SAN JOSE, Calif. — The state Department of Justice is opening a civil-rights investigation into the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and its management of South Bay jails, as well as other allegations of neglect and misconduct, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday.
The investigation comes after the Board of Supervisors, led by board members Joe Simitian and Otto Lee, spearheaded a referral last fall calling for multiple outside authorities to launch independent investigations into Sheriff Laurie Smith’s management of the county jails and corruption allegations related to her practices in issuing concealed-gun permits.
“We are here today because there is a deficit of trust in Santa Clara County,” Bonta said. “There are deeply concerning allegations around potentially pervasive misconduct within the sheriff’s office.”
“It is time that truth comes to light,” he said.
The attorney general’s probe — known as a pattern-or-practice investigation — aims to “identify and, as appropriate, compel the correction of systemic violations” of constitutional rights by a law enforcement agency.
Bonta confirmed that the investigation will look into issues related to conditions in the county’s jails, as well as the sheriff’s alleged “resistance to lawful oversight and other misconduct.” These concerns, Bonta noted “have been repeatedly voiced by elected leaders, media publications, community members, community organizations and more.”
If systemic misconduct is affirmed by the investigation, Bonta said the sheriff’s office could be compelled to institute changes and reforms under the oversight of an independent monitor and subject to court enforcement.
In a statement, Smith said she has “always welcomed any external review of the Sheriff’s Office and we will immediately open all records.”
“I have great confidence in the Attorney General’s Office and I believe they will provide the expertise for a fair and impartial investigation,” she said. “We remain focused on our mission, which is to continue to provide the highest level of public safety services.”
Bonta did not give a timeline for his office’s investigation, noting that it has just begun and that “we have made no determinations about specific complaints or allegations.” In a letter to Board of Supervisors’ president Mike Wasserman, Bonta requested that the board and county “preserve all potentially relevant materials in response to the Attorney General’s investigation and/or reasonably anticipated litigation,” including physical and electronic files and media.
To date, the board’s actions regarding the sheriff have yielded a county Civil Grand Jury investigation that resulted in a formal corruption accusation against Smith that, if affirmed by a trial jury, could remove her from office. Smith made her first court appearance in that proceeding Friday.
Additionally, the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating a complaint that Smith circumvented gift-reporting laws by masking her use of a donor and gun-permit recipient’s luxury suite at a 2019 San Jose Sharks game, a claim also covered in the civil grand jury accusation.
The claims against the sheriff also led to a no-confidence vote in Smith by the board last August. She has so far rejected calls for her resignation, and has characterized the criticism as a political ploy to scapegoat her and her office — which she has led since 1998 — for a lack of infrastructure for mentally ill people that has funneled their care toward the jail system.
Simitian said Bonta’s probe was evidence of “the process working the way it’s supposed to work.”
“The conduct by the sheriff is not without consequence, both human and financial,” Simitian said Wednesday. “I’m gratified that the attorney general’s office has stepped up.”
In a statement, Lee said the state investigation “will begin to restore trust Santa Clara County residents have” for the sheriff’s office.
“This issue will not likely resolve itself swiftly, but my hope is that we’ll be able to move forward with the trust that our community deserves,” he said.
Supervisor Susan Ellenberg, who co-authored the no-confidence resolution, added: “the general public and the people who come into custody are endangered when there is a lack of transparency and accountability in the jail system. We welcome Attorney General Bonta’s investigation and hope the outcome brings systemic change.”
Simitian and Lee’s referral addressed an array of instances of neglect and mismanagement at the county jails, including the 2018 case of Andrew Hogan, a mentally ill man whose serious, unattended injuries that he inflicted on himself in a jail-transport van led to a $10 million county settlement for him and his family.
The supervisors have called on the county’s Office of County Law Enforcement Monitoring to investigate the Hogan response, particularly why an internal investigation was halted and no significant discipline was administered even after video of the response — which has since been publicly released — showed several jail deputies and commanders standing by as Hogan moaned for help as he deteriorated from severe head and brain injuries.
That monitor’s office, run by Michael Gennaco and his firm OIR Group, has reported to the board on multiple occasions that it has not been granted records access in the case and has sought a subpoena of the sheriff’s office.
The referral insinuated that political jockeying might have been a factor, as one of the commanders on scene was president of the jail deputies’ union that helped bankroll Smith’s 2018 re-election bid. That election is also associated with the other major ongoing corruption allegation linked to Smith, the criminal indictments of her undersheriff and a top commander on charges that they brokered coveted concealed-gun permits in exchange for political funding and favors.
The South Bay jails have been the subject of additional scrutiny by the board, including the lengthy and uninterrupted gang beating of an inmate suspected of being a criminal informant, and another serious-injury jail neglect complaint that appears headed for a county settlement on the level of Hogan’s case.
On top of that, the jails are currently experiencing their sharpest and largest surge in COVID-19 infections, topping a November surge that led to the region’s first official death of an inmate who contracted the virus while in jail custody.
Smith has not announced her intention to run for a seventh term, nor has she filed the necessary paperwork with the county and state, which has a mid-March deadline. The list of official candidates vying to replace her has grown to four, with the entry of a retired San Jose police assistant chief and the current Palo Alto police chief.
Staff writer Gabriel Greschler contributed to this report.
