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.