Before the US Supreme Court’s Bruen decision was handed down, we all noticed how it seemed like celebrities and the well-connected had no problems getting a carry license. The little people like you and me? LOL. Now, after a long investigation and court case, former Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith has convicted of civil corruption for selling concealed carry permits, playing politics and profiting from her control of peoples’ right to armed personal defense.
According to news accounts, corruptocrat Laurie Smith wiped away tears as the verdict was read. She couldn’t even accept responsibility for her misdeeds without claiming (aspiring towards?) victim status.
Four others were indicted in 2020 as a result of the years-long corruption investigation including a Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department captain. Now a jury found that Smith sold guilty as well.
Sheriff Laurie Smith has announced her retirement effective 10/31/22. Undersheriff Ken Binder is the Acting Sheriff until a new Sheriff is elected or appointed by the Board of Supervisors. We remain committed to our mission to provide the highest level of public safety & service. pic.twitter.com/zxW3MYCgc0
— SantaClaraCoSheriff (@SCCoSheriff) October 31, 2022
Smith, seeing the writing on the wall, abruptly retired last Monday in a last-ditch attempt to stop the trial as the jury was deliberating. But San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Nancy Fineman didn’t play along.
The judge emphasized the civil-criminal hybrid nature of the trial and voiced concern about defendants, who have opted into trial, later engineering their own resolutions. Smith had a chance to avoid trial but passed on prosecutors’ settlement offer to drop the case if she resigned by July 15.
“There’s a difference: A removal is forced, and it’s a determination by a court,” Fineman said. “Why would this case allow the defendant to just, on her own, stop a case from going forward because she has resigned? She was not removed.”
SFGate has the story . . .
A special civil jury in Northern California found a former longtime sheriff guilty on all six counts of corruption and willful misconduct in a case involving the issuing of concealed-carry weapons permits in exchange for campaign donations.
Laurie Smith resigned from her post as sheriff of the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office on Monday when the jury was already deliberating. Her attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case but the judge denied it.
Smith had been sheriff of Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, since 1998 when she became the first woman elected sheriff in California.
After the verdict was read, Smith wiped away tears, the Mercury News reported. Neither Smith nor her attorney Allen Ruby offered any comment outside the courtroom in San Jose. San Francisco assistant district attorney Gabriel Markoff, who prosecuted the case, also declined to comment, the newspaper reported.
A guilty verdict on just one count would have led to Smith’s removal from office but since she stepped down it is unclear what legal impact the guilty verdict could have. Smith will return to court on Nov. 16, when San Mateo County superior court judge is likely to issue the formal removal order for Smith, the newspaper reported.
Giving public officials discretion over who can and who can’t exercise a fundamental civil right is an invitation to graft and corruption. Thanks to Bruen, the days of corruptocrats selectively denying everyday Americans their fundamental right to keep and bear arms is coming to an end. It can’t happen soon enough.
As for Smith, it’s unlikely that criminal charges will come from this civil case. As such, she’s unlikely to earn that coveted felon prohibited person status that so many gun control advocates have achieved in the past.
Effin’ bottle-blonde, white trans-“womynz”.
Anything they can’t do?
Nope.
From whence do you derive the “tranz” part? I read nothing to suggest that in the article… The truth is bad enuff, no need to embroider upon it!
It’s not surprising that she was directly involved in corrupt practices regarding concealed carry permits, one often sees Republican political office holders involved in criminal activity.
Hopefully the citizenry will take this as a lesson and elect a Democratic sheriff who can better maintain the integrity of the office.
BWAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAWHUT?!?!
As a resident of the great state of CA, I can tell you with absolute certainty, that the CCW program in every on of the large population (aka lead by democrats) counties was corrupt. There is no exception. Pay the ‘Vig”, get your permit.
Now, that is going to be much harder to do after Bruin. But if they can find a way, they’ll do it.
Indeed. I live in the Bay Area and the corruption is North Korea level here. They don’t even pretend to serve the people.
My region of CA is better than most. But since our state is working overtime hours to try and punish anyone who can spell the word G-U-N, who knows whether my county will be able to hold out.
It is unfortunate that many of your neighbors in California have been denied permits because a Republican politician used CCW permits to raise campaign contributions for her election campaign.
More Republican election fraud, it’s good to see that she’s finally being held to account for her political corruption.
“Those records showed that among the permit recipients was Martin Nielsen, a security executive with Seattle-based AS Solution, whose clients include Facebook’s top executives. Campaign finance records show that Nielsen made a single $45,000 donation in October 2018 to an independent expenditure committee backing Sheriff Laurie Smith’s bid for a sixth term. Nielsen was granted a permit in March.“
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/12/12/concealed-guns-probe-new-records-further-suggest-influence-of-power-money-on-permitting-process/
No dem sheriff’s in the bay area doing the same?
You are priceless to our side miner. Keep it up. Wonder when your paymasters will figure out that you’re a bad money choice?
“No dem sheriff’s in the bay area doing the same?“
If there were Democratic officials engaging in the same unlawful activity, I believe they should be prosecuted as well.
But the fact is it is a longtime Republican politician who is being investigated for bribery and political corruption.
It seems the Nazis you are ranting about are Republicans.
Your takeaway is that Laurie Smith is a Republican?
How’s about all the counties that are just as corrupt run by democrats? This is not a party affiliation problem. This is a “I have something that people want and they can only get from me, if I let them” problem.
I get it, you hate ‘pubs. well, I’m not often fond of them either, but if Laurie Smith had been a card carrying member of the Communist party or a John Birch society in good standing, it would have made no difference.
Kyle. It would have made a difference to miner. He’s only paid to trash the gop.
What’s she crying about? Sounds like she was prepared to remove herself anyway, so with no criminal charges coming along, why the tears?
The issue becomes whether she will be able to collect her pension. My understanding is that a resignation with charges pending she does, removal from office for corruption she does not. Right now it looks as if she may be losing out since her resignation had not been accepted by the proper governmental authorities. We will see what we will see.
That these aren’t criminal charges baffles me.
At the absolute least, she should lose that plump state pension… 🙁
We are in desperate need of De-Nazifying our .gov at the state and federal level.
The democratic party must go or Fascism will simply rear its ugly head again.
Maybe you should put in a call to Emperor Putin. He hates Nazis, even when he acts like one.
“We are in desperate need of De-Nazifying our .gov at the state and federal level”
You do know that the corrupt sheriff in this article is a Republican politician, right?
I agree with you in this case, I do think we need to rid our government of these corrupt Republicans selling their political office to the highest bidder
I’m glad you agree that we need to De-Nazify our .gov, miner.
Who fought a war to protect slavery? Dems.
Who formed the klan? Dems.
Who turned dogs and firehoses on people that no longer wished to sit at the back of the bus? Dems.
Who continues to this very day to deny human and civil rights to the people whenever possible? Dems.
One corrupt gop member is nothing compared to the evil the fascist left has been involved in.
Civil Trial, not Criminal, total whitewash. The powerful people and companies, including Apple will receive ZERO penalties.
Same thing happened in New York City when they were caught selling permits. The officers involved (not the supervisors) were reassigned. The people who paid and the guy who facilitated hundreds of thousands in bribes got ZERO jail time.
One rule for thee and another for me.
“She couldn’t even accept responsibility for her misdeeds without claiming (aspiring towards?) victim status”
in these peoples’ minds, everything is all about them, everything is here to serve them, everything is supposed to benefit them. if something is/does, that’s just the way it’s supposed to be. if something isn’t/doesn’t, that is wickedness victimizing them.
really. no joke. no exaggeration. that’s how they see it. that’s what you’re up against.
plan accordingly.
If there is a system it will be gamed. This is absolute.
Remember to vote tomorrow. You know, participate in the system. No way that one gets gamed.
“No way that one gets gamed”
? dude. it’s gamed.
Need proof. Got any?
An anonymous troll demands ‘proof’?
What a complete joke you are! 🤡 😉
True the Vote has the proof, they were Dinesh Desousa‘s ‘2000 Miles’ intelligence source so you know it’s gotta be reliable!
Oh wait…
“Federal marshals escorted the leaders of True the Vote out of a Houston courtroom on Monday morning and into a holding cell. Catherine Engelbrecht and Gregg Phillips have been held in contempt of court for refusing to release the name of a person of interest in the defamation and computer hacking case against them, who they claim, without proof, is a confidential FBI informant.
They will remain in jail until they release the name of the man.“
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/31/true-the-vote-leaders-jailed/amp/
Ask Hillary or Stacy. They’ve been accusing fraud since 2016.
Federal appeals court releases True the Vote leaders from jail
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/07/true-the-vote-jail-release/
Rodney L.
Is that the best you have???
What deep state actors kept Trump from getting enough electoral college votes to win. Why didn’t these same actors give Hillary the Presidency in 2016.
In 2016 the govt was run by Obama appointees, in 2020 the govt was run by the people Trump put into power. Seems backward Trump lost in 2020 and not 2016 if Dem leaning deep state actors stole the election.
Big tech suppressed info, info that could have changed the election. That wasn’t the deep state. That was libs running Twitter, Google, and most of the media.
If you have other info, give us some names. You’re the joke.
@Miner49er
as usual you only went as far as your confirmation bias let you.
Federal appeals court releases True the Vote leaders from jail >
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/07/true-the-vote-jail-release/
serious Miner49er…you need to learn what the word ‘research’ means
.40 cal. miner is paid, not a volunteer. He is only parroting what his paymasters tell him.
EVERYONE who was ever denied a CC permit from her office should sue immediately for civil rights violations.
I am in general against release of CC holders names but in the case of “may issue” carry I make an exception because the system is little more than a method of bribery and connected people for the most part.
Typically her office did not issue denials. It just failed to act on applications. They would remain “pending.”
same deal though. a right delayed is one denied.
@Andrew Lucas
“I am in general against release of CC holders names…”
are you also in general against release of names for people who exercise a first amendment right?
“in general” is a term describing arbitrary applied determination based upon condition. A right for the law abiding is a right or its not a right at all, there is no ‘general’
select *
from campaign.Doners
inner join permit.Holders
on Doners.Address = Holders.Address
Let the arrest warrants fly!
Please UPPER the keywords. And some indentation would be nice.
Thanks,
Programmers everywhere.
i like a good vanilla post.
but that awkward crap is refreshing.
Whatever Party has majority, especially supermajority, rule will be corrupt. The majority does not discipline itself, unless that corruption is not passed to all members.
Laurie Smith knowingly committed a crime. She knew bribery was unethical and did took it anyway. She thought she would be politically covered, I guess her usefulness to the Party had expired.
If found guilty, after due process that she denied others , she should receive the maximum sentence by law. Her criminal conduct was for personal gain and her corruption denied people their rights.
Yet another example that a permit process for a Right is in error and can be easily corrupted.
“a permit process for a Right is in error”
a permit process for firearms is entirely reasonable – in a reasonable nation. it’s just that they have no intention of being reasonable – because they’re not part of the nation.
should be “shall issue”, with denial requiring explicit and explicitly stated cause, with judicial review available.
https://youtu.be/zShMEJsM7Ko
“As for Smith, it’s unlikely that criminal charges will come from this civil case.”
Why not?
Accepting money to issue a gun permit is not a criminal offense in California?
Last I checked, when a government employee accepts money in exchange for a permit or to accelerate the permit process, that is bribery and is (or at least should be) illegal.
And it doesn’t matter what the permit is for. It could be a building permit or anything else. Bribery is bribery.
Furthermore, I believe there should be a new criminal law titled “Breach of the Public Trust” that would cover such conduct. And I believe this new law should cover gross failures to act as well as heinous actions. One example of “gross failure to act” would be when government employees (including politicians) learned about contaminated municipal water and waited several months to notify the public. Of course heinous actions would be issuing (or speeding up) permits for money, sending sick people (e.g. COVID-19 positive patients) to nursing homes, and shutting down schools for months to name just a few.
So she just retires and it’s business as usual. Typical F*cking Democrats!
…as a former resident of that south-bay cesspool, all I can say is ” Ha! Eat it, bitch!”
Evidence of another dirty corrupt member of the “Democrat” party?
She needs to serve prison time for her blatant crimes. Not just be “resigned/removed” from office. Why do public officials commit crimes, yet never go to jail?
Answer: Corruption.
In Ca, a person running for sheriff is not bound to a political party. A police chief has to keep city council and mayor happy, but even they did not run with a political. The difference is the Sheriff remains true to his beliefs and the chief does what he is told.
This is a case of old fashioned greed, which is the same no matter what party you claim to follow.
Burn the witch
KARMA …
Strung up by her nips and large dollar restitution to those denied permits as a civil penalty and long prison sentence for the criminal violations is required.
We must not forget the Silicon Valley “elites”, the “tech execs”, whom deem themselves “our betters”, ie. those who paid the bribes, they MUST be charged with felonies, prosecuted, convicted, sentenced to prison, they and their spouses must be stripped forever of THEIR right to own firearms.
absolute power absolutely corrupts
I think you mean absolute power corrupts absolutely.
…not to split hairs
yes, that’s it in a general fashion, but I wanted to word it to mean the same thing and also more directly for the personal aspect for this POS thus ‘absolute power absolutely corrupts’.
Absolute power absolutely corrupts” is an accepted form for application to a specific person (personalized to them).
e.g. Absolute power absolutely corrupts ‘Retired’ Santa Clara Sheriff Laurie Smith.
Power corrupts. Absolute power is kinda nice……
The reason Democrats are so blatant in their corruption is they know they almost never go to jail. How much time did Lois Learner spend in jail? Hillary Clinton? Bet most of us can name several more.
what a coincidence
the first female sheriff in california
is also the first female sheriff in california
to be removed for corruption
go figure
#womenmakingwomenlookbad