The judge in the federal corruption trial involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and three co-defendants has denied a motion by the defendants to toss evidence that they say was obtained inappropriately by investigators.
There was a blow this week to the defendants' side of the federal corruption case that ensnared former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her romantic partner Andre Jones, and local father-and-son business partners David and Andy Duong. As Bay Area News Group reports, attorneys for the co-defendants had filed a motion to toss a trove of evidence that they say was obtained after "presenting dishonest or reckless information."
According to the ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, "Defendants present no credible evidence that the government intended to deceive or acted with reckless disregard." And Rogers further denied a motion for an evidentiary hearing.
This development paves the way further toward a potential trial or plea deal, but we still could be many months away from that.
At the heart of the evidentiary issue, per the news group, is star witness Mario Juarez, who until recently had not been named in court records. Attorneys for the defendants have alleged that that federal prosecutors have built a case around the "self-serving spin" of a man with a “shockingly long history of criminal charges and civil disputes," and a "decades-long track record of defrauding business partners."
Juarez's name arose early in this case, way back in June 2024, before Thao's ultimate resignation from the mayor's office. Juarez was implicated as a "straw donor" who may have funneled money from the Duongs into Thao's 2022 mayoral campaign. And just 11 days before the FBI raids targeting Thao and the other co-defendants, Juarez's home was allegedly shot up — and he was allegedly severely beaten up as well, one month earlier. (A 25-year-old man, Hermelindo Olber Ramos Ramos, was charged last year with shooting at Juarez's home.)
Things have moved slowly with this case. The quartet of defendants would not be indicted until January 2025, and in November 2025, we learned that Juarez was a star witness in the case and had apparently been coorperating with investigators.
As Bay Area News Group reports via court filings, federal prosecutors strongly denied that their case rested so heavily on Juarez's testimony, telling the judge, "The government had been investigating defendants’ bribery scheme for over a year before interviewing [Juarez]." Prosecutors acknowledged Juarez's past run-ins with the law, and they say that they had already collected a host of text messages and other evidence in the case before they had even met with him.
The trial is currently scheduled for October 19, pending any further delays. Thao and Jones are accused of soliciting and accepting bribes, including a $95,000-per-year no-show job for Jones at the Duongs' company — though earlier filings suggest there is evidence that she had sought far more.
In exchange, Thao allegedly worked to get lucrative city contracts for the Duongs and their waste management company, California Waste Solutions, as well as a startup housing company focused on prefabricated tiny homes. The alleged corruption playbook is oddly similar to the one that played out in San Francisco several years earlier, involving both waste management and a startup tiny-home company.
The San Francisco probe ended in multiple convictions, including that of former SF Public Works chief Mohammed Nuru, who is serving a seven-year sentence.
Top image: Sheng Thao speaks onstage at the TAAF Heritage Month Summit at The Glasshouse on May 02, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images for The Asian American Foundation)
