STOCKTON, CA – The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, wrote the Stockton Record, accessed confidential information and security camera footage without the San Joaquin County Superior Court authorization during an investigation into a court clerk who “allegedly released sealed court documents ” according to a document filed by the court’s lawyers.
In a recent report by the Stockton Record, although the court itself is not a party in Pamela Edward’s misdemeanor case, “court records show that Erin Hamor and Danielle Potestio of the law office of Lozano Smith filed an ex-parte application on Tuesday that claims the sheriff’s office obtained court personnel files and security video without court officials knowing about it and giving consent.
This confidential information was also not protected by the sheriff’s office as they did not request to seal Edward’s arrest warrant, according to the application.
The Stockton Record also wrote that the attorneys noted the arrest warrant that sheriff’s Detective Leonardo Cagulada authored contains “information from the court’s confidential personnel investigation report.”
The Stockton Record reported, “The San Joaquin County Superior Court did not provide this confidential personnel information to the sheriff’s office, and it is unclear how such information was obtained by declarant,” the attorneys wrote, adding “the Ramey warrant contains links to, and description of, confidential court security camera footage, which the San Joaquin Superior Court also did not provide to the sheriff’s office or declarant.”
The attorneys also stated, “The public availability of both the confidential personnel information regarding defendant’s employment, and confidential court security videos potentially compromising court security, is highly concerning to the San Joaquin Superior Court — particularly because the court did not provide or authorize the use of this information,” wrote the Stockton Record, noting Lozano Smith frequently represents state government.
Revelations from the court response came in on Dec. 4 during Edward’s arraignment in Judge Erin Guy Castillo’s courtroom, said the Record, adding, “Edwards, 62, faces a misdemeanor charge over allegations she disobeyed a court order. Sheriff’s deputies arrested her on Nov. 13. She is being represented by Lodi-based attorney David Wellenbrock.”
The sheriff’s office accuses Edwards, “who was a 27-year veteran of the court of releasing without authorization a copy of the sealed search warrant to the (Record) newspaper in November 2023. The warrant was related to a separate criminal case against Stockton Unified School District Trustee Angel Ann Flores,” said the Stockton Record.
The Stockton Record said that during the hearing, those present in the courtroom heard that the Lozano Smith attorneys in their motion on Tuesday had asked Castillo “to grant an emergency order to seal the arrest warrant in Edwards’ case.”
According to the Judicial Branch of California, “requests for temporary emergency orders are typically made to help prevent an immediate danger or irreparable harm to a party in a case,” reported the Stockton Record.
The Stockton Record reported Castillo briefly left the courtroom at the beginning of the proceedings to meet in private with Hamor, Wellenbrock, and prosecutors, and, once she returned, “the judge granted the motion to seal Edwards’ arrest warrant until the continuation of the arraignment on Jan. 15, 2025.”
The Stockton Record added that “the request dismayed Sheriff Patrick Withrow, who lashed out at the court during an unannounced news conference on the steps of the courthouse following the hearing. Withrow was among those in the courtroom gallery.”
“This is a public document. Never in my entire history in law enforcement or the DA’s have they heard of this happening,” Withrow said. “Why this specific case, why the court is trying to conceal what happened in this incident, we don’t know. We found that very strange,” wrote the Stockton Record.
The Stockton Record noted the sheriff “did not address how his office obtained confidential information from the court or what the court contends in the request it made.”
The Stockton Record reported, “On Nov. 14, 2023, sheriff’s deputies executed search warrants at the Stockton Unified School District headquarters and Flores’ home,” and the newspaper “requested a copy of the search warrant from the court shortly after the raids were executed…“court staff notified the newspaper on Nov. 21, 2023 the documents were available, and two reporters went to the court’s records department to pick them up the same day.
“One week later, The Record published a story detailing what sheriff’s deputies were looking for when they searched Flores’ home. The information included in the story was taken from the copy of the warrant provided by court staff.”
The sheriff’s office later informed The Record that “the warrant was meant to be sealed, but said the copy was released by accident,” although the newspaper added “for several months, the sheriff’s office said nothing about the search warrant.”
But in August, two deputies visited the home of a Record reporter to ask whether she “received a cease-and-desist letter related to the copy of the search warrant,” reported the Stockton Record., noting, “First Amendment experts raised concerns over law enforcement’s actions. Withrow later said their actions weren’t inappropriate at all.”
Flores was ultimately arrested in April and charged with “felony counts of making false claims, misappropriation of funds, and grand theft of school funds exceeding $950. She entered a not guilty plea in May and is due back in court on Jan. 8, 2025 for a pre-preliminary hearing conference,” reported the Stockton Record.
“The trustee’s lawyer, former District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar, has said her client is a “victim of political retaliation, and is paying the price for raising her voice to fight corruption,” said the Stockton Record.
Verber Salazar said, “Flores had been working with federal investigators to prosecute those who are responsible for alleged misconduct at the school district. The allegations stem from a $7.3 million district contract approved without proper bidding in August 2021, which was heavily scrutinized by state auditors,” wrote the Stockton Record.
The Stockton Record reported, “Flores was the lone vote against the contract, approved during the tenure of former Stockton Unified Superintendent John Ramirez Jr. and former Stockton Unified Board President Cecilia Mendez.”
District Attorney Ron Freitas announced in April 2023 that “a multiagency investigation with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice into any and all wrongdoing at Stockton Unified had been underway for several months.
Freitas’ office said that the investigation was initiated after the concerns raised by state auditors,” wrote the Stockton Record, adding Freitas has “repeatedly refused to provide an update to the public on the status of that investigation, which will soon be entering its second year.”
As for the criminal case against Edwards, the sheriff said “his office’s investigation into how Flores’ search warrant was ‘leaked’ is ongoing,” but the Record reported, “Withrow, after the hearing, accused Record reporters who wrote the article about the search warrant of “(obtaining) their information illegally.”
When asked by a Record reporter to name which reporters he was referring to, Withrow repeatedly said “he didn’t know their names,” said the Stockton Record, adding, “It wasn’t the only question that Withrow said he didn’t have an answer to.”
The sheriff said he “didn’t know why one of his deputies stated a former Record reporter was sent a ‘cease-and-desist’ via email about the court documents the newspaper obtained. I know nothing about that…I haven’t heard anything about that.”
The Record has “asked the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office for clarification regarding the alleged cease-and-desist letter multiple times,” noting Withrow said “we have never, that I’ve known, sent a cease-and-desist order to any news agency,” adding, said the Record, he “made it clear that he would take no issue with jailing a reporter.”
“We’re investigating anyone who may have conspired to break the law in this case, so wherever that leads us, whether it’s journalists or private citizens, whoever,” Withrow said. “We will take action on them if we come up with evidence that shows that,” reported the Stockton Record.
David Loy, legal director of the First Amendment Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for freedom of speech and open and accountable government, told the Record that “it’s absolutely improper to be insinuating that there’s anything illegal about journalists reporting information from documents they’ve obtained while newsgathering.”
The Stockton Record reported that “if a reporter or a member of the public lawfully obtains the document from the government or otherwise, that is a matter of public concern, they have the absolute First Amendment right to report on that document and its contents,” Loy said.
The Record quotes Loy, adding “if a reporter goes to the courthouse and says to the court clerk, ‘I’d like a copy of this warrant affidavit,’ and the clerk gives it to you, maybe the clerk made a mistake or not, but if you simply asked for it in a lawful way, openly, and they give it to you, you have a right to report it, even if the court staff made a mistake in giving it to you.”
Loy noted, “Likewise if a whistleblower leaks you a confidential document … you don’t go steal it. You get it from a whistleblower.”
