A story from the Hollister Free Lance archives helped lead to
Vincent Cardinalli Sr.’s eligibility for life in prison under
California’s Three Strikes law.
A story from the Hollister Free Lance archives helped lead to Vincent Cardinalli Sr.’s eligibility for life in prison under California’s Three Strikes law.
A Free Lance reporter provided a 1979 story from the newspaper’s archives that eventually led the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to Cardinalli Sr.’s two prior strikes. The former tow truck operator now faces 25 years to life in prison.
On Tuesday, Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies took the convicted felon into custody at an arraignment hearing when a deputy district attorney brought his two strikes to light.
Cardinalli Sr. is now awaiting trial at a jail in that county on a fifth round of charges – now standing at 169 felony counts against him; his son, Paul Stephen Greer; and three others. The charges include: embezzlement, extortion, grand theft and perjury.
They stem from hundreds of lawsuits filed in hopes of collecting towing and storage fees for their defunct towing businesses.
Greg Adler, an attorney for the auto-salvage company Copart Inc., has fought legal battles with the father and son defendants and previously had mentioned he heard of Cardinalli Sr.’s possible prior convictions, but could not find proof.
“Several people told me that Mr. Cardinalli had prior strikes against him, but I had difficulty finding records to prove it,” Adler said Wednesday. “I mentioned this to a reporter at the Free Lance who did some digging into the archives and found an article verifying those prior convictions.”
The article was later forwarded to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and is believed to have created momentum for further investigation into Cardinalli’s prior offenses.
Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman – an economic crimes specialist leading the prosecution against Cardinalli Sr.; Greer, 30, of Clovis; and three others – said Wednesday she could not comment on how the prior convictions were found.
“As a policy we just don’t talk about where information comes from to protect the sources,” Lohman said.
Lohman did say that the district attorney’s office routinely uses old prison documents as proof of prior convictions.
Free Lance archives revealed that in 1979, Cardinalli Sr., then 36 years old, was convicted of two felony arson counts in San Benito County and sentenced to four years in prison. Cardinalli Sr. had been charged with 11 counts related to the crimes, but made a plea bargain for the two arsons, according to the archives.
San Benito County court documents from 1979, still held in the Free Lance’s newsroom, show that the district attorney’s office believed Cardinalli Sr. convinced two men to set ablaze his business and residence in hopes of defrauding insurance companies.
“(Cardinalli Sr.) induced others to participate in the commission of the arsons and in the commission of the solicitation to commit perjury,” the documents stated. “Defendant occupied a position of leadership or dominance of other participants in the crimes.”
Read more about this developing story online and in Friday’s Free Lance. *
