Former Santa Clara County Sheriff Loses Another Appeal

The California Supreme Court will not hear former Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith's appeal of a case that disqualified her from holding public office.

The high court denied Smith's request for review on June 18, records show. This comes after jurors in a 2022 civil trial found Smith guilty of six charges of bribery and willful misconduct, determining that his office was engaged in a pay-to-play scheme when granting gun permits to friends and political donors. Smith appealed the case and argued that by retiring before being convicted, the impeachment proceedings that barred her from her job and jury duty were no longer necessary.

State judges disagreed and instead upheld the verdict that ended his 50-year career in law enforcement.

The sheriff's deputy union said it has evolved since Smith's time on the job.

“We are working to address our critical staffing shortage, improve 911 response times and reduce crime in our communities and we have no interest in looking in the rearview mirror at the difficult tenure of past sheriffs and the latest legal drama,” said Marcus Barbour, president of the deputy sheriffs' association. told San Jose Spotlight.

Smith did not respond to a request for comment.

Toward the end of Smith's tenure as sheriff, his office's management of the county jail system came under increased scrutiny. His successor, Bob Jonsen, took office early because the office lacked a permanent leader.

A series of injuries suffered by mentally ill inmates in recent years led to a county investigation into Smith and other department heads. In previous interviews with San José Spotlight, Smith blamed the county for locking mentally ill people in jails instead of building a psychiatric hospital, and for his department's budget problems.

In a high-profile incident in 2018, inmate Andrew Hogan suffered a head injury after repeatedly hitting his head against the sides of a holding cage while being transferred between county facilities . The county settled for $10 million with Hogan's family.

Smith is also being sued by a sheriff's office employee who claims the former sheriff created a hostile and retaliatory work environment for workers who participated in the corruption investigation.

Lara McCabe, who was a management analyst under Smith, alleged in her lawsuit that Smith repeatedly “intimidated, harassed and threatened” her and that county officials did nothing to stop him — despite multiple McCabe's attempts to seek help.

McCabe did not respond to requests for comment.

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.