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SAN JOSE — The former CEO of an executive security firm charged in an alleged scheme to trade political donations for concealed-gun permits from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office abruptly pleaded guilty in the case Monday, in what prosecutors called a “significant development” for a corruption probe that could threaten Sheriff Laurie Smith’s two-decade tenure.
Sheriff’s Capt. James Jensen, Christopher Schumb, Harpaul Nahal and Michael Nichols were indicted in the alleged pay-to-play plot, in which they are accused of brokering a deal for the executive security firm AS Solution to receive up to a dozen concealed-carry weapon permits in exchange for $90,000 in campaign donations to committees supporting Smith’s 2018 re-election bid. Christian West, AS Solution’s CEO at the time of the alleged scheme, was charged separately on two felony conspiracy counts.
In a surprise turn, West used the defendants’ Monday arraignment to plead guilty. Per a plea agreement, his charges will be downgraded to misdemeanors and a maximum 18-month jail sentence in exchange for his cooperation with the district attorney.
The remaining four defendants, who were indicted on conspiracy and bribery charges, put off entering pleas until Sept. 21. Schumb’s attorney Joe Wall also filed a motion to remove the DA’s office from the case, citing that Schumb has been a friend and fundraiser for District Attorney Jeff Rosen.
“The conflict is so real and so grave that fair treatment of Schumb is unlikely unless the district attorney’s office is disqualified,” Wall wrote in the motion.
Rosen said the office has been cleared of any conflict by the state Office of the Attorney General, which will represent the DA’s office in the motion hearing.
“This DA’s office has successfully prosecuted elected officials, correctional officers, sheriff’s deputies, police officers, attorneys, business owners and other prominent residents,” Rosen said in a statement to this news organization Monday. “That is what we are doing here.”
Neither Smith, who has the sole authority in her agency to grant the gun permits, nor Martin Nielsen — an AS Solution manager who provided security for Facebook executives — has been charged. Both Smith and Undersheriff Rick Sung invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination when they appeared before a criminal grand jury Aug. 3, and refused to answer any questions about the scandal, according to transcripts of the proceedings.
Rosen reiterated Monday that his office’s investigation is still active, but declined to comment on whether prosecutors are any closer to implicating the sheriff.
“As we gather more evidence, we expect to file more charges against more individuals in the coming weeks. We are not done,” he said.
Sources have told this news organization that Nielsen — a central figure in the scheme, who wrote the $45,000 check that touched off the investigation after Smith was re-elected in 2018 — cooperated with investigators early on. The second half of the agreed-upon donation amount was stymied by the DA investigation, authorities said.
Nielsen’s cooperation with the DA was affirmed in the grand jury transcripts, in which he testified that he understood he was still subject to potential misdemeanor charges even if he helped the prosecution. Besides sketching out the donation-for-permits plan, he surreptitiously recorded a conversation with Jensen using a DA-provided phone app, at a meeting just days before the corruption probe became public knowledge when search warrants were served at the sheriff’s office.
Prosecutors allege that Nielsen and West were connected to Jensen by Schumb, Nahal and Nichols to get $90,000 split between the Santa Clara County Public Safety Alliance — whose assistant treasurer was Schumb, a veteran South Bay litigator — and the Sheriff’s Advisory Board. Nichols, CEO of The Gun Co. based in Milpitas, reportedly knew Nielsen as a “buddy,” and eventually worked with Nahal and Schumb to get the alleged quid pro quo in motion.
Nielsen testified at a grand jury hearing July 21 that he and West met with sheriff officials and discussed offering donations and other payments with the hopes of getting bulk CCW applications approved.
West, who Rosen said has given truthful testimony to date, similarly told the grand jury, “with the number of CCWs that we were hoping to get,” they believed that, “$90,000 would be a reasonable donation,” according to a July 31 transcript.
The transcripts also contain testimony from three former and current sheriff’s public information officers outlining a haphazard process with inconsistent criteria on who got the rarely-issued weapons permits. Between 2014 and 2019, only about 150 permits were issued or renewed in Santa Clara County. By comparison, Sacramento County has more than 5,000 active permits.
The testimonies confirm an earlier report from this news organization that found CCW permits were most frequently granted to high-profile applicants, and that the most common condition for approvals was a reference or order from Smith or one of her top commanders.
The public information officers — sergeants Richard Glennon, Reginald Cooks and Michael Low — also testified that Jensen was still heavily involved in shepherding the CCW application process despite being promoted out of the PIO office, in a rapid ascendance from sergeant to lieutenant and then captain in just a few years. None of the PIO’s who testified could recall an instance where they personally witnessed Smith signing an approved permit, according to the transcripts.
Harry Stern, Jensen’s attorney, reiterated that Jensen did not have the power to grant the concealed-gun permits. In court Monday, he asked Judge Eric Geffon to re-seal the grand jury transcripts on the grounds that his “client’s trial rights will be prejudiced by their release.”
In an interview described in testimony from DA investigator Mike Montonye, Jensen said he received direction from Sung, the undersheriff, in brokering the illicit deal.
According to the transcripts, Deputy District Attorney Matt Braker asked Montonye, “(Jensen) said that Sung was the individual who brought Martin Nielsen to his attention?” to which the investigator replied, “Correct.” Montonye also testified that Jensen said “he was directed by Sung to give the money — tell him to give the money to Schumb.”
Among the charges he faces, Jensen, along with AS Solution program manager Jack Stromgren, is accused of instructing AS Solution security employees to falsify their home addresses or employer to meet in-county residency requirements for the sheriff’s CCW permits.
Stromgren, who oversaw the security firm’s Facebook protection team, has not been charged, and testified to the grand jury that he was uneasy about the arrangement.
Stromgren recalled a conversation he had with Nielsen: “I told him on a couple of occasions I didn’t feel comfortable. When I had asked him in one of those early conversations I got, like — I don’t remember the words — it was, basically, ‘Don’t ask.'”
Three other AS Solution security employees at the time who got permits — Leonard Lawrence, Rachael Paskvan and Jonathan Taunton — were also described as listing home addresses or non-AS employers on their applications, and have not been charged.
Jensen is also accused of signing off on seven permit recipients who did not complete mandatory firearms proficiency exams — including a permit renewal for county Supervisor Mike Wasserman.
Though Wasserman is mentioned in the Aug. 6 indictment of Jensen, Schumb, Nahal and Nichols, he too has not been charged. Transcripts show the county supervisor blamed a chronically bad memory for his inability to recall whether he fulfilled the proficiency requirements.
