On March 12th, the Fly, a column posted on the blog San Jose Inside, presented an article titled, “Odd Bunch: Republican Sheriff Laurie Smith, Organized Labor. The piece focused on the fact that Cindy Chavez and other Democrats and labor leaders supported the re-election of GOP Sheriff Laurie Smith. The article is loaded with whoppers, but the most scale-busting lunker is described below.
One of Fly’s observations is that County Supervisor Cindy Chavez has previously backed other Republicans. In 2010 she endorsed Republican incumbent DA Dolores Carr against Democrat, Jeff Rosen.
What explains that decision? Perhaps, the Fly suggests, Chavez “was concerned that Rosen would be more aggressive in pursuing misconduct by officeholders…” Why should Chavez expect Carr to be less aggressive? Primarily, according to The Fly, because “Carr had dropped the case against ex-Mayor Ron Gonzales…” for whom Chavez served as Vice-Mayor on the San Jose City Council.
The statement that Carr’s decision not to launch a renewed prosecution of Gonzales indicated a lack of aggressiveness in pursuing office holders constitutes a mega-whopper. Let’s look at the facts.
First, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge John Herlihy not only dismissed the charges against Gonzales, he also clobbered the DA’s office for bringing the charges in the first place. If the court were to accept the DA’s theory, Herlihy wrote, “then almost any effort by a public official to solve a problem of a constituent could then be regarded as a potential bribe, provided that the constituent continues to politically support the public official.” In short, Gonzales wasn’t only found innocent; the DA’s office was found guilty of a bizarre and undemocratic interpretation of the law.
Second, even the Mercury-News, an institution that utterly loathed Gonzales, wrote after charges were dismissed, “The felony bribery case against former San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales appeared from the start to be a stretch.”
Third, in explaining her decision not to appeal Herlihy’s ruling or re-indict Gonzales, Carr stated, “The law in this case is complex and susceptible to different interpretations. Judge Herlihy interpreted the applicable statutes more narrowly than we did, and I do not believe that the Court of Appeal is likely to overturn Judge Herlihy’s interpretation.” She added, “…given the thoroughness of the first two grand jury investigations, it is unlikely that a third grand jury investigation would produce additional evidence which would change the result.” Needless to say, no one and certainly not The Fly has provided credible evidence to dispute Carr’s careful analysis.
By writing this mega-whopper, the anonymous authors of the Fly reveal much more about themselves than about the people they unfairly and inaccurately vilify.
Bob Brownstein is Director of Policy and Research for Working Partnerships USA.
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