa Clara City Council.

He is listed as a lecturer in political science at San Francisco State University, where he earned a master’s degree. He received a bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University.

Caserta was first elected to the Santa Clara council in 2002 and re-elected again in 2006 and 2014.

During his tenure on the council, Caserta often clashed with Mayor Lisa Gillmor, especially on matters involving the San Francisco 49ers and Levi’s Stadium, and was also the only council member to vote against hiring of City Manager Deanna Santana, who was fired this week.

Three decades of journalism experience, as a writer and editor with Gannett, Knight-Ridder and Lee newspapers, as a business journal editor and publisher and as a weekly newspaper editor in Scotts Valley and Gilroy; with the Weeklys group since 2017. Recipient of several first-place writing and editing awards, California News Publishers Association.

4 Comments

  1. I’ve tracked this POS since he taught at a high school in San Bernardino back in the 90’s and expressed his love to me for my 15 year old daughter. The Principle there was a big fan of his, and was featured on a 60 minutes episode accused of molesting seminarians at a Catholic seminary.

  2. I taught at the same school he did. I lived in Willow Glen for 18. years. All 4 of my children graduated from Willow Glen High School. One year at Willow Glen Elementary during the Daddy Daughter date. I was with my two daughters. Now they are 26 and 24. After a BA at BYU, I have self-sponsored myself through both Utah and CA P.O.S.T. Academies. Distance, Balance, Awareness of one’s surroundings has always been important to me for my safety and that of my family. I walked up to Dominic and shook his hand and asked if he was who he was. It fed his ego. I then told him my sister is Karen Hardy. It was fun to see his jaw hit the playground. I watched him the rest of the night. I ask WHY, WHY, WHY was he there. He was not married and had NO children. I am glad he knew I was watching his actions ALL evening long. and since then too.

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