A jury was unable to reach a verdict Thursday in the misdemeanor
trial of San Juan Bautista Mayor George Dias.
A jury was unable to reach a verdict Thursday in the misdemeanor trial of San Juan Bautista Mayor George Dias.
The jury began deliberations Wednesday about 4:25 p.m. before members were sent home by visiting San Benito County Superior Court Judge Hedegard and resumed their talks at 9 a.m. Thursday. After a full day of not reaching a unanimous verdict, the jury asked to reconvene this morning at 9 a.m.
Dias is accused of a misdemeanor charge of resisting a peace officer causing serious injury in connection with an April 2007 confrontation involving a sheriff’s deputy.
“It’s been a long day,” Hedegard said in court before allowing the 12 jurors to go home.
During closing arguments Wednesday, San Benito County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Palacios told the jury not to be swayed by a range of testimony he claims is unrelated to the incident. Dias’ defense attorney Lawrence Biegel drew attention to what he called San Benito County sheriff’s Deputy Jason Leist’s negative attitude before and during the altercation.
Before closing arguments, Dias’ father, George Dias Sr., spent Wednesday morning testifying about his involvement in the incident a year ago in which authorities say then-Councilman Dias assaulted Leist.
Dias was arrested April 14, 2007, after firefighters and sheriff’s deputies responded to a trailer fire on his property in San Juan Bautista. According to sheriff’s deputies, Dias refused to leave the area around his burning trailer and when Leist tried to arrest him for interfering with firefighters, he resisted. After a scuffle, deputies reported, both Leist and Dias fell into a thorny rose bush. Leist suffered cuts to his face from the thorns and received stitches in his ear and cheek after the incident.
At the time, Dias was a councilman and had been negotiating a new law enforcement contract with the sheriff’s office. He had been supportive of eliminating their services in favor of forming a San Juan police department.
In court yesterday, Dias Sr. testified that he arrived at the scene after hearing news of the fire on a personal police scanner. He said when arrived, he was watching the fire from a road near the burning trailer when Leist told him to back up, which he did. Later, he testified, he and his son were watching the fire from the same area when Leist returned and told his son, “You gotta move or I’m gonna take your (expletive) to jail.”
He said his son asked the deputy “Why?” and that Leist replied, “I’m going to give you to three: One, two, three.”
“And he was on him,” the mayor’s father said in court.
On Tuesday, attorney’s questioned several witnesses including sheriff’s Deputy Joe Silva, CalFire Battalion Chief Philip Matteson and former San Juan Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Bagley.
Matteson described seeing a “wrestling match” between Dias and a sheriff’s deputy. Bagley said Dias was hunched forward while Leist was trying to bring Dias’ hands behind his back to handcuff him right before they fell into the bushes.
Biegel drew attention to the relationship between Bagley and Dias, that Bagley said he had been angry with Dias for evicting him from his home and eliminating his job as code enforcer.
Check back in Friday afternoon for more on the Dias trial and the results, if any, of the jury’s deliberations.
