Defense calls prosecution’s star witness a ‘hustler’ in bribery trial of ex-Oakland mayor

The prosecution and defense gave opening statements to 18 jurors in the high-profile criminal case against former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and three co-defendants.OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — A prosecutor claimed Wednesday during opening statements on the first day of jury trial that former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao betrayed her office when she supposedly accepted bribes from Oakland businessmen in exchange for promises of lucrative city contracts.Thao, 41, was indicted along with co-defendants Andre Jones, 55, Thao’s longtime romantic partner, Oakland businessman David Duong, 68 and his son Andy Duong, 37, on eight counts between them, including conspiracy, bribery, fraud and making a false statement to a government official, in what the government described as a corruption scheme of “paid and accepted bribes for the promise of future influence.”“She was powerful, but she was also corrupt,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine told the 18-person jury. “She was a public official who put her power up for sale.”With her signature no-nonsense demeanor, Chief U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a Barack Obama appointee, instructed the jurors not to take the attorneys’ opening statements as evidence in the criminal case.Thao faces a maximum sentence of 95 years in prison if convicted of all charges. All four co-defendants have pleaded not guilty.The packed courtroom at Ronald V. Dellums Federal Courthouse in Oakland listened intently as Fine said the jury would hear testimony from the government’s key witness, Mario Juarez, who ran a modular-home startup with the Duongs called Evolutionary Homes. Juarez pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a bribe in exchange for his cooperation with the prosecution and a more lenient sentence. The defense called Juarez “the narrator of the Justice Department’s story” and “a volatile political figure.”Thao’s attorney, Jeffrey Tsai, characterized his client as “the real Sheng Thao, a mother, a daughter, a sister and an aunt,” an Oakland renter who didn’t live “a luxury lifestyle” that a bribery scheme would afford.Co-defendant David Duong waved his hand to people outside Ronald V. Dellums Courthouse in Oakland after opening statements of the criminal jury trial on Oct. 14, 2026. (Carly Nairn/Courthouse News Service)The prosecution’s case hinges largely on the confession and cooperation of Mario Juarez, a former business partner of the Duongs, whose credibility the defense will likely challenge.During opening statements, Fine said the jury would listen to audio recordings, examine text messages, emails, Apple notes and checks from California Waste Solutions for $75,000 to one of Juarez’s shell companies for a negative mailer campaign against Thao’s opponents in the lead-up to the 2022 Oakland mayoral election and five-figure checks to Jones from Evolutionary Homes, with the subject line filled in as “advance,” are proof of a bribery scheme.In 2022, Juarez started Evolutionary Homes, a shipping container shelter company, with the Duongs. Federal prosecutors say the Duongs bribed Thao and Jones to secure a city contract for Evolutionary Homes for up to 300 units at $300,000 a unit, as well as an extension of California Waste Solutions’ city contract.In 2024, Juarez gave information to the FBI after a falling-out with the Duongs. The FBI raided the defendants’ homes and the California Waste Solutions building in June 2024.Thao and Jones’ attorney Mark Goldrosen said that even though they lived together, the two co-defendants kept separate bank accounts and never exchanged texts about money connected to the Duongs. Goldrosen said Jones has a legitimate job with Evolutionary Homes, as a government liaison, and payments to him by the company — checks as large as $35,000 — were advances on commissions for future sales of the housing units.David Duong’s attorney Jeff Schenk told the jury of ten men and eight women that his client wasn’t aware of any bribery scheme and wasn’t involved in funding one.Members of the East Bay Asian American community hold up signs outside the trial for Sheng Thao and three co-defendnants. (Carly Nairn/Courthouse News)“You can’t agree to a deal you don’t know about,” Schenk told the jury.Schenk said the jury would see, through texts and other documents, that Duong was “acting like a businessman” when he checked to make sure Jones signed a contract before handing over a check. A contract, the defense claims, was in Juarez’s possession after Jones signed it but hasn’t since been brought up as potential evidence.After Wednesday’s proceedings and mingled among TV news cameras and reporters, several dozen members of the Asian American Oakland community held signs in support of David Duong outside the courthouse.The entire defense team claimed the government’s case relies on the words of Juarez, a “consummate hustler” whose “never-ending search to be a political kingmaker” led him to make up the scheme and implicate Thao, Jones and Duongs. Andy Duong’s attorney Winston Chan said the story of the scheme was revenge for the Duongs questioning Juarez about where most of David’s $750,000 investment in Evolutionary Homes went.Witness testimony for the prosecution’s case starts Thursday.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads