Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz had a misdemeanor charge of
obstructing a peace officer officially expunged from his record
Thursday, after a judge determined De La Cruz had abided by the
terms of the plea bargain he struck with the District Attorney’s
Office stemming from the 2004 District 5 supervisor election
debacle.
Hollister – Supervisor Jaime De La Cruz had a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer officially expunged from his record Thursday, after a judge determined De La Cruz had abided by the terms of the plea bargain he struck with the District Attorney’s Office stemming from the 2004 District 5 supervisor election debacle.
“I was innocent from the beginning,” De La Cruz said after the five minute hearing before San Benito County Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias. “Justice has finally been done, but I feel that this was a waste of taxpayer money.”
After dismissing the charge on Thursday, Tobias bid farewell to De La Cruz in the same manner as many other defendants that appear in his courtroom.
“I wish you good luck in the future,” Tobias said. “As I would anyone else who had been in trouble with the law.”
The charges against De La Cruz were dismissed because he met all the conditions of the plea bargain, District Attorney John Sarsfield said. Conditions of the deal required De La Cruz to perform 40 hours of community service, submit a written apology to the police officer he threatened and not commit any additional crimes for one year.
“He did what he said he would do,” Sarsfield said. “He has not been arrested or charged with any new crimes, he repaid the county and did his community service.”
Last February, Sarsfield, who had originally charged De La Cruz with four felony counts of election forgery and three misdemeanor charges in late 2004, dropped all the felony counts as part of a plea bargain in January of 2005.
Sarsfield does not believe De La Cruz was innocent as the supervisor claims to be, and said if he wanted to maintain his innocence and be exonerated of all charges he should have taken the case to trial.
The charges were the climax of a strife that began when De La Cruz beat former Supervisor Bob Cruz by only 10 votes in the March 2, 2004 District 5 county supervisor election. Shortly after that race, the Board of Supervisors launched an investigation into claims that De La Cruz and his campaign adviser, Ignacio Velazquez, broke election laws by illegally handling absentee ballots and coercing a voter, among others.
If the case had gone to trial and De La Cruz had been guilty, he could have faced up to five years in prison and been banned from holding political office for life.
As part of an agreement with De La Cruz and the District Attorney’s Office, Sarsfield dropped the felony charges on the condition that De La Cruz plead to one misdemeanor charge of obstructing or delaying a police officer. The obstruction charge came after De La Cruz told Santa Cruz investigator Aaron Tripp he “knew where he lived.” Tripp was conducting the investigation into De La Cruz and Velazquez for election fraud allegations in 2004.
Last year, De La Cruz worked on a fundraising project for senior center Jovenes De Antano to complete his 40 hours of community service as outlined in the agreement.
De La Cruz said his prosecution by Sarsfield was politically motivated, an accusation the District Attorney denied.
Local defense attorney Arthur Cantu, who represented De La Cruz in the matter, said his client welcomes an opportunity to sit down with Sarsfield to “solve their differences so they can work together for the benefit of the community,” however Sarsfield said he does not have any “differences” with the supervisor.
Brett Rowland covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
