Grand Jury

The Shirakawa Grand Jury Transcripts

George Shirakawa Jr. is currently spending his days in the Santa Rita Jail infirmary, while his county-provided attorney is attempting to seal grand jury transcripts that shed new information on his alleged role in a political mail fraud scandal. Since the documents remain public for the time being, San Jose Inside has decided to publish the grand jury transcripts in their entirety.

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Grand Jury Indicts George Shirakawa Jr. in Political Mail Fraud Scandal

The Grand Jury indicted former county Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. on one felony count of false personation Monday. According to the Grand Jury’s report, which by law will not be released for 10 days, Shirakawa allegedly took part in a political mail fraud scheme “on or about and between May 1, 2010, and June 8, 2010.” According to prosecutors in the District Attorney’s office, Shirakawa’s DNA was found on political mailers that portrayed then-San Jose City Council candidate Magdalena Carrasco as a communist. Carrasco lost the primary by 20 votes to current District 5 Councilman Xavier Campos, a close friend and former staffer to Shirakawa, before going on to lose the runoff. A source tells San Jose Inside that Carrasco, Campos and the councilmember’s sister, State Assemblymember Nora Campos, were all deposed by the Grand Jury last week.

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Grand Jury Reports Dominate Board of Supervisors’ Next Meeting

The people in charge of providing financial and protective services for Santa Clara County residents run a department lacking structure and accountability, according to a just-released Civil Grand Jury audit that goes before the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. Other items on the board agenda include grand jury reviews for health inspections of food trucks and farmers markets, and a review of Juvenile Hall.

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District Attorney Charges 48 Nuestra Familia Gang Members in Grand Jury Indictment

Dozens of alleged Nuestra Familia gang members were indicted by a criminal grand jury on 77 charges, which range from meth sales to murder. It’s the largest gang case Santa Clara County has ever tackled: 48 people charged in a hefty 99-page indictment. “This is a sophisticated, complex criminal organization that required a sophisticated, multi-faceted law enforcement and prosecutorial response,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement released Tuesday morning.

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A Review of Santa Clara County’s Grand Jury, Which is Accepting Applications

Santa Clara County’s Civil Grand Jury—a watchdog of local government—needs 19 new jurors to serve during the coming fiscal year. Every year, the grand jury fields citizen complaints and chooses which to pursue as investigations. Reports from the past two years have included a look at funds used for the construction of San Jose’s City Hall, the treatment of female inmates at a county jail and wasteful spending at Valley Medical Center. The deadline to apply is March 8.

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Council Talks City Hall Grand Jury Report

The City Council meeting Tuesday will open with a commendation ceremony for local Olympian Martilou “Marti” Malloy, who took bronze in Judo in London, and the Association of Former Vietnamese Political Prisoners for their 25 years of support of Vietnamese political prisoners. But once the council gets down to business Tuesday, the mayor and councilmembers will discuss a Grand Jury report that questions the city’s funding structure and transparency in building City Hall.

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Grand Jury Validation

In the past, I have written about how fire services are deployed in San Jose with an emphasis on the data that shows the overwhelming ratio of medical calls to actual fires. In addition, I have shared that San Jose’s minimum staffing contract requires four people per fire engine while every other city in the county requires three firefighters or less.

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Grand Jury: Poor Play on Golf Courses

The San Jose City Council signed off Tuesday on a Grand Jury Report detailing how two municipal golf courses have ended up in a $1.9 million sand trap. Los Lagos and Rancho del Pueblo, two of the three public courses owned by the City of San Jose, have been draining $800,000 per year out of the General Fund because of extensive debt.

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