Santa Clara official testifies about colleague leaking 49ers report

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Javier Alcala, who is presiding over the case, said Thursday that proceedings are lagging behind. The prosecution and defense have asked for multiple sidebar conversations throughout the trial, which Alcala said are contributing to the delay.

“If I let you have sidebars, it’s like a slippery slope,” Alcala said. “It’s just a time killer.”

On Friday, Alcala told jurors that he and the lawyers estimate their arguments could wrap up as early as Dec. 4.

Councilmember Suds Jain testified Thursday and said Becker told him he leaked the report to a journalist at the Silicon Valley Voice. Jain said the confession happened during a phone call with Becker about being stressed by the grand jury’s investigation of the leak — and Jain said he told Becker not to tell him anything else.

Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky cited previous testimony from Jain, where he said Becker gave the report to the journalist before it became public. However, Jain said Becker never explicitly told him that occurred before the report was public, and he assumed it was before.

“I did not follow up because, as I said, I wish he had not told me anything,” Jain said. “I didn’t want to know any more.”

Malinsky also questioned Jain about the 2022 elections, particularly his support for Becker’s unsuccessful mayoral campaign through his donations and endorsement. Earlier in the trial, Malinsky underscored the millions of dollars the 49ers spent to support Becker’s 2022 run for mayor through an independent expenditure committee.

Public defender Chris Montoya, one of Becker’s lawyers, questioned Jain next and asked more about his history with Becker. Jain said he ran against Becker for Santa Clara City Council in 2016, before the council seats were divided into districts. They served together on the city’s Planning Commission before the council.

Montoya asked Jain if it’s possible for councilmembers to not work with the 49ers, and Jain said the city is obligated to coordinate with the organization because of its contracts with Levi’s Stadium.

Montoya’s questioning of Jain was littered with objections from Malinsky, namely over relevance. Alcala sustained many, including objections to the 2022 grand jury report’s contents.

“We’re not going over the report,” Alcala said. “It could be the best report in the world or the worst report in the world, it doesn’t matter. That’s not what this trial is about.”

Earlier in the week, jurors heard testimony from a variety of witnesses and experts, including Ann Moriarty, a Milltown Partners employee who helped the 49ers with public relations; Jason Saldana, who was contracted to build grandjuryreport.com by the Santa Clara Police Officers Association; Britney Huelbig, deputy manager for the grand jury; and Tanya Neu, a criminalist in the DA’s crime lab.

The website Saldana built and was questioned about had published information from the report ahead of its official release date and included full quotes — raising questions about whether someone besides Becker leaked the report. Some have pointed fingers at Mayor Lisa Gillmor, who has historically allied with the city’s police union. Montoya briefly questioned Saldana about whether he had any conversations with union representatives about the report before purchasing the site’s domain name, but faced a series of objections from Malinsky, claiming that information was irrelevant. Alcala sustained the objections.

Neu and fellow DA criminalist Fernando Ramirez testified about the data collected from Becker and Chandhok’s devices, which contained traces of the encrypted messaging platform Signal — where Chandhok said Becker sent him the early report.

Ramirez’s analysis of the data on Becker’s phone also found he deleted the app minutes before going to the DA’s office for a voluntary interview in December 2022.

That interview came back up after Jain’s testimony, when lead DA investigator Ben Holt took the stand. Malinsky asked Holt about his investigation into the timeline of when the grand jury report was leaked, starting with his initial search into news outlets publishing stories about the report on Oct. 7, 2022, three days ahead of its official release.

Malinsky played a recording of the interview, during which Malinsky asked Becker questions about whether he leaked the report to anyone, including Chandhok. Immediately after the interview, the investigators confiscated Becker’s electronic devices and ordered Becker’s home be searched.

The trial will pause the week of Thanksgiving and is expected to resume Dec. 2 with more testimony from Holt.