Dionicio R. Lopez Jr, Preliminary Hearing

Several citizens warning the Board of Supervisors in 2003.

Web Link

>> That would be a Bad thing if it actually had happened, according to testimony there is NO evidence it did.

Who's testimony? The defendant alone?

Testimony of the District Attorney Inspectors taking the stand, Jordon Boyd and Jamie Draper.

Bay City News Service

Web Link

Thanks for the link.

Someone in jail as a gangmember, has a phone and drugs smuggled in, with the apparent aid of a couple cops, the phone is then used to call 'some' other gangmembers, along with family, who then possibly relay unknown messages to whomever, and on and on...

And it's the DA who is the bad guy here? Is this upside-down world here? Bikers who smuggle phones and drugs into jail are the heroes?

Hollywood already did this story, boys. Ran for seven seasons.

...................

"He talks to a Hells Angel once or twice, but there's no evidence that they did anything or that it's to the furtherance of the gang."

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said prosecutors suspect that those calls to family members may have been used to pass messages to gang members.

"Of course our answer to that (argument) is that he is a gang member, and he's doing it while in the jail, and the possession of the phone does give him the ability to connect with gang members," Wagstaffe said."

trust:

no one has been convicted yet and our DA acts as if they have. Not only that the DA should be recusing his office given the fact the deputy ran against the sitting sheriff as a write in candidate if for no other reason than the optics are terrible.

And yes, our DA is a bad guy. Perhaps you're new to San Mateo County and are not familiar with the corruption that is this county.

Defense attorney Carr asked the Inspectors about this Chapter and in the last 5 years how many violent crimes have they been involved in, the answer was I don't know, turns out besides the one case D.L. is charged with there were only 2 weapons possession cases in 5 years.

Also there is ZERO connection with San Mateo County Sheriff Deputy Juan Lopez and these 2 cellphones getting in to the jail….ZERO

A hells angel with 2 weapons charges?

Trust, I think what Michael Stogner is trying to say here is that there is evidence the prisoner called his family, but not other gang members. DA Steve Wagstaffe is arguing it stands to reason he passed messages to gang messages through his family. Apparently this carries a higher punishment than just calling the family. But how can Wagstaffe possibly prove this according to the legal standard, beyond a reasonable doubt? I guess it could be true, but it could also simply be the case he was just calling his family. Certainly the possibility it could be true is very far from the legal proof required to sustain a conviction. Wagstaffe has no evidence, zero, of the enhanced charge, but is prosecuting this case as well as Juan Lopez based on this. And as Menlo Voter pointed out, the optics of prosecuting Lopez, who ran against Wagstaffe buddy/crony Greg Munks, is just awful. Let me correct that. I guess Wagstaffe is also prosecuting Lopez's girlfriend.

No one, including Stogner in so far as I can see, is arguing the prisoner/gang member is an angel. Apparently the strategy, used effectively by Wagstaffe, is pointing out he's not, as a justification for everything else that follows. The service performed here by Stogner is going deeper than this superficial level, looking at the actual facts, and this is indeed a service.

Just thought of an additional point: if the goal here is to prosecute the gang member for communicating with his gang while in prison, when Wagstaffe found out about the phone, why not get a wire tap to the family, and actually try to gather evidence that messages are being passed? Instead, there was an immediate crack down, and multiple arrests, including Juan Lopez at gunpoint. I guess that's just another indication that despite the pretense, the real goal here was to try to destroy Juan Lopez

Yuppie writes "A hells angel with 2 weapons charges?" not the case.

No that is the entire club activity for 5 years not any one member.

Mr. Carr was asking how violent was this entire charpter in the last 5 years.

Chapter

District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe recently announced that he was dropping all charges against Orvilla Taylor, a SamTrans worker who had been in our Court System for over 3 years. The reason given

LACK OF EVIDENCE

3 years this mans life was turned upside down, he was on unpaid leave, had to prepare to defend and deal with the stress of court.

Lets eliminate Prosecutorial Misconduct in San Mateo County

Prosecutorial Misconduct is something to consider here and this is one reason.

Mr. Lopez has been on administrative leave since July 2014. He was arrested at gunpoint in November 2014 outside his home in Newark over the cellphone smuggling charges, the culmination of an 11-month investigation by the office of District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe -- at the request of Sheriff Greg Munks, Mr. Wagstaffe said.

To bad Mr. Wagstaffe wasn't in the courtroom to hear his two Inspectors testify under oath.

Zero connection to SMC Sheriff Deputy Juan Lopez.

I think Attorney Staurt Hanlon is correct, DA Wagstaffe intends to financially ruin Deputy Lopez.

"The case will work its way through on the facts." Steve Wagstaffe

What a shame it doesn't need Evidence to file charges.

Welcome to San Mateo County

Michael, how long does it take to get a transcript of the testimony of those inspectors? That should be grounds for dismissing some of the charges against Juan.
"To bad Mr. Wagstaffe wasn't in the courtroom to hear his two Inspectors testify under oath.

Zero connection to SMC Sheriff Deputy Juan Lopez."

Jack, not long I think about a week.

Remember DA Steve Wagstaffe contacted Bay City News Service and Scott Morris published that Sheriff Deputy Juan Lopez and his finance "embezzled up to $400,000 of campaign funds for personal use."

When I brought it to their attention, "That was Impossible because he only raised $250."

Does anybody have a guess how much TIME and MONEY is needed to prepare to defend against such an allegation?

What allows DA Steve Wagstaffe to behave this way? The Board of Supervisors who have known about this type of abuse since 2000. Many people have warned them over the years. They have ZERO interest in making SMC safer for all of us.

Welcome to San Mateo County

how much MONEY is needed to defend against such an allegation?

No union funded lawyer?

Ouch.

Why doesn't Juan Lopez' attorney file a motion to dismiss the charges due to insufficient evidence?

Trust says,

No union funded lawyer?

Ouch.

Not one word or $ from the UNION, now that's what I call a TEAM.

Every Sheriff Deputy in our County knows they could be the next Deputy Juan Lopez.

Another DA Steve Wagstaffe Prosecution.
Why was these gentleman charged at all.

Web Link

I hope Jenkins gets legal fees assessed on the County.

We have to fix this little problem first.

California's criminal justice system is broken. And as founder of the Veritas Initiative Kathleen Ridolfi told Change.org, the problem of prosecutorial misconduct is "systemic." Tell California lawmakers to do away with prosecutors' absolute immunity. The law must apply to everyone, and there must be consequences for misconduct that jails the innocent and lets the guilty go free.