After several weeks of reprieve, lawyer Michael Pekin will
appear before a judge as a criminal defendant for the first time
Wednesday to resume his battle with the San Benito County District
Attorney’s Office over a criminal grand jury indictment that could
send the eccentric attorney to jail for up to three years if
convicted.
Hollister – After several weeks of reprieve, lawyer Michael Pekin will appear before a judge as a criminal defendant for the first time Wednesday to resume his battle with the San Benito County District Attorney’s Office over a criminal grand jury indictment that could send the eccentric attorney to jail for up to three years if convicted.
Pekin, who pleaded not guilty last month, was indicted in February by at least 12 of the 18 criminal grand jurors on five felony charges including obstructing justice, eliciting perjury and filing frivolous lawsuits for maintaining a lawsuit accusing the county and former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti of corruption.
Pekin’s attorney, Arthur Cantu, said he plans to file a motion to quash the indictment – which would void the entire matter if San Benito County Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias granted it – and Wednesday’s hearing will set forth the timeline for Cantu to file his motion and the District Attorney’s Office to respond.
Cantu’s primary area of concern, which he will outline in his motion to dismiss, is that Pekin was not allowed to go before the grand jury himself to defend himself. However, Special Deputy District Attorney John Picone has said he presented all the evidence Pekin submitted to him in order for grand jurors to make an informed decision.
“It was very one-sided, and it really does have all the earmarks of that old saying that you can indict a ham sandwich in a grand jury proceeding,” Cantu said.
Pekin, who spent the past couple weeks vacationing out of the country, said he’s glad his ordeal is playing out within the American judicial system but still feels great embarrassment at the criminal charge. If convicted, along with jail time Pekin could also lose his license to practice law.
“Obviously it’s a great humiliation for me after 30 years of practice of the law and having a clean record,” he said. “I know I have to use the criminal justice system to establish my innocence. In this country, even with all of its liberties, I’m learning from my personal experience that it is bitter.”
His charges stem from Pekin’s lawsuit against the county and former Supervisor Richard Scagliotti alleging corruption and involving the anonymous group Los Valientes. It also encompasses an attempted restraining order Pekin tried to obtain against Planning Department Director Rob Mendiola, which a judge denied. Pekin and his aide, Amanda Hernandez, tried to have a judge issue a restraining order against Mendiola for planning department employee Ken Speciale, who said he had evidence that could implicate Mendiola in the corruption charges against Scagliotti. The charges center around Hernandez presenting an unsigned declaration to the judge which included some errors. But Pekin said Hernandez made it clear that the declaration contained errors because it hadn’t been edited and fact-checked by Speciale yet.
But Pekin’s troubles didn’t stop with the felony indictment. Just three weeks after his arrest, the California State Bar announced it was initiating an investigation into allegations that the lawyer illegally intervened in the Measure G lawsuit brought by San Juan Bautista resident Rebecca McGovern in late 2003, and that he filed a false document to obtain a restraining order against Mendiola.
While Picone, who oversaw the grand jury proceedings, said he will be unable to attend Wednesday’s hearing because of a conflict, another attorney from the District Attorney’s Office will temporarily take his place.
Picone said a number of things could happen in his absence, however. A trial date could be set or Tobias could just schedule dates for the attorneys to file motions, he said. But whether Wednesday’s hearing results in the kind of fireworks the issue has sparked over the past several months is questionable.
“There will be more activity in the future,” Picone said. “Eventually there will be a resolution one way or the other.”
Pekin said Monday he hasn’t consulted with his attorneys, Cantu and his son, Patrick Pekin, about the upcoming events, but that he will not be making any decisions on his own. However, in his free time over the past couple weeks, he said he thoroughly read the grand jury transcripts and found several places where the transcript is not in accordance with the law on the conduct of criminal grand juries. Although he wouldn’t comment on whether he believes the indictment will be dismissed or the case will go to trial, he said he will include what he believes are errors in a motion to dismiss when it’s filed.
“There are a great number of errors I need to develop with my attorneys before I can speak to those errors,” Pekin said. “But they are fatal errors to the indictment.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or
em*******@fr***********.com
