By Robert Haugh
Indicted City Councilmember Anthony Becker will appear in court again today.
It’s 297 days since he was first arraigned for allegedly leaking a Grand Jury report to the 49ers and then lying about it – a felony perjury offense.
Becker has repeatedly requested and received delays to his trial since his first court appearance in April 2023.
In November, Judge Daniel Nishigaya decided on a March 4, 2024 start date during a hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
According to multiple sources, Becker will submit a motion to continue today – another attempt to delay his trial.
In the 10 months since Becker has been indicted, a lot of negative stuff has happened in Santa Clara.
- In May 2023, He led the effort to remove Burt Field from the Parks and Rec Commission because Field publicly criticized Becker.
- In July 2023 Becker defiantly refused requests for him to resign and verbally attacked Santa Clara residents.
- Also in July, his colleagues pushed through a special election to get rid of Santa Clarans right to elect a Police Chief because they looked afraid that they would lose a key vote with Becker gone. It’s costing Santa Clara taxpayers $587,000.
- In August 2023, Becker aggressively confronted attendees at one of his court hearings.
- In September 2023 Becker filed a frivolous FPPC complaint against Stand Up for Santa Clara, a grassroots group that has criticized him. (It was recently dismissed).
- In November 2023, he likely violated an FPPC rule by participating in a City Council discussion when he had a conflict of interest.
- In December 2023, Becker forced City staff to release a personnel report about his abusive behavior. It was an attempt to clear his name for future employment opportunities. The report details show that Becker’s behavior was worse than depicted in the publicly released report summary.
- In January 2024, the 49er Five voted to appoint Becker as Vice Mayor, the first time in the Mission City’s history that someone facing a felony conviction has held the position. Becker could have passed on the appointment saving his colleagues from a difficult vote. He could have also saved Santa Clara from embarrassment.
- Finally, Becker has received over $20,000 in salary from Santa Clara taxpayers since his indictment.
It will be interesting to see if Becker can continue to play with the legal system and the political system for his benefit.
April 22, 2024 is now the new date…. that’s another 7 weeks that this individual can mess with my City.
So what kind of new damage can one “Kid in the candy store” do in 1,176 hours of playtime?
Pretty impressive list of damage already on record, I guess a little more damage can’t hurt all that much more, that is unless you are the eventual target of this individual actions.
My hope, my dream is this person will go down in our City as the biggest fool to ever be elected to office in our long history.
That said…. I am willing to see who else may join him as being refereed too as “Defendent #”.
No way he conceive of doing all this damage on his own, so who helped him? Who was in the trenches with him? Ugh…just saying that makes my skin crawl….
Santa Clara is worth fighting for…in life you have to pick your battles, turns out this is a battle that found me, and by default many others who care about our City. None of us asked for this, but I know I am not alone in fighting to get and keep our City…our City.
Burt Field
Why the delay?
Tony is a great admirer of Donald Trump and is relishing the parallels between their political careers and legal woes. He sees himself as a rogue power, almost ordained by a higher power to come in and shake up the status quo. Many times I heard him liken himself to Christopher Nolans version of Batman, a noble vigilante in a sea of crime. He also expressed a respect for “Mein Kompf” and thinks Trump is the answer to America’s decay.
He is someone I knew quite intimately and trust me when I say he should be nowhere near any form of political power. His ambitions at one time went well beyond the local level and a successful avoidance of punishment for his crimes will most certainly only serve to bolster his distorted, self aggrandized narrative. It could even catapult him into the more influential political eschelon he seeks so fervently.
Incidentally I also have a tangential connection to the Gilmore’s and can say that the current mayor is the right mayor. Supporting her is supporting Santa Clara.
Expose and oppose him.