SAN JOSE, Calif. — A complaint filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission alleges that Santa Clara County Superior Court officials failed to provide unredacted financial disclosure records despite formal requests, according to a press release.
According to the press release, Santa Clara Superior Court Executive Officer Rebecca Fleming ignored complainant Jermaine A. Hopkins’ requests for access to unredacted Form 700 Statements of Economic Interests filed from 2018 to the present, a financial disclosure form that must be made publicly accessible upon request pursuant to California Government Code § 81008. Hopkins made the requests on March 13 and March 18.
In an email to Fleming renewing his request for the unredacted Form 700 statements, Hopkins argued that there is “no constitutional carve-out that allows a filing officer or custodian to refuse copies of these public filing documents,” warning that he would file an FPPC complaint if met with nonresponse. Fleming did not reply to the email.
The press release states that Hopkins views the failure to release public records as “part of a broader and longstanding pattern” of Santa Clara County Superior Court officials denying transparency and “ignoring laws they are bound to follow.”
Hopkins alleges that court officials Leslie D. Jensen and Lisa G. Herrick were directly involved in blocking his access to withheld records while acting under Fleming’s executive authority, according to the statement.
“The public should be asking why this Court keeps acting like transparency laws are optional,” Hopkins said, according to the press release. “Rebecca Fleming runs the administrative machinery. Leslie Jensen was the one directly running interference on records. Lisa Herrick was above her in the legal office. This did not happen in a vacuum.”
The statement says that Jensen, in response to Hopkins’ requests, made it “practically impossible” to view records by asking for unnecessary information, refusing to acknowledge the existence of certain records, and avoiding direct “yes-or-no” answers in the interest of concealing data, violating the court’s public access obligations.
The complainant had previously requested court records, such as case materials and audio recordings, that he viewed as critical to a fair legal process in Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District v. Hopkins, Case No. 22CH010850, and East Side Union High School District v. Jermaine Hopkins, Case No. 22CH010849.
Hopkins has suspected the court of malpractice since 2023, alleging that he faced “retaliatory proceedings” resulting from his speech, activity and litigation in Case No. 22CH010850 and Case No. 22CH010849. He maintains that both cases arose from the court’s hostility toward him, and that the reversal of a workplace violence restraining order in 22CH010849 demonstrated the “deeply flawed” underlying proceedings of the case.
“This Court keeps making up special rules when I’m the requester,” Hopkins said, according to the press release. “It has happened with adjudicative records, with administrative records, and now with Form 700s.”
The complainant, according to the release, had previously filed suit against the court for Jensen’s conduct and the broader transparency issues involved in Case No. 22CH010850, although the lawsuit was later dismissed.
The statement notes that Jensen and Herrick are currently the subjects of State Bar matter No. 25-O-23359 and State Bar matter No. 25-O-25610, respectively.
“Hopkins states that this new FPPC complaint should be understood as part of a larger pattern of conduct, not merely a missed email response,” the press release states. “He contends that the Santa Clara County Superior Court has repeatedly chosen darkness over disclosure and institutional protection over compliance.”
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