A former tow truck operator was taken into custody in a San
Martin courtroom Tuesday without bail and now faces 25 years to
life in prison for a potential third strike felony, while a story
from the Hollister Free Lance archives helped lead to Vincent
Cardinalli Sr.’s eligibility for life in prison.
A former tow truck operator was taken into custody in a San Martin courtroom Tuesday without bail and now faces 25 years to life in prison for a potential third strike felony, while a story from the Hollister Free Lance archives helped lead to Vincent Cardinalli Sr.’s eligibility for life in prison.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office leveled a fifth round of charges against Vincent Cardinalli Sr., 64, and revealed the longtime Hollister resident was convicted of two felony arson counts in the 1970s.
“The allegations were hiring someone to burn down a residence and business,” said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Dale Lohman.
A Free Lance reporter provided a 1979 story from the newspaper’s archives that eventually led the district attorney’s office to Cardinalli Sr.’s two prior strikes.
Greg Adler, an attorney for the auto-salvage company Copart Inc., has fought legal battles with the father and son defendants and previously had mentioned he heard of Cardinalli Sr.’s possible prior convictions, but could not find proof.
“Several people told me that Mr. Cardinalli had prior strikes against him, but I had difficulty finding records to prove it,” Adler said Wednesday. “I mentioned this to a reporter at the Free Lance who did some digging into the archives and found an article verifying those prior convictions.”
The article was later forwarded to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and is believed to have created momentum for further investigation into Cardinalli’s prior offenses.
Lohman – an economic crimes specialist leading the prosecution against Cardinalli Sr.; Greer, 30, of Clovis; and three others – said Wednesday she could not comment on how the prior convictions were found.
“As a policy we just don’t talk about where information comes from, to protect the sources,” Lohman said.
Lohman did say that the district attorney’s office routinely uses old prison documents as proof of prior convictions.
Cardinalli Sr. back in jail
On Tuesday, Santa Clara County sheriff’s deputies took the convicted felon into custody at an arraignment hearing.
At the request of Cardinalli Sr.’s attorney, Mike Pekin, Judge Hector E. Ramon scheduled a bail hearing for Jan. 31.
“Remember one thing that you’re not going to be able to ignore is this exposure,” Ramon told Pekin, “which is 25 years to life.”
Pekin declined to comment on Cardinalli Sr.’s case Thursday.
“It wouldn’t be appropriate,” Pekin said.
The district attorney’s office also announced a new charge of felony attempted grand theft against Greer. His bail was increased from $250,000 to $350,000, but he was released in the presence of two bail bondsmen at the courthouse Tuesday.
Cardinalli Sr. is being held at a jail in Santa Clara County. The 169 felony counts against him, Greer and three others include: Embezzlement, extortion, grand theft and perjury.
The charges stem from hundreds of lawsuits filed in hopes of collecting towing and storage fees for the father and son’s defunct towing businesses.
*This is a case based on patterns of conduct,” Lohman said Tuesday.
Both Cardinalli Sr. and Greer are expected to enter pleas at a hearing Feb. 29. At the same hearing, a judge should set a date to hear evidence to decide whether the two men should be tried for the suspected crimes.
Details of prior conviction from Free Lance archive
If convicted on current charges, Vincent Cardinalli Sr. now faces 25 years to life in prison for two felonies he committed nearly three decades ago.
Free Lance archives revealed that in 1979, Cardinalli Sr., then 36 years old, was convicted of two felony arson counts in San Benito County and sentenced to four years in prison. Cardinalli Sr. had been charged with 11 counts related to the crimes, but made a plea bargain for the two arsons and one count of solicitation to commit perjury, according to the archives.
Original charges also included conspiracy to commit arson; solicitation of arson; burning of property with intent to defraud an insurer; filing a false and fraudulent insurance claim; forgery of a $200,000 check; and attempting to defraud a bank, an insurance company and an individual, archives showed. All eight were dropped.
San Benito County court documents from 1979, held in the Free Lance’s newsroom, revealed that the district attorney’s office believed Cardinalli Sr. convinced two men to set ablaze his business and residence in hopes of defrauding insurance companies.
Cardinalli Sr. originally commissioned the same man to set both structures on fire, but a deal for the pre-hung door shop arson fell through, according to the archives.
Cardinalli Sr. “induced others to participate in the commission of the arsons and in the commission of the solicitation to commit perjury,” the documents stated. “Defendant occupied a position of leadership or dominance of other participants in the crimes.”
Archives showed that on April 9, 1978, Cardinalli’s Hollister Pre-Hung Door and Building Supply Store on the corner of Third and Sally streets was burned to the ground and that another arson fire destroyed his Buena Vista Road home in April 1977.
