The Superior Court commissioner who often ruled in favor of a
father and son team now facing 169 counts of fraud, perjury,
attempted grand theft and other felony charges will not take the
witness stand.
The Superior Court commissioner who often ruled in favor of a father and son team now facing 169 counts of fraud, perjury, attempted grand theft and other felony charges will not take the witness stand.
The judge presiding over the preliminary hearing of Vincent Cardinalli Sr., Paul Greer – formerly Vincent Cardinalli Jr. – Rosemary Ball, who is Greer’s sister, and her husband, Michael Ball, granted a motion today to quash the prosecution’s subpoena summoning Santa Clara County Commissioner Gregory Saldivar as a witness.
Superior Court Judge Gilbert Brown upheld the motion submitted by Saldivar’s attorney because Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman did not articulate an offer of proof stating the relevance of Saldivar’s testimony, he said. Lohman claimed that she could not do so because the county attorney would not let speak with Saldivar before the preliminary hearing. However, the judge said he would not grant her the right to talk to Saldivar because a preliminary hearing was not the time to engage in discovery.
“It’s a Catch-22,” Lohman said outside the courtroom.
Although Lohman would not say what specific questions she had hoped to ask Saldivar on the witness stand, she subpoenaed Saldivar to testify about the hundreds of small claims cases Cardinalli and Greer brought before him.
The duo sued defendants for towing, storage and lien sale fees on cars the defendants never owned or owned years before they were towed, according to court documents.
Saldivar’s tendency to rule in favor of Cardinalli and Greer, as well as Cardinalli’s and Greer’s preference to have their small claims cases heard by Saldivar, attracted the attention of Greg Adler – an attorney for auto action company Copart, which was on the receiving end of the family’s scheme, Adler said.
Adler dedicated countless hours of his own time sifting through court documents and uncovered several patterns in the family’s frequent court dealings. Adler was one of the prosecution’s first witnesses.
In all but one of the court files he reviewed, cases that were originally heard by Saldivar but later appealed to the Superior Court by the small claims defendants were overturned by the higher court judges, said Adler. Other judges and commissioners often ruled in favor of the defendants Greer and Cardinalli sued.
“Saldivar is a percipient witness to crimes that occurred in his courtroom, in his presence,” Lohman wrote in her opposition to quashing the subpoena. “Many of the charged crimes occurred in his courtroom, on his watch. His courtroom provided the backdrop and the opportunity for the defendants’ criminal scheme.”
Although Brown granted the motion to quash Saldivar’s subpoena, his decision has no bearing on whom Lohman calls to take the stand at trial, she said. And typically, witnesses like to know ahead of time what they’ll be asked when they take the stand, she said.
If Saldivar does testify in the trial, “I guess it’s going to be a surprise,” she said.
In the same proceedings, Brown ruled against Cardinalli’s request to summon San Benito Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias, who also presided over some of the towing duo’s cases.
Brown also shot down a motion filed by Cardinalli, who is representing himself, that aimed to disqualify Lohman for “threatening” him.
According to Cardinalli’s motion, which was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, Lohman made false statements regarding a lawsuit Cardinalli filed against two of the prosecution’s witnesses. Cardinalli was in custody and had been declared a vexatious litigant, but still won a $4.5 million default judgement.
“Basically what Mrs. Lohman was telling Vincent Cardinalli to do is seat [sic] in court and say nothing during the Preliminary hearing and put on no defense,” Cardinalli wrote.
Enumerating his points, Cardinalli asserted “that Mrs. Lohman District Attorney’s staff and investigator’s [sic] should be prohibit [sic] from having anything to do with this case from this day forward. Vincent Cardinalli believe’s [sic] this case should be dismiss [sic] with prejudice and not allowed to be refilled [sic],” the motion concluded.
“We all want to make sure we’re not trampling on Mr. Cardinalli’s rights,” Lohman replied.
With Saldivar out of the picture for the preliminary hearing, Lohman said she expects to call her last witness – an employee of the court who will testify how Greer and Cardinalli were some of the court’s “biggest customers” – Monday.
The defense will then have the opportunity to call witnesses and Lohman expected to present oral closing arguments in early August. The judge will likely make a decision on whether to hold the case over for trial about a month after closing arguments.
