Anthony Becker, white man with light skin and no hair wearing a dark blue suit, sitting at a table beside his lawyers
Former Santa Clara Councilmember Anthony Becker was sentenced to 40 days in the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Work Program on April 4, 2025. Photo by B. Sakura Cannestra.

Lawyers representing former Santa Clara Councilmember Anthony Becker filed an appeal Wednesday in his felony perjury case.

According to the appeal, Becker’s lawyers are looking for a certificate of probable cause, challenging the guilty verdict jurors issued in December 2024. Jurors found Becker guilty of leaking a 2022 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report before its official publication date to a 49ers team executive, and lying about it to the civil grand jury during its investigation.

On April 4, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Javier Alcala sentenced Becker to serve 40 days total in the county sheriff’s work program, which performs community service such as picking up trash.

The jury reached its verdict after a monthlong trial, during which Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky presented evidence showing Becker lied about leaking the report, including testimony from former 49ers executive Rahul Chandhok and fellow Councilmember Suds Jain. Becker’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Chris Montoya, pushed back by questioning Chandhok’s credibility and arguing the DA’s investigation wasn’t thorough enough.

Montoya declined to comment. In the appeal notice, Becker’s lawyers asked that he be assigned an appellate public defender.

Contact B. Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] or @SakuCannestra on X. 

Comment Policy (updated 5/10/2023): Readers are required to log in through a social media or email platform to confirm authenticity. We reserve the right to delete comments or ban users who engage in personal attacks, hate speech, excess profanity or make verifiably false statements. Comments are moderated and approved by admin.

Leave a Reply