UpdatedThu, Feb 25, 2021 at 3:54 pm PT
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John Harris Jr. was taken into custody on an attempted murder charge this week. The left photo was taken around 1989, the year the case began, police said. (Courtesy of City of San Mateo Police Department)
SAN MATEO, CA DNA technology helped San Mateo law enforcement crack open a gruesome cold case involving an attempted murder that occurred more than 30 years ago.
The investigation remains open, as police are concerned there may have been additional victims.
San Mateo Police Department detectives and investigators from the San Mateo County District Attorney s Office arrested John Harris Jr., 55, in Manteca on Wednesday on charges of attempted murder, with other charges pending because of complications under the statute of limitations.
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Ron Galatolo was chancellor of the San Mateo County Community College District for 20 years. Then, in 2019, he became a chancellor emeritus for the district.
But last week, the district’s Board of Trustees announced that it had terminated its relationship with Galatolo in light of facts stemming from an investigation by the county district attorney.
“In the course of the district’s cooperation with that investigation, various matters have come to light that do not appear to have been presented to the board by former Chancellor Galatolo,” the board wrote in a media statement. “These matters include the apparent use of public funds for retirement incentives, undisclosed personal relationships with vendors for the district, and undisclosed receipt of gifts from contractors who work for the District. These gifts appear to have included high-end travel, concert tickets and meals and do not appear to have been reported on a Form 700 as required b
The company website says the company has been in the cannabis and hemp business for decades, but according to many farmworkers who used to work there, Castillo Seed said business had declined badly during the pandemic and told them they wouldn’t be paid the last weeks of December into the New Year. But that stretched into eight weeks of work with no pay.
Some went to Coastside Hope, an agency that acts as a safety net for those in need.
“A lot of them continued to go to work I believe because they had hope that, maybe, the next day they would get paid, and if not that day the next day,” said Coastside Hope Executive Director Judith Guerrero. “I think also the fear of leaving work and if you left work they wouldn’t pay you.”
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Phil Matier: D.A. inspector listens to prisoner’s phone call, uncovers huge state unemployment scam [San Francisco Chronicle]
Jan. 10 It was the first break in what turned out to be the biggest jailhouse scam in California history. It involved millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment payments to prisoners and their co-conspirators on the outside. And it happened quite by accident at the San Mateo County Jail.
“It was just before July 4. I was listening to a recording of a call made by prisoner I had been monitoring. About an hour into the call they started talking about this scam,” said Inspector Jordan Boyd, a nine-year veteran of the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Massive amounts of state money suspected of being scammed by criminal rings
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Santa Clara County expects to file charges in the coming weeks in an unemployment benefits fraud scheme that began in 2020. Courtesy Getty Images.
The loss of millions of dollars in unemployment benefits that allegedly went to jail inmates across the state, including in Santa Clara County, has prompted the District Attorney s Office to initiate a crackdown, the office announced Tuesday.
The significant rise in unemployment benefits fraud throughout the state became apparent because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The state has been bombarded by unemployment claims as people have sought relief after being unable to work, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Charlotte Chang said by phone on Jan. 5. Some people also see an opportunity to receive more benefits than they are entitled to, Chang said. Anyone who is Incarcerated is not entitled to