By Dana Caldwell
Dear Honorable Javier Alcala,
When you sentence former Santa Clara Councilman Anthony Becker, you will send a strong message to our community about how much or how little our elected leaders should respect the law, the Grand Jury, and the judicial system.
From the accounts of the trial, Mr. Becker has shown little to no remorse for his actions. As the jury concluded, he demonstrated no respect for the law.
Mr. Becker’s defense largely consisted of disparaging the Grand Jury. Mr. Becker did so in court and frequently at City Council meetings. He attempted to undermine public confidence in the Grand Jury, a group of volunteer residents who were simply doing their civic duty.
In addition to the Grand Jury, Mr. Becker abused the judicial system to falsely implicate others.
- Mr. Becker’s defense team frequently attacked Mayor Lisa Gillmor and former City Councilwoman Kathy Watanabe with speculative accusations that were not grounded in evidence.
- Stand Up for Santa Clara was also a target of Mr. Becker’s attempt to deflect his guilt. We are a non-profit, volunteer organization that serves as a watchdog for our community. Mr. Becker used the judicial process to subpoena information that was readily available in public disclosures. We felt it was both a fishing expedition to serve a political purpose and an attempt to harass us.
- We were not alone, as Mr. Becker did this with numerous other Santa Clarans that have publicly opposed him in the past. Many of us were put on the witness list and forced to provide information that subsequently proved irrelevant to the trial.
We respectfully request that you strongly consider prison time as part of Mr. Becker’s sentence.
While Mr. Becker may not be a risk to public safety, he clearly abused the judicial system and innocent parties for nearly two years. Without serving some reasonable amount of prison time, Mr. Becker will have effectively used the judicial system to avoid serious punishment. That would be a terrible precedent and message to other elected officials.
We hope that your sentence will send a strong message that our elected officials must be held to high standards. We expect them to respect the law, the Grand Jury, and the judicial process.
Respectfully,
Dana Caldwell
President
Stand Up for Santa Clara
[…] the end of January, Stand Up for Santa Clara President Dana Caldwell wrote a letter to Judge Javier Alcala that was reprinted on Santa Clara News Online. Caldwell also suggested […]
[…] Please read Dana Caldwell’s excellent opinion piece about why former Santa Clara Vice Mayor Anthony Becker should receive prison time as part of his sentence for leaking a Grand Jury report to the 49ers and then lying about it.“While Mr. Becker may not be a risk to public safety, he clearly abused the judicial system and innocent parties for nearly two years. Without serving some reasonable amount of prison time, Mr. Becker will have effectively used the judicial system to avoid serious punishment. That would be a terrible precedent and message to other elected officials.”We would like to hear your opinion, too. CLICK HERE to anonymously give us your opinion in this brief survey. […]
I think Becker’s Probation and Sentencing Hearing starts at 9:00 am. Robert can you please verify if 9:00 am is the correct time.
Wish the other 49er 5 would be sentenced to some punishment for their part with Becker denying the Civil Grand Jury reports, not carrying out recommendations from the jury and their disrespectful way of speaking about the members of the jury. Then again, they take their orders from then Rahul Chandok who also should be going to jail. Hoping there will be more dominoes dropping.
pretty hard to sentence a little fish like Becker when the biggest bottom feeder is convicted of multiple felonies and is in the white house assembling his army of fools and plotting to alienate and endanger the lives of people.
yes Becker did wrong and appears both ignorant of and disrespectful of the citizenry and judicial system.
Expose a huge monetary fine and confine him to jail and a work detail on the fire lines. his fine is to be Cash money not bond money. put him to hard work duty and that should give him a better perspective of life in the real world as opposed to the dog and pony show of Santa Clara City Council.
Becker
Current Fppc case pending againsth him from 2022
Mr. Caldwell
All great points, and at the end of the day, “You do the crime, you do the time”.
So who is next?
Who helped him?
Who worked along side with him to do so much damage to our City?
No way this one person acted alone.
What was his voting group called?
I know for sure it was never called “The 49er 1”.
Friday South County Court House Morgan Hill @ 9:30am.
Burt Field