Prosecution’s star witness in bribery trial of former Oakland mayor testifies about payouts, threats

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — The prosecution’s star witness continued his testimony Thursday in a high-profile criminal trial claiming a former Oakland mayor and three others paid and accepted bribes in exchange for lucrative government contracts.Mario Juarez, a businessman and controversial figure in Oakland politics and real estate, resumed his testimony, under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abraham Fine, giving details on numerous text messages, email exchanges and photos in front of a 16-person jury after his first day of testimony on Oct. 30.Juarez recalled events while claiming that former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, her romantic partner Andre Jones and David and Andy Duong, Oakland businessmen and former associates with Juarez in the container home company, Evolutionary Homes, made agreements to bankroll Jones and help win Thao the 2022 mayoral election if they promised to broker city contracts up to $3 million for the company.Thao, 41, was indicted in January 2025 along with co-defendants Jones, 55, David Duong, 68 and 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.”All four co-defendants have pleaded not guilty. Thao faces a maximum sentence of 95 years in prison if convicted of all charges.Fine asked Juarez many questions about several Evolutionary Homes board meetings — which Juarez’s partner at the time, Cecilia Mendez, surreptitiously audio-recorded — with the jury listening to five-minute clips of exchanges between Juarez and David Duong. One exchange was a heated back-and-forth about Thao’s reluctance to be the first politician to sign a contract with the company, with Duong saying Thao would prefer Alameda County to contract with Evolutionary Homes first. Juarez did not like Thao “going back on her promise” and made that clear to David.“I have a long memory and am pretty vengeful,” Juarez can be heard saying. Juarez said to get political vengeance against Thao and Jones for not “keeping up their end of the bargain,” he could write an attack piece, contact union members and disparage Thao and kill her reelection.In a full courtroom, many members of the broader East Bay Asian American community listened in the gallery as Juarez testified about text messages between him and Julie Wedge, a political consultant and former Oakland staffer who also worked for Evolutionary Homes, about Thao and how to push the contracts forward.Juarez testified that Jones did not hold any real position at Evolutionary Homes and the money flowing to the couple — the jury was shown a check for $35,000 from California Waste Solutions, the Duongs’ waste management company that contracts with Oakland — was part of the bribery scheme, but it was made to seem like Jones had a job by going to some meetings for the company.Juarez, wearing a dark blue blazer, a button-up shirt, blue jeans and sneakers, also testified about how a reporter for East Bay Insiders, an online news outlet, got wind that former San Leandro councilmember Bryan Azevedo had relations with prostitutes during a trip to Vietnam that was also attended by Thao and Jones and bankrolled by the Duongs. Thao called Andy Duong upset that the story could leak, saying she would have to distance herself from the Duongs, Juarez testified, and Andy subsequently called Juarez “to find a solution.”The Duongs and Juarez came up with two ideas: either buy the news outlet outright and kill the story that way, or pay $10,000 to Shawn Wilson, an associate of the reporter, Steven Tavares, to influence Tavares to kill the story. Wilson would also sign an independent contractor agreement for the money in exchange for Wilson giving public relations assistance to the Duongs. The Duongs and Juarez decided to pay Wilson, Juarez testified.Fine went through a chronological timeline of Thao’s mayoral win in 2022 to early May 2024, when the partnership between Juarez and the Duongs disintegrated. The prosecution held off on their piece de resistance until the end of their questioning. The jury was shown an email exchange between Juarez and the Duongs. As Evolutionary Homes was about to close business in April 2024 because it was out of cash, Juarez accused David Duong of having a mental condition, testifying he wrote that to upset the family. Juarez also threatened to expose the dealings to law enforcement if the Duongs decided to sue him.By May 3, 2024, the Duongs changed the locks for the Evolutionary Homes offices and showroom, and Juarez said he confronted them in the lobby of the building, where they got into an argument. Juarez became emotional, wiping his eyes with tissues when he testified Andy Duong called his brother, which caused him and others to show up outside the building and beat up Juarez, taking his gold chain from around his neck, his watch, his phones and “a few thousand dollars in cash” from his pockets. On May 5, he testified that he went to the Oakland Police Department to file a complaint for aggravated assault.While the jury was on breaks, discussions between the attorneys and Chief U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers became tense. Rogers appeared unhappy with how Juarez answered some of the questions.“He is a difficult witness, period,” the Barack Obama appointee said. At one point, Rogers reminded Juarez, who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery and cooperated with law enforcement in hopes of a lesser sentence, that she was the sentencing judge and if he was somehow hearing about what was said during other parts of the trial and changing his testimony based on what he heard, “that is inappropriate, and I won’t forget it.”For the remaining 10 minutes of the court day, the defense began cross-examining Juarez. David Duong’s attorney, Edward Swanson, picked up where the prosecution left off: on May 5, 2024, he asked Juarez whether he insisted on talking with the FBI but initially told police, “I am not going to admit I was helping someone commit a crime.”Swanson showed Juarez a transcript of his conversations with the police, trying to poke holes in Juarez’s credibility.“I tried to minimize my involvement,” said Juarez.Juarez’s cross-examination continues Friday at the Ronald V. Dellums Courthouse in Oakland.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