The perjury trial of Santa Clara City Council Member Anthony Becker may be closer to starting. Judge Panthea E. Saban told both parties that the trial is on standby this week and set for the Master Trial Calendar for next Monday.
Both sides met in Dept. 40 on Tuesday to discuss a new set of subpoenas as well as pretrial issues.
Judge Saban met with the prosecution and defense in closed chambers before reappearing in the courtroom to go on the record. During the hearing, the court dealt with two subpoenas involving Santa Clara City Council Member Kathy Watanabe and local small business owner Kirk Vartan.
Vartan, who was in the courtroom as an audience member, seemed somewhat surprised when he was called to the podium to speak.
When the judge asked him if he had been subpoenaed, he said he had not.
When the judge asked him what he was doing in the courtroom and if he was there on his “own free will,” Vartan said, “Yes.”
Becker’s attorney, Chris Montoya, indicated to the court that his investigator had said Vartan had been served. He asked the court to compel Vartan to reappear as a potential witness for the defense.
Vartan agreed.
Meanwhile, Watanabe filed a motion to quash a subpoena by the defense for all emails “sent, received, draft[ed] or deleted” between Oct. 1, 2022 and Oct. 15, 2022 on her Google LLC account.
Watanabe represented herself in the motion filed with the court and began with the argument that Becker had “… harassed me and others in the past and it’s reasonable to believe that he will do so again.”
Watanabe cited the 2024 Civil Grand Jury report “Irreconcilable Differences,” a “report” on the Santa Clara News website and the SF Chronicle article in which she and Mayor Lisa Gillmor left a closed session because “we were concerned about our safety,” as proof of this “harassment.”
Watanabe did not mention that a third-party investigation of the closed session incident found that Becker’s behavior did not rise to the level of “hostile.” Nor does her document mention that she told the investigator that she did not feel physically threatened.
Following that, she added a legal argument to her motion to quash similar to the one Gillmor made in her motion to quash filed with the courts earlier in the case.
The judge did not hear arguments about Watanabe’s subpoena, choosing to leave it to the trial judge.
Procedural Issues Lead to Judicial Reprimand
Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky brought before the court an issue he saw with the way the defense was conducting its business.
Malinsky went on the record to say that on Friday, he learned that Montoya was not following proper procedure with subpoenas.
Malinsky said a “third party” reported that Montoya was going directly to the “third party” to access information under the guise that it was a demand from the court.
The “third party” in this case is Gillmor through her lawyer, Robert Mezzetti.
Montoya clarified that he was following up with Mezzetti on an inquiry for records in relation to a subpoena that was already approved by a judge at a previous hearing. Montoya said he believed the records were incomplete and she was not responding “correctly or accurately.”
Judge Saban pointed out that because the court released the records, Montoya would not know if Gillmor submitted incomplete documents or if parts were deemed unnecessary by the judge.
She emphasized with both parties that once a subpoena has been issued, it is against the law if either side receives subpoenaed documents before the court because the court is the “gatekeeper.” Any documents received should not be opened and submitted to the court ASAP.
She emphasized that all documents should go through the court first.
