The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office formally announced Monday morning indictments against the county’s undersheriff and Apple’s security chief as part of its ongoing investigation into a concealed weapons permit scheme.
DA Jeff Rosen announced the charges against Undersheriff Rick Sung and Thomas Moyer, the head of Global Security at Apple. According to Rosen, Sung held back issuing concealed weapons permits to Apple’s security team, until Moyer agreed to donate $70,000 worth of iPads to the sheriff’s office.
Rosen says the donation was pulled back once the DA’s office issued search warrants into the case.
Sheriff’s Captain James Jensen has also been charged with felony bribery by the grand jury.
MacDailyNews Note: The Santa Clara Sheriff’s Office issued a statement regarding the indictments:
Sheriff's Office Press Release 11/23/2020 pic.twitter.com/tZfQmP31H6
— SantaClaraCoSheriff (@SCCoSheriff) November 23, 2020
At a press conference today, District Attorney Jeff Rosen announced the charges against Apple’s Chief Security Officer Thomas Moyer, insurance broker Harpreet Chadha, Undersheriff Rick Sung and Capt. James Jensen…
[Moyer] and other defendants should not have accepted the offered bribes, but should have reported Sung and Jensen to the DA’s office, Rosen added.
Attorneys… maintain[ed] their clients’ innocence, saying they were collateral damage in an ongoing political rivalry between Rosen and Sheriff Smith.
“Tom Moyer is innocent of the charges filed against him,” hi[s] attorney Ed Swanson said. “He did nothing wrong and has acted with the highest integrity throughout his career. We have no doubt that he will be acquitted at trial.”
Sheriff Laurie Smith, who has the authority to issue CCW permits, has not been charged with a crime.
MacDailyNews Take: Guess carrying a green squirt gun didn’t cut it for Apple’s head of Global Security. Likely he thinks that pretending things don’t exist like a three-year-old doesn’t actually erase them from reality.
Wherever the laws stipulate that “permits” are required, the potential for corruption by the permit issuers is increased. When the issuer is “the government,” it creates an impedance to reporting abusers for fear of retaliation. To whom do you report attempted bribery when it’s the police doing the extorting and you have no idea how far the corruption goes with “the government?”
If Sung et al. held back issuing concealed weapons permits in order to extort goods, services, etc., they should be charged with the maximum penalties possible, but Moyer and others, who were simply trying to achieve California “permits” just to be able to perform their jobs are largely the victims here, not the criminals.