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<\/a>\t\t\t<\/p>\nThe lawsuit filed Wednesday last week seeks the disclosure of \u201cTammany Hall<\/a>\u201d \u2014 a group chat that allegedly involved Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Domingo Candelas and former Councilmember Omar Torres, who was\u00a0arrested last year<\/a>\u00a0in connection with child sex crimes and lewd acts with a minor. Law enforcement sources told this news publication the thread included racial slurs and disparaging remarks about certain neighborhoods. The texts were allegedly discovered on Torres\u2019 phone\u00a0during his criminal investigation<\/a>\u00a0and shared with top officials at City Hall.<\/p>\n Ortiz and Candelas\u00a0indirectly acknowledged<\/a>\u00a0the thread in June after meeting with social justice groups \u2014 who ultimately stood by the officials and questioned whether police were targeting the councilmembers for political gain.<\/p>\n City Hall and the San Jose Police Department denied five public records requests from San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight to release the communications \u2014 which appeared to mention city business. The city initially denied the texts\u2019 existence, then released one message from a reporter about the texts. The police department claimed the texts would be exempt from disclosure because they\u2019re part of a criminal investigation, and argued there\u2019s no requirement to even confirm whether the records exist.<\/p>\n Authorities have closed their investigation into Torres over the\u00a0molestation of a minor relative<\/a>\u00a0when he was an adult in the 1990s. The victim told authorities he was 4 years old when Torres first started abusing him, escalating in severity until the 1999 assault when Torres was a legal adult. Torres pleaded no contest\u00a0and was\u00a0sentenced to 18 years in prison<\/a>\u00a0in August.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the second time in three years, we\u2019re heading to court to compel the city of San Jose to follow the law and uphold the public\u2019s right to know,\u201d Ramona Giwargis, co-founder and CEO of the news organization, said. \u201cSan Jose continues to flout transparency laws, and there is absolutely no legal justification for withholding these communications between elected officials. The police department and City Hall must be held accountable for keeping the public in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight teamed up with the First Amendment Coalition in 2022 to\u00a0sue the city<\/a>\u00a0and former Mayor Sam Liccardo, now a congressman, over an unlawful attempt to withhold records and a failure to search for them. The\u00a0court ruled in its favor<\/a>, unlocking hundreds of previously hidden records and declaring the city and Liccardo had violated the law. City Hall\u00a0had to pay $500,000<\/a>\u00a0in attorney fees after losing the case.<\/p>\n Prominent downtown lawyer Jim McManis is representing San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight in the new case. He went toe-to-toe with San Jose in a 2009 lawsuit over concealed communications about a development proposal from former Mayor Tom McEnery, who received millions from the city\u2019s redevelopment agency for the project. The eight-year legal battle ended in 2017 when the California Supreme Court made a landmark ruling: Communications on personal accounts or devices are considered public records if they deal with the public\u2019s business. The high court effectively rejected a practice by government officials of using personal accounts to hide communications. San Jose soon\u00a0became a government transparency battleground<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really perplexing to me that the city continues to resist requests from news people and the general public when the law couldn\u2019t be clearer. And now we have to file a petition to get what should have been received under the statutes of the Public Records Act,\u201d McManis told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n The texts allegedly contained the use of the n-word in some variation. Some defended the councilmembers, saying they privately addressed the texts and raised broader issues about communities\u2019 casual use of racial slurs. They also noted that one city employee allegedly on the thread is Black.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some serious allegations stemming from that text thread and I think the public has the right to know the truth,\u201d Josh Barousse, San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight\u2019s co-founder and executive director, said.<\/p>\n The San Jose Police Department declined comment on the lawsuit, as did City Attorney Nora Frimann.<\/p>\n Councilmembers Ortiz and Candelas did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Mayor Matt Mahan, who previously called for the texts to be released, also declined comment on the litigation. The mayor in June said he\u2019s \u201cespecially concerned\u201d by claims of a cover-up.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the texts fall under the city\u2019s usual standards for public disclosure, they should be made public to maintain trust with our community,\u201d Mahan said at the time.<\/p>\n San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight\u2019s lawsuit seeks a full copy of the \u201cTammany Hall\u201d group thread, allegedly named after a powerful political machine that dominated New York state politics in the 1800s. It also seeks attorney fees and findings that the city violated public records laws.<\/p>\n \u201cAllowing (the City of San Jose) to escape public scrutiny through dishonest assertion of exemptions and hasty, fruitless searches directly defies the legislative intent of the CPRA and California Constitution, as well as the City\u2019s own Sunshine Ordinance, producing exactly the unjust result these initiatives are intended to address,\u201d the lawsuit reads.<\/p>\n McManis said the issue has evolved beyond the content of the texts themselves and into a statewide war against government secrecy. He pointed to his experience with the 2009 case, and how it drew clear battle lines where organizations like the League of California Cities sided with San Jose against the public\u2019s right to know.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not my first rodeo. I suspect it\u2019s not going to be my last,\u201d McManis said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if the city will ever get the message.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Brandon Pho at\u00a0brandon@sanjosespotlight.com\u00a0or @brandonphooo on X.<\/p>\n