A Superior Court jury on July 17 found former Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Capt. James Jensen guilty of felony bribery and conspiracy charges in connection with a gun permit bribery scandal.
The same jury acquitted co-defendant Harpaul Nahal, a Santa Clara attorney, of both charges in the case that began with search warrants in August 2019 and grand jury indictments in August 2020.
Jensen, 47, was convicted for his role in a scheme to have AS Solution, Inc., an international security company, donate as much as $90,000 to get concealed firearms licenses from the Sheriff’s Office for the company’s executive protection agents.
Judge Naham Iravani-Sani is scheduled to sentence Jensen in September. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in state prison.
With the verdicts at the close of a 20-day trial, there have now been five conspirators convicted as a result of the DA’s investigation into the issuance of CCW licenses by the Sheriff’s Office in 2018 and 2019.
There remain two more cases involving other bribes and other defendants, including former Undersheriff Rick Sung, Apple’s head of global security Thomas Moyer and local insurance broker Harpreet Chadha.
“Government services, including the issuance of gun permits, are not for sale in Santa Clara County,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said. “I’m grateful to the jurors who once again have shown that we are a community that deeply values integrity, fairness, and accountability.”
The case against Nahal and Jensen was among the first indictments handed down by a grand jury in August 2020, which indicted the two men, along with San Jose attorney Christopher Schumb and Milpitas gun business owner Michael Nichols for their alleged involvement in an alleged scheme to trade concealed firearms permits issued Smith’s office for a $90,000 bribe from a Silicon Valley security firm. The indictments included felony bribery and conspiracy charges.
The July 17 verdicts were the latest development in the sprawling bribery scandal over concealed weapons permits that roiled the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office for four years, leading to indictments against key Silicon Valley figures and senior sheriff’s officers and the resignation of veteran Sheriff Laurie Smith.
Smith never faced criminal charges, but was found guilty of corruption by a civil grand jury.
Rosen said in a press release that in October 2018, AS Security donated the first $45,000 of that amount via an employee’s personal check made payable to an independent expenditure committee supporting the re-election of Smith.
“The conspirators were in the midst of planning to donate the second $45,000 to the Sheriff’s Advisory Board when, on Aug. 2, 2019, the DA’s Office served a search warrant on the Sheriff’s Office and the investigation was revealed,” Rosen said in today’s press release.
“Testimony at trial proved that nearly all applications by members of the public for a first-time CCW license submitted in 2018 and 2019 were completely ignored..and that Jensen negotiated the number of CCW licenses to be issued, shepherded the applications through the system, and got four of them approved by Sheriff Smith before the investigation was revealed,” the DA said in a statement.
Smith was never charged with a crime in connection with this scheme, she resigned in 2022, just days before she was found guilty in a trial to remove her from office. That trial relied largely on evidence obtained during the investigation by the DA’s Office.
Nahal’s attorney, Christian Picone of San Jose, said after today’s verdict: “The prosecution’s theory was that Nahal was the money guy, and the jury didn’t buy that – that was dispelled in the trial.”
In September and October 2020 the CEO and two former managers of AS Solution pleaded guilty to allegations that they took part in the conspiracy to exchange bribes for concealed gun permits in Santa Clara County. AS Solution had been a big contributor to Smith’s re-election campaigns.
In 2021, the Sixth District Court of Appeal disqualified Rosen and his office from prosecuting Schumb on the bribery charges, ruling that Schumb’s past friendship with and fundraising support for Rosen posed a conflict of interest. Prosecution of the case was transferred to the State Attorney General’s Office.
Three months later, in August 2021, California prosecutors dropped the charges of bribery and participation in a criminal conspiracy against Schumb, for lack of evidence.
In November 2023, Nichols, the owner of a gun tooling and customization shop, pleaded guilty, and the court reduced the charge to a misdemeanor pursuant to the negotiated disposition and imposed a one-year county jail sentence.
Nichols admitted to helping arrange meetings that led to payments of $90,000 in exchange for a dozen or more permits.
In August 2023, the California Court of Appeal ordered reinstatement of charges against Moyer, after a 2021 Superior Court ruling had dismissed the charges.
The cases against Moyer and Sung are expected to go to trial in the fall.
