Santa Clara Deputy Mayor Anthony Becker’s trial continues as 49ers spokesman testifies – East Bay Times

A San Francisco 49ers spokesman testified this week at the hearing of Santa Clara Deputy Mayor Anthony Becker, saying that uncovering the source of the then-civilian grand jury leak may have negatively affected the official’s campaign and that testimony his former boss Rahul Chandhok had given just a day earlier He stated that he could strengthen it.

Ellie Caple, the team’s vice president of corporate communications and public relations, said Thursday that she had no information about who leaked the “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” report, which was released just weeks before Santa Clara’s contentious 2022 mayoral election.

While Caple was on his way to a doctor’s appointment on the morning of October 6, he received a call from Chandhok, the team’s former head of communications, alerting him to the report.

The prosecution’s star witness, Chandhok – who, like Caple, was granted immunity for his testimony – He vouched earlier this week that Becker leaked the report to him. The vice mayor of Santa Clara is on trial in Santa Clara County Superior Court in Morgan Hill. Allegation of leaking secret report prior to public disclosure, as well as felony perjury for lying under oath.

Caple said he got the sense from Chandhok’s demeanor that this was “something we wanted to get started on right away.”

“I believe he felt the report would be biased in some way, and he asked me to contact Tim Hoekstra to investigate whether there was bias on the part of the jury,” he said. Hoekstra conducted political research for the team.

The 49ers were working to get ahead of the story. At the time, the NFL team was spending big on Santa Clara’s mayoral election; He was spending more than $1.4 million supporting Becker and nearly $1 million opposing Mayor Lisa Gillmor’s re-election bid.

A text message presented to the court showed that Caple sent a message to Hoekstra just after 2pm on October 6, 2022, informing him that they would “try to leak this tomorrow to take the wind out of Gilmor’s sails.”

“It has been our experience that Mayor Gillmor often uses news like this report to his advantage,” Caple testified.

He had been hired less than two months before the leak for an assignment he described as “trying to win local city elections in Santa Clara involving the 49ers.”

Shavon Henry, a partner at Goodwin Procter and one of Becker’s five attorneys, revisited a series of questionings in which the defense had pressed Chandhok just two days earlier.

In emails and letters from Chandhok at the time of the leak, the former 49er manager said he had received a copy of the report from “many media outlets.” Chandhok said in his statement on Tuesday that he did not intend to mislead anyone and that several journalists sent him the report after Becker. He said it wasn’t in the 49ers’ interest to share who the source of the leak was because it could be “negative” for both the candidate and the campaign.

“Are you aware of the lies this letter contains?” Henry asked Caple, referring to a letter Chandhok wrote in which the first line stated that he had received the letter from the press.

“Not that I know of,” Caple replied.

Santa Clara County deputy district attorney Jason Malinsky, who represented the prosecution, then asked Caple if revealing that Becker was the leaker would be a “good strategy” for Chandhok.

“I don’t think it would be good for any campaign or candidate to be the source of inappropriate information,” Caple said.