Rejecting the idea of issuing a gag order, a Superior Court
judge directed attorneys in the Albert Solorio assault case not to
make statements to the press that could not be backed up by facts
unveiled in court.
Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders did not issue the gag order
requested by Deputy County Counsel Darren Bogie.
However, Sanders did tell attorneys he wanted them to tone down
the rhetoric and to try and confine their comments about the case
to what happened in court.
Rejecting the idea of issuing a gag order, a Superior Court judge directed attorneys in the Albert Solorio assault case not to make statements to the press that could not be backed up by facts unveiled in court.
Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders did not issue the gag order requested by Deputy County Counsel Darren Bogie.
However, Sanders did tell attorneys he wanted them to tone down the rhetoric and to try and confine their comments about the case to what happened in court.
Bogie, who took the judge’s ruling to mean a gag order is in effect, said he could not comment on the case.
“The language of the gag order is still being finalized, so I can’t comment,” Bogie said.
Defense attorney Arthur Cantu said he understood the judge’s ruling to mean he could have limited communications with the press, but that his comments would have to more rigidly adhere to the actual court proceedings and less on more speculative matters.
Bogie, who filed the motion Sept. 19, requesting Cantu be prevented from talking to the press about the felony assault case, said it was not intended to restrict the rights of the press to information, but to stop Cantu from publicly making any allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the Solorio case.
Cantu said the motion, which was heard early Wednesday, was an attempt to save District Attorney John Sarsfield’s office from embarrassment over its mishandling of the case.
The issue, which Cantu raised in court on several occasions, ultimately led to Deputy District Attorney Stephen Wagner being removed from the case by Sanders.
The judge removed Wagner from the case because Cantu convinced the court Wagner might be called as a witness to testify in the Solorio case.
Under current judicial practices, an attorney cannot be both a witness and a prosecutor or defense attorney in the same trial. That is the same reasoning the District Attorney’s office used to get Public Defender Greg LaForge removed from a felony case just a few weeks earlier.
Solorio was arrested July 1, 2002 following an alleged struggle with Hollister Police Sgt. Greg Thul that reportedly sent both men through a plate glass window.
The incident happened when Thul was answering a domestic dispute call at an apartment near the intersection of Sunnyslope and Valley View roads.
Police said Thul entered the downstairs apartment and talked to a distraught woman, believing the immediate danger was over.
However, while Thul was trying to find out what happened, Solorio who was siting on a couch, bolted for the window and tried to jump through, police said.
Thul reportedly grabbed Solorio as he went through the plate glass window. The two men allegedly struggled for a few minutes on the court yard until both of them passed out from the severity of their wounds.
Cantu also said police are trying to use his client as a scapegoat for its lack of diligence by claiming he escaped from police custody after he was arrested and taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center for treatment.
