The federal corruption trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her former romantic partner, Andre Jones, and local businessmen, Andy and David Duong, resumes Monday morning. Nathan Gartrell, a reporter with the East Bay Times, has been reporting on the proceedings and gave the following update to KALW:
This interview was edited for brevity and clarity.
Nathan Gartrell: “The biggest thing that happened last week was the appearance of the star witness, Mario Juarez who is alleged to be in the middle of all of these dealings that were going on in city hall and other enclaves and offices around the East Bay that resulted in alleged briberies and other alleged illicit schemes that the government says happened.“
"So, he’s kind of central to everybody’s case," added Gartrell. "The government needs him to establish some of the alleged bribes involving Sheng Thao and her partner. And the defense kind of needs to take him down and establish that, to the jury, that he’s a liar, or, as they put it, a master of half-truths. And, even to the point where, when people come out of court, they are greeted by protesters holding professionally-painted signs that decry Juarez as a liar."
“And what’s going on this week, I think for starters, is cross-examination of Mario Juarez, which, so far, this trial cross-examination has really dragged on," said Gartrell. "Every single defendant, and there’s four of them, they get to take their turn cross-examining every single witness. The trial’s already behind schedule, even though it’s been weeks underway, already. And, Juarez is central to every single defendant’s defense, in the sense that they need to discredit him. So, I think it’s going to be a long, dragged-out, kind of brutal cross-examination. And the government gets to go again, and try to rehabilitate him to the extent that he took any hits during cross-examination. There should be plenty of sparks.”
