A San Jose police sergeant faced with mortgage fraud allegations has had his case dismissed, potentially improving his chances in his bid for a City Council seat.
Tam Troung, who was charged by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office with a single count of grand theft on Sept. 5, had his case moved to Santa Cruz County to avoid a potential conflict of interest. On Friday, an assistant attorney from Santa Cruz County asked a Santa Clara County judge to dismiss the charge.
Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Douglas Allen appeared via video feed before Santa Clara County Judge Hector Ramon, according to the Mercury News, asking him to dismiss the charge. He said there was insufficient evidence and the judge concurred.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we sent this criminal case to the Santa Cruz DA’s office to make sure there was not a perception of a conflict,” Sean Webby, spokesperson for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, told San José Spotlight. “Apparently, they are not prepared to go forward with the prosecution.”
The San Jose Police Department had put Truong on administrative leave and the state police board temporarily suspended his officer certification due to the criminal proceedings. San Jose Police Department representatives did not provide comment on whether Truong will be reinstated.
Truong, who’s worked in law enforcement for two decades, is running against incumbent Domingo Candelas for the San Jose District 8 seat in the November election.
“As a police sergeant I always had faith in the criminal justice system. Because I am completely innocent I always knew that this would be the outcome,” Troung told San José Spotlight. “I want to thank my friends and family who stood by me and most of all my neighbors and supporters in District 8 who never wavered in their support for our campaign for safer streets, to end street homelessness and to make City Hall work better for all of us.”
The Santa Clara County district attorney’s complaint filed on Sept. 5 alleged Truong unlawfully took personal property and money — exceeding $100,000 — from Orange Coast Title of Northern California, PHH Mortgage Services, Newrez LLC and American Home Mortgage.
In 2022, Orange Coast Title Company sued Truong for allegedly defrauding an escrow officer, which allowed Truong to ditch his mortgage and collect nearly $540,000 from the sale of a home.
“Reasonable prosecutors sometimes differ in their assessments of whether they can prove a case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. We respect their decision and we thank them for looking into it,” Webby said.
San José Spotlight last year also reported that Truong at one point owed more than $30,000 to a former employee of his private security company, Training and Protective Services. He started the company in 2012 to offer private patrols for neighborhoods just as the city’s police force was hemorrhaging officers due to Measure B, a ballot measure that slashed retirement benefits for SJPD officers.
One of Truong’s employees, Kevin Halverson, claimed he worked nearly 1,700 hours in the first half of 2013, but was paid for only a little more than 500 hours, in a wage theft case filed with the state labor commissioner in 2014.
Following a hearing and testimony from Halverson and some of his co-workers in early 2015, the labor commissioner ordered Truong to pay Halverson $34,071 in wages, damages, interest and penalties. Truong’s company dissolved a short time later.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or follow @joyce_speaks on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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