OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A former Oakland mayor and several co-defendants accused in a bribery scheme that included political favors attempted Friday to exclude several pieces of evidence they say would be highly prejudicial if admitted to an upcoming criminal trial.
Now-recalled Mayor Sheng Thao was charged with six counts of conspiracy and bribery in January 2025. Her romantic partner Andre Jones and David and Andy Duong, a father and son of a prominent Oakland family with associations in real estate and politics, were also charged in the scheme. All four have pleaded not guilty.
Thao is accused of taking bribes of up to $95,000 in cash payments to further the business interests of the Duong family, which owns local recycling business California Waste Solutions.
All four defendants were in court Friday, with Thao in a charcoal grey suit and wearing her long hair down, and the other three defendants dressed in suits.
The defendants had a laundry list of evidence — including phone calls, text messages and videos — they want U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to exclude from trial.
Jones’ attorney Shawn Halbert said that Jones’ supposed involvement in obtaining a $5,000 check from the Duongs as a donation to the Niagara Movement Foundation, a social justice nonprofit that works with Black youth, was not inextricably intertwined with the conspiracy charges and didn’t financially benefit Thao or Jones.
Furthermore, Halbert argued, a donation to Black youth may not be looked at favorably by a jury because Jones is a Black man.
“We are in the Bay Area, we are not in the South,” Rogers, a Barack Obama appointee, said. “I disagree with that assessment.”
She noted many of the jurors she has spoken with in the past are “more supportive, not less” of minorities.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine called Halbert’s argument absurd.
“My argument is not absurd, it is a reality about people’s views about race,” Halbert said.
Additionally, FBI informant Mario Juarez, a business associate of the Duongs, will testify at trial Thao and Jones requested the Duongs make the donation because it would help Thao politically, Fine said.
Fine argued a series of texts and a meeting about the donation — written by the Duongs to purchase a table for an event for the organization — show a pattern of the relationships between the defendants.
“The idea of a political benefit is much more amorphous,” the attorney said. “There were photos taken at the event and plastered on the internet.”
In 2022, Juarez started Evolutionary Homes, a shipping container shelter company, with the Duongs. Federal prosecutors claim the Duongs bribed Thao and Jones to secure city contracts for Evolutionary Homes and California Waste Solutions.
Prosecutors also claim the Duongs paid Jones for a no-show job and $75,000 in political attack ads against Thao’s mayoral opponents in the 2022 election. Thao was recalled in November 2024.
In 2024, Juarez gave information to the FBI after a falling out with the Duongs. The defendants’ homes and the California Waste Solutions building were raided by the FBI in June 2024.
While Rogers hinted she would likely grant one motion for exclusion for Jones, she wasn’t disposed to grant the defendants any more.
“The motions by defense are too generic,” she said.
Additional evidence the defendants are trying to keep out of the trial include a video taken by Andy Duong of former project manager of the Oakland Economic and Workforce Development Department Larry Gallegos at a bar with “scantily clad young women.”
Gallegos was a key figure for the supposed scheme to obtain city contracts for Evolutionary Homes. Gallegos resigned from the post after the January 2025 indictment.
The prosecutors claim Juarez will testify that Andy Duong frequently took videos of politicos and other high-ranking city officials for blackmail. Andy Duong’s attorney Doug Sprague said the evidence that Andy Duong ever used recordings for leverage or blackmail doesn’t exist.
“No one ever thought he would or did,” said Sprague, noting the prosecutors were trying to get the court to infer too much from its characterization of the conspiracy.
One piece of evidence all parties agreed would not be a part of the trial was an exchange between Andy Duong and San Leandro council member Bryan Azevedo talking about going to a massage parlor and engaging in sexual acts with prostitutes while on a trip to Vietnam paid for by the Duongs.
In February, Azevedo pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy related to his acceptance of a $2,000 bribe from Juarez in exchange for favorable city contracts for Evolutionary Homes.
Rogers asked all parties how long they expect the trial to last, and how long they will need to continue to prepare, especially given the government’s extraordinary exhibit list of over 1,500 entries.
The attorneys agreed a six-week trial is likely, with each defendant calling a few witnesses, along with the prosecutor’s case. A start date for the trial has not been scheduled.
Thao faces up to 95 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
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