Candidate for Santa Clara Co. sheriff found guilty of lying about law enforcement experience
A woman from Cupertino who ran for Santa Clara County sheriff in the primary election in 2022 was convicted this week of perjury for lying about having law enforcement experience required to qualify for the job.
Anh Colton had falsely certified that she had the necessary experience to run for the elected office.
State law requires that sheriff candidates have at least one year of law enforcement experience within the last five years or a certificate showing advanced training in law enforcement, but Colton had neither of the two qualifications, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office.
"Certifying falsely under penalty of perjury is a serious matter, and in an election case such as this one could prevent a legitimate candidate from making the runoff or even winning outright," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.
In the 2022 primary election, Colton had finished last between the five candidates who were running. She had 4.36 percent of the vote.
According to prosecutors, an investigator from the District Attorney's Office had visited Colton's home in April 2022 to ask about her experience, but she directed him to her campaign manager.
The campaign manager the following month emailed the investigator and said he should stay away from Colton and that she would not be answering any questions.
The district attorney's Bureau of Investigations said they started to investigate the candidate's qualifications before the election, but by the time their investigation was able to definitively determine the truth, ballots with Colton's name had already been mailed out.
She was sentenced this week shortly after the verdict to the time she had already spent in jail for the offense, which totaled 134 days with credits, according to prosecutors.
Colton was not immediately available for comment.