Local politicians expressed relief, disappointment and downright
anger over the anticlimactic finale to the drawn-out District 5
election debacle, after District Attorney John Sarsfield dropped
all the felony charges against Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz on
Tuesday.
Hollister – Local politicians expressed relief, disappointment and downright anger over the anticlimactic finale to the drawn-out District 5 election debacle, after District Attorney John Sarsfield dropped all the felony charges against Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz on Tuesday.
De La Cruz pleaded no contest to one new misdemeanor charge as part of a plea bargain that will require him to serve 40 hours of community service and pay a fine. De La Cruz was facing four felony counts of election forgery and three misdemeanor charges, including threatening a police officer, regarding the March 2 supervisor election where De La Cruz beat former Supervisor Bob Cruz by 10 votes. If convicted, he could have been banned from politics for life and done jail time, but with the new deal he will keep his board seat and the misdemeanor charge could be erased from his record in a year.
Former Supervisor Ruth Kesler, who was on the board that asked Sarsfield to look into allegations of elections irregularities in March, said she was ready to see De La Cruz behind bars and that Sarsfield promised her he would see jail time. She said that in her entire political career she has never been as disappointed in someone as she is in Sarsfield.
“He promised so many people that he was going to do something about this and he didn’t do diddly-doo. I always supported him, but that’s going to change. I wouldn’t support that man for anything,” Kesler said. “He made a lot of promises to Bobby Cruz and myself, and you don’t do that and turn around and stab them in the back, and he did that to Bobby Cruz.”
Cruz, whose wife sued to have the election results overturned at one point during the saga, also was disappointed with the outcome after 10 months of investigations, 11 felony counts Santa Cruz investigator Aaron Tripp originally recommended for De La Cruz and an exorbitant amount of time the county spent on the issue.
While De La Cruz said he was innocent of the felony election charges and the outcome gave him vindication, Cruz believes it proves just the opposite and that the resources the county invested in the matter were worth the one charge.
“A crook is a crook is a crook is a crook. That’s the way it is,” Cruz said. “It shows people (he’s) not lily white. Quit saying, ‘I was elected to stop corruption,’ when you’re corrupted. The man did wrong from day one.”
Included in De La Cruz’s plea bargain, which was agreed upon by his attorney, Arthur Cantu, and the district attorney’s office, is a provision that will wipe the charge off De La Cruz’s record after one year as long as he complies with the conditions.
De La Cruz wound up pleading no contest to misdemeanor obstructing or delaying a police officer after he told Tripp he “knew where he lived.” Tripp was conducting the investigation into De La Cruz and his campaign adviser Ignacio Velazquez for election fraud allegations last year. De La Cruz’s plea requires him to donate 40 hours of his time to Jovenes De Antano senior center, write a letter of apology to Tripp and pay for the cost of Tripp’s investigation, which is no more than $1,000.
De La Cruz faced the possibility of 11 felony charges after the Board of Supervisors commissioned Tripp to investigate allegations of election fraud.
“Were the 11 counts just made up?” Cruz asked. “Where there’s smoke there’s fire.”
De La Cruz said the entire investigation, including the 11 counts recommended by Tripp and Sarsfield’s felony charges, were part of a fishing expedition to keep him from taking office. He said he agreed to plead no contest for the good of the community and because the stress of the matter was affecting his health – he suffers from kidney disease and he said his blood pressure was getting dangerously high.
“Mr. Cruz has said the truth will come out, well, the truth came out. My recommendation is, give it up, move on – the community has spoken,” De La Cruz said. “We are tired of allocating resources into this futile witch hunt. The public wants a resolution, give it a break.”
The final chapter in the District 5 saga has yet to be written, because De La Cruz and Velazquez still have a $5 million lawsuit pending against Kesler and the county. De La Cruz said nothing has changed at this time, but that it’s under review. The men’s attorney, Bill Marder, said the county has until Feb. 7 to respond to the suit.
The suit claims former board members conspired to keep De La Cruz off the Board because he’s Latino and not part of the “good ol’ boy network.”
Newly-seated Supervisor Anthony Botelho felt a sense of relief when he heard a deal was struck and said both Sarsfield and De La Cruz exercised sound judgment in agreeing to it. The matter had gone on for too long and wasn’t a prudent expenditure of time or energy for anyone involved, including the public, he said.
“What I saw was not only a bleeding of emotions but a bleeding of finances on both sides. Our resources, both mentally and physically, could be used in other ways,” Botelho said. “In the political world everybody has a pretty big ego and sometimes that gets in the way of good judgment.”
While Botelho said he believes the issue could have been resolved months ago, he hopes San Benito County residents have learned something about politics over the past 10 months.
“I think it’s made people aware, especially those running for office,” he said. “You have to be very cognizant of the rules pertaining to elections. Election law can be more complex than what a lot of people think.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
