Judge Alan Hedegard denied San Benito County’s motion to throw
out two corruption charges against Supervisor Richard Scagliotti on
Monday, and the case will proceed after a two-month delay.
Judge Alan Hedegard denied San Benito County’s motion to throw out two corruption charges against Supervisor Richard Scagliotti on Monday, and the case will proceed after a two-month delay.
The ruling by Hedegard, a visiting superior court judge from Monterey, ended more than two months of wrangling over the motion between the plaintiff’s lawyer Michael Pekin and the county’s private lawyer Nancy Miller. Pekin represents resident Juan Monteon, who initially filed a lawsuit Dec. 9.
The suit alleged six acts of corruption, stemming from a private investigative report, which was commissioned by an anonymous group calling themselves Los Valientes.
Next, the case will enter a discovery process, where the two sides compile evidence against each other. Pekin is hoping for an eventual jury trial, he said.
Since initially filing the suit, Pekin has amended the complaint several times and dropped two counts related to Measure G because, he said, “the election (March 2) took care of that.” Measure G was defeated on the ballot by a 69 percent to 31 percent margin.
He had dropped another count alleging Scagliotti, also a developer, was wrongly paid by the county for a drainage pipe enlargement at his Dunneville Estates development. Pekin did so when the state released an opinion that the transaction was legal.
The demurer ruling, which Pekin received Monday, was the first sign of progress for the plaintiff’s side since the case began. A demurer, essentially, is a motion to throw out a case.
“It’s a big day, and it’s been a long time coming,” Pekin said.
In February, Miller’s pursuit of the motion coincided with Pekin’s attempts to take sworn testimony of more than a dozen county officials.
Judge Harry Tobias, who later dismissed himself because of a conflict of interest – following a county request to do so – suspended Pekin’s depositions until a ruling could be made on the demurer.
Miller had filed for the demurer claiming Pekin had not presented concrete evidence to the allegations. She acknowledged Monday that convincing a judge to grant such a motion is “very tough.”
“I thought in this case it was definitely within the judge’s discretion,” Miller said.
Hedegard took the case under submission after the latest hearing April 6. His ruling, dated April 7, denied the demurer request on two of the three remaining counts.
Hedegard granted the county’s motion on the third allegation in the suit – the mismanagement, failure to file taxes and failure to collect rents by the San Benito Financing Corp. But Hedegard left Pekin the option to revise and resubmit that count. That allegation targets an array of county officials.
That’s what Pekin plans to do, he said Monday. That will delay the sworn testimony of at least a dozen officials more than a month, he said.
“I want to continue to bring out the lack of management in the San Benito Finance Corp.,” he said.
He will focus, he said, on the county’s alleged failure to collect rents. Two private businesses, Miyako Japanese Restaurant and Donuts and Deli, are the county’s tenants.
As previously reported, several internal memos showed there were problems tracking whether rental payments had been made – and to whom. But Miller has said the county can account for the payments.
The two remaining counts, for which Pekin now plans to take testimony over the next month, include:
– A request in the suit to revoke the county’s vehicle maintenance contract with San Benito Tire. It alleged the supervisor had a conflict of interest – that he was negotiating with the shop’s owner, Bob Cain, to move San Benito Tire into a Scagliotti-owned building, at the same time the county contract was being negotiated.
– A charge alleging Scagliotti profited about $1.2 million from a land deal, the value of which grew when the county authorized a zoning change.
