More than a month after one of two cases against a former San Mateo County sheriff’s deputy was dropped, three more counts accusing him of misrepresenting his address and making a false statement on a government disclosure document were dismissed Thursday, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Once a write-in candidate for county sheriff, Juan Pablo Lopez, 54, is now facing charges of mortgage fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, filing of false election information and fraudulent voting, for a total of six counts, according to prosecutors.
Lopez allegedly listed his residence as being in Redwood City but was allegedly living in Newark when he filed to run for sheriff in 2014. He is also being accused of misrepresenting his address on a real estate loan, according to prosecutors.
Lopez was previously accused of allegedly helping to smuggle cellphones and prescription drugs into county jail in 2015, but that case against him was dismissed after a judge ruled evidence that could have showed he did not commit the crime should have been presented to a criminal grand jury Dec. 1, according to prosecutors.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said prosecutors disagreed with Thursday’s ruling by Judge Donald Ayoob, which he said misconstrued the law. But Maria Belyi, co-counsel of Lopez’s defense attorney Tony Serra, was pleased the judge agreed there was not sufficient evidence to support the three counts. She said both cases came out of an effort on law enforcement establishment to retaliate against their client after the 2014 election.
“Generally speaking, this case really seems to be a vindictive and retaliatory case,” she said.
A May 14 jury trial date was set for Lopez Thursday. He will next appear in court March 27 for pre-trial conference, according to prosecutors.
San Mateo County's Political Prosecution case, think about it for awhile, Three and a half years ago Juan P. Lopez was charged with Smuggling a cellphone and Drugs to an inmate in our jail. The District Attorney and the Sheriff Office knew there was NO Evidence to support that claim. Those charges were dismissed last month, yesterday 3 more charges dismissed. This is a simple example of Prosecutorial Misconduct which is a crime. The star of this story is William Massey of the DA's Office. Welcome to San Mateo County
Waste of taxpayer money! If the DA has the resources to waste on self serving cases then it is time to reduce the size of the SM DA organization. Furthermore the Grand Jury should review this case for any political corruption.
Where are all the brilliant San Mateo County voters and residents? San Mateo County Residents and voters should be up in arms, and asking for the State of California Attorney General to investigate SMC D.A.'s office.
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(4) comments
San Mateo County's Political Prosecution case, think about it for awhile, Three and a half years ago Juan P. Lopez was charged with Smuggling a cellphone and Drugs to an inmate in our jail. The District Attorney and the Sheriff Office knew there was NO Evidence to support that claim. Those charges were dismissed last month, yesterday 3 more charges dismissed. This is a simple example of Prosecutorial Misconduct which is a crime. The star of this story is William Massey of the DA's Office.
Welcome to San Mateo County
Waste of taxpayer money! If the DA has the resources to waste on self serving cases then it is time to reduce the size of the SM DA organization. Furthermore the Grand Jury should review this case for any political corruption.
Where are all the brilliant San Mateo County voters and residents?
San Mateo County Residents and voters should be up in arms, and asking for the State of California Attorney General to investigate SMC D.A.'s office.
SMC D.A.'s office tried to destroy a great man, his name is Juan Pablo Lopez!
This time good wins and evil has lost.
Welcome to the discussion.
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.