Obstruction charges upheld against 2 Y-S lawyers

A visiting Yuba County judge has upheld obstruction of justice charges against two Yuba-Sutter attorneys in the Joseph Griesa sexual assault case but ruled they did not try to bribe Griesa's alleged victim.

The 12-page ruling by Judge John Darlington, retired from Nevada County, was filed Thursday.

The attorneys, Jesse Santana and David Vasquez, are scheduled to appear Thursday in Yuba County Superior Court. District Attorney Pat McGrath said they might finally enter pleas in the 2008 case, or take Darlington's ruling to the 3rd District Court of Appeal.

Santana and Vasquez asked Darlington to dismiss all charges, saying the grand jury that indicted them was tainted. They are being prosecuted by the state Attorney General's Office.

Darlington upheld charges that Santana and Vasquez tried to dissuade the 17-year-old girl from testifying against Griesa. She was working as a dispatcher at Mitchell's Towing Service, where Griesa was the manager.

The judge also upheld another charge that Vasquez, who allegedly accepted $2,000 from Griesa, tried to dissuade the girl for financial gain.

"This money was paid by Mr. Griesa. This evidence is ... that Vasquez received pecuniary gain acting upon Griesa's request. Santana was not paid any money according to the evidence," Darlington wrote.

Under an agreement between the attorneys, the girl was to receive $100,000 from Griesa but was never paid.

"There is some evidence that defendant Santana induced (the girl) to sign an agreement that she would request that no charges be brought against Mr. Griesa in exchange for a monetary settlement. There is also sufficient evidence that defendant Vasquez aided and abetted Santana, with knowledge he intended to accomplish that result," the judge wrote.

Darlington wrote there was no evidence that the District Attorney's Office offered Griesa a deal for his testimony to the grand jury about Santana and Vasquez.

Also unproven was the attorneys' claim that the District Attorney's Office "caused indictments to be returned solely to destroy or impugn Mr. Santana's effort to be appointed to the bench in Sutter County," Darlington wrote.

A lawyer for the attorneys said their record of winning cases against the District Attorney's Office was another reason for the indictments.

"The bottom line is that the defendants have failed to establish any grounds upon which this court could find that the prosecution or the court committed any act of commission or omission which made the grand jury proceedings fundamentally unfair or a miscarriage of justice to them," the judge wrote.

McGrath said he was pleased Darlington ruled that his office did not act unethically.

CONTACT Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com.