San Jose officials, including Mayor Matt Mahan, are taking issue with a judge’s recent decision to release the suspect in a fatal DUI crash that killed a community service officer on bail.
The suspect, 44-year-old Juan Huerta-Palacios of Morgan Hill, did accused of being under the influence when he punched two San Jose community officials who were doing traffic control on Monterey Rd. early August last year.
Community service officer Long Pham died on impact and Volunteer Veronica Baer was in hospital for several days with serious injuries.
Pham was born in Vietnam, but raised since childhood in San Jose. He is survived by his parents and a brother. The police officer was honored in a public commemoration held at the end of August.
Palacios was being held on half a million dollars bail on charges related to injuring Baer and killing Pham, including a murder charge based on previous alcohol-related reckless driving convictions.
The release has drawn objections from San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the San Jose Police Department. The SJPD posted a statement on X on Wednesday evening protesting the release of Huerta-Palacios.
“Previous warnings to this defendant about the dangers of drunk driving did not stop him from killing Long Pham. Why would we think these restrictions will once again adequately protect the public from his poor judgment?” read the statement. “An officer is dead and the man who killed him has been released on bail to go home against our objection and the objection of our community.”
Mahan spoke to CBS News Bay Area on Thursday about the decision, calling it a miscarriage of justice.
“It was an unnecessary, senseless death. And a death that was completely preventable because it was caused by repeated poor decisions by an individual,” Mahan said.
Mahan says the judge’s ruling is not only a slap in the face to the victims in this case, but also a risk to public safety.
“I think there’s unnecessary risk in having someone back in the community who hasn’t actually dealt with the consequences or gotten the treatment they need and who has proven that they’re on their way to to turn his life around and will no longer do so.” endangering the community,” Mahan said.
While critics of the decision argued that Huerta-Palacios’ history should have made him ineligible for bail, Loyola Law School Prof. Jessica Levinson said bail is set at the judge’s discretion and that there are numerous are factors that need to be taken into account.
“We look at the risk of flight, we look at the threat of the person to the community, the threat of the person to themselves, whether or not they are an alleged repeat offender,” Levinson said. “Normally in a murder case you might not see someone being released on bail. Or at the very least you might see that there are a lot of conditions and restrictions associated with granting bail.”
Levinson said it is unusual for judges to grant bail in cases where there is evidence of repeat offenses, but if bail is granted, the judge will likely implement strict bail provisions that prevent the suspect from getting behind the wheel or even leaving the house.
“This is not a typical murder charge in the sense of, this is not first-degree or second-degree murder. We have a murder charge here based on a tragic death and also based on a previous drunk driving conviction,” Levinson said. “You know, is this the typical case for granting bail? Maybe not. Is it beyond the judge’s discretion to look at those factors? Probably not.’
According to Levinson, the judge could ultimately reverse the decision if the plaintiffs can present new evidence showing that the suspect is a danger to the community.
Kara St. Cyr contributed to this report.
