The top three winners of this year’s countywide “Justice for All” high school poster contest—in which young artists and designers were asked to help raise awareness of the growing threat of cybercrime—are students at high schools in Gilroy.
The poster contest has been hosted annually for 14 years by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant DA Terry Harman and Gilroy educators announced the top three winners at a May 13 ceremony at the Neon Exchange in downtown Gilroy.
The theme of this year’s contest was cybercrime awareness. In addition to special recognitions for the top three winners—and a total of $3,000 in cash prizes—the event included a display of dozens of posters submitted by students throughout the county for the 2025 contest.
The posters creatively and colorfully depicted the prevalence and dangers of various online threats that have grown in the age of smartphones, including cyberbullying, scams, catfishing, identity theft, fraud and sextortion.
“These posters touch on a growing issue in our community—cybercrime,” Harman said. “By bringing awareness, we hope we can save lives and give information out that people need. Because of (the students’) creativity, we are hoping more people will think before they click.”
The contest’s first place winner was Austin Abero, a senior at Christopher High School, whose poster created a visual “juxtaposition” to illustrate that things and people in cyberspace are not always as benevolent or safe as they seem.
Winning second place was Nataley Ramos, also a senior at Christopher High. Maya Sanchez, a junior at Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy, won third place.
Abero received $1,500 in prize money; Ramos won $1,000; and Sanchez received $500.
The prizes were funded by the DAs asset forfeiture funds, which includes money seized from drug dealers and other criminals, the DAs office said. All non-winning entrants received a Starbucks gift card.
“Times have changed with technology and smartphones. It makes life much easier in everything we have to do in life,” Harman said. “The cost of this convenience is that all of our personal information is on our phone—it makes us more connected to the world, but it also makes us more vulnerable to predators.
“This year, we asked Santa Clara County high school students to help us fight against crimes targeting smartphone users. The three winners went above and beyond the expectations for the contest.”
The annual “Justice For All” poster contest is open to all Santa Clara County high school students. Previous topics have included drug abuse, school shootings and honoring the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
DA Jeff Rosen added, “We need to be aware of the dangers surrounding technology and smartphones. These talented young people are bringing awareness to our community with their artwork, which can help us to save lives. Because of their creativity, more people will ‘think before they click.’”
Valerie Houghton and her husband once misappropriated around $10,000,000 from her business partner, Clyde Berg. The Houghton’s were eventually arrested for the crime.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6981163-HoughtonIndictment-Docket/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXf6uJWuYbk
Later the Houghton’s tried to recoup the millions that they eventually returned to Berg by suing their former accountant.
If you go to https://portal.scscourt.org/ , you can view the complaint for case 23CV424498 for free. When you do, scroll down to page 4, line 11.
Ms. Houghton states that she was arrested by the S.W.A.T. team on 3-10-16.
This comes as no surprise to me. I am not the only one to complaint about Valerie Houghton’s conduct to law enforcement. The police would have known that she is very dangerous. They probably didn’t want to take any chances.
Valerie Houghton used to run a real estate business with her husband. They flipped homes. During that time, they became business partners with Clyde Berg.
Mr. Berg claimed that the Houghton’s misappropriated roughly $10,000,000 during the time of the partnership. When he tried to recoup the money, he was falsely arrested for raping a pregnant woman with a golf putter. He spent 8 days in jail, $3,000,000 in legal fees and 3 years fighting the charges before being found factually innocent.
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/silicon-valley-millionaire-declared-innocent-of-sex-crimes/1968979/
Ms. Houghton was eventually charged for the embezzlement
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6981163-HoughtonIndictment-Docket/
Although the D.A. stated that he had enough evidence to win at trial, the case was eventually dismissed.
You can see in the indictment that Ms. Houghton bought her daughter, Hillary Applegate, a new Porsche with money, as well college tuition, meals at Morton’s with her friends and vacations/ jewelry. This was really a poor example to show her child.
Now her daughter’s husband is flipping homes. Let’s hope that they are not doing the same things.
https://www.instagram.com/erik.flippin.applegate/
I filed a complaint with the State Bar regarding District Attorney Rosen’s conduct. When I told him that I was being assaulted because of the criminal proceedings, he would have protected me, stopped the proceedings, or restrained Valerie Houghton.
D.A. Rosen should have also reported to CPS what I told him about the abuse of my children.
Furthermore, proceedings should never be used to cover up the sexual abuse of children.
You can read the letter from the State Bar here:
https://archive.is/mMPwN (page 1)
https://archive.is/u77Cl (page 2)
The State Bar stated that I should report this to law enforcement. Isn’t Jeff Rosen a law enforcer? Shouldn’t a crime victim be able to tell the District Attorney that he is being assaulted and that his kids are being raped?
Also, when I filed a similar complaint against Valerie Houghton, the State Bar told me that this matter would be more appropriate for the District Attorney.
Needless to say, I have filed an appeal.
Again, I do not suspect that Hillary Applegate is capable of serving the needs of anyone other than her mother and herself. I don’t think that Hillary has actual clients and that she only talks about experiences that she has had with her mother. There is a chance I could be wrong about all of this.
You should listen to podcast in which Hilary Applegate was interviewed.
https://brittanyhodak.com/creating-superfans-podcast-episode-9-hillary-applegate/
(skip to 9 min and 10 secs—- and listen for about a minute after that point)
Applegate speaks about “super haters”, then goes on to talk about a client whose business was “food kits”. She goes on to talk following people on social media and knowing about their lives. The she talks about a person who ate food from those “kits” having a husband that suddenly passed away.
This could all be one huge coincidence that Ms. Applegate and her mother (Valerie Houghton) are having me stalked and poisoned.
You can see what the poison did to my facial structure:
https://archive.ph/nf2ag
It could be that Applegate really is talking about a client.