According to prosecutors, Thao and Jones accepted tens of thousands of dollars from the Duongs in exchange for promising to extend the city\u2019s contract with its recycling company, California Waste Solutions. Thao also allegedly promised to help the Duongs secure a contract with the city to purchase modular houses from a different company they operated called Evolutionary Homes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The motions under discussion at Thursday\u2019s hearing concerned the FBI\u2019s requests for the search warrants that led to the raids.\u00a0<\/p>\n The defendants are seeking what\u2019s known as a Franks hearing, where they would be allowed to question the FBI agent who authored the search warrant affidavit. They believe this would bolster their request to suppress some or all of the evidence obtained during the FBI raids, including records, items, and data from their phones and computers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Judge didn\u2019t seem to buy the argument that the FBI\u2019s search warrants were defective David Duong filed a motion in November that accused federal agents of building their case<\/a> against him based on an informant who had a \u201cdecades-long history of fraud.\u201d That person, referred to in court records as \u201cCo-conspirator 1,\u201d is widely believed to be Mario Juarez, a controversial Fruitvale businessman.\u00a0<\/p>\n Duong also claimed that the FBI withheld other critical information from the judge who approved the search warrant of his home. Thao, Jones, and Andy submitted similar motions soon after. They also argued that Juarez exhibited racial prejudice<\/a> against Jones, who is Black, claiming the FBI \u201csurgically\u201d omitted an incendiary text exchange from their affidavit in which Juarez refers to Jones doing \u201cstupid black shit.\u201d<\/p>\n Juarez is a longtime Fruitvale businessman with deep political ties throughout Oakland. In 2024, he launched a homeless housing company called Evolutionary Homes<\/a> with Andy and David Duong, trying to sell high-priced tiny homes made out of shipping containers to Oakland and other cities. Evolutionary Homes never secured any contracts, however, and the enterprise fell apart<\/a> after a blow-up between Juarez and the Duongs. Lawyers mentioned Evolutionary Homes by name on Thursday for the first time.<\/p>\n Thao, Jones and the Duongs argue that Juarez\u2019s extensive history of lawsuits and criminal charges reveals him to be a dishonest informant, undermining the FBI\u2019s case. Juarez has been party to over 30 lawsuits<\/a>, many of which accuse him of defrauding associates, investors, and the government of hundreds of thousands of dollars. He\u2019s also been criminally prosecuted four times for fraud, forgery, and embezzlement, but never convicted.<\/p>\n Rogers appeared alternately unimpressed and irritated by the arguments raised by attorneys for all four defendants.\u00a0<\/p>\n At one point, Thao\u2019s lawyer, Jeffrey Tsai, argued that the FBI didn\u2019t have probable cause to search Thao\u2019s home and seize her phone and computer. He said there\u2019s no evidence that Thao herself generated digital documents relevant to the case and that there was no clear connection between her electronic devices and her home.<\/p>\n \u201cIt strains credibility that people do not communicate without computers and cellphones,\u201d the judge said, interrupting him. \u201cPerhaps Elon Musk, I\u2019ve read that he doesn\u2019t use a computer. But otherwise that\u2019s what people use, so I don\u2019t even understand the basic premise of your argument.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Later in the hearing, Rogers told Andy Duong\u2019s attorney, Winston Chan, that she understands why the defendants are trying to attack the government\u2019s search warrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a considerable amount of information given about this co-conspirator that did not bear in a positive way on his credibility\u201d in the affidavits, Rogers acknowledged. But she pointed out that a magistrate judge still found it appropriate to grant the warrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n David Duong\u2019s attorney, August Gugelmann, argued that the search warrant for the June FBI raids depended on inaccurate and incomplete information provided to a judge by a special agent about a shooting outside of Juarez\u2019s home<\/a>. Gugelmann said that the affidavit the agent filed to obtain the search warrant portrayed the shooting as an attempt by the Duongs to murder Co-conspirator 1 because he was cooperating with the feds.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-ShengThao_USFEDCourt_March5-1.jpg\")
Former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao walks towards the United States Federal Court House in Oakland with her lawyer on March 5, 2026. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/large-ShengThao_USFEDCourt_March5-7.jpg\")
Andre Jones holds open the door to the federal courthouse in Oakland for his lawyers. Credit: Richard H. Grant for The Oaklandside. <\/p>\n