Volume 3 • Issue 15
August 21, 2021
San Jose Mayor Calls for Resignation of Santa Clara County Sheriff Cites extreme jail mismanagement, civil rights violations, ongoing bribery scandal, among other allegations
SAN JOSÉ, CA Mayor Sam Liccardo called for the resignation of Santa Clara County Sheriff, Laurie Smith. Mayor Liccardo, a former criminal prosecutor, is the first elected official to do so. and is the first elected official to do so. Smith has been in office since her election in 1998, and her career has been filled with serious allegations including: • repeated severe beatings of inmates resulting in death and
serious injury, • repeated concealment of facts relating to those incidents, and persistent noncompliance with independent oversight, • tens of millions of taxpayer dollars paid to litigants for civil rights violations by deputies under Sheriff Smith’s watch, • two consent decrees resulting in $450 million in public expenditure to improve jail operations and conditions, • an ongoing bribery
criminal investigation which has resulted in three indictments of two of her top aides and a campaign fundraiser, and a play-to-pay scandal relating to $300,000 in union contributions for her 2018 re-election.
The residents of Santa Clara County continue to suffer under her leadership. Mayor Liccardo released the following statement: “When a Grand Jury indicts the Sheriff ’s top assistants and campaign fundraiser on bribery charges relating to contributions to her own re-election efforts, we should have serious concerns. But when that same Sheriff --the top law enforcement officer in the county--then refuses to cooperate with the bribery investigation for fear of incriminating herself, the time for concern is long past. Sheriff Smith must resign. I want to thank the County Supervisors Joe Simitian and Otto Lee for their recent efforts to bring facts to light, as reflected in a memorandum that the Board will consider tomorrow. I support their recommendations, but those recommendations should not be necessary. Sheriff Smith must resign. As a former deputy
DA in this County, my experience with Sheriff Smith’s poor leadership of her department convinced me years ago to repeatedly decline to endorse her reelection. But Sheriff Smith’s repeated mismanagement of the jail has destroyed lives, violating the most basic of civil rights of its inmates, including: • Death of Michael Tyree in 2015 • Severe head injuries of Andrew Hogan in 2018 • Severe spinal injury of Martin Nunez in 2019 • A seven-minute beating of a man by 31 other inmates in 2020 As a former criminal prosecutor, I believe in the necessity of jail detention to serve public safety. But in any civil society, the safety of the inmates themselves must also be protected, and they must not be condemned to some dystopian tenure in Hunger Games. Under Sheriff Smith’s leadership, the Sheriff ’s Office has engaged in extensive efforts to conceal the [Continue to page 12]