Surveillance Video Released Of East Bay State Senate Candidate Hayashi Shoplifting
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The East Bay State Senate race heats up after surveillance tape surfaces of candidate Mary Hayashi's 2011 shoplifting incident at a Neiman Marcus in San Francisco.
The hour long video shows the former 18th District assemblywoman picking out about $2,500 worth of clothing then going into a dressing room with shopping bags. After she paid for some of the clothing, she was met by two security guards after she walked out the door.
San Leandro Talk blog editor Margarita Lacabe posted the video to her website after obtained the in-store footage from the San Francisco police under a Freedom of Information Act request last week.
Lacabe, who's active in Democratic politics and is supporting Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski in the race for the state Senate District 10 seat, said she was shocked at how much detail the cameras recorded. "I wasn't surprised by the actual content because it was described on the police report," she said. "but I was disturbed watching the security guard staring through the dressing room door."
The footage (below) was edited down by the Wieckowski campaign to a two minute video with storyboard narration and posted on YouTube.
Hayashi, 45, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor grand theft charge after her arrest on Oct. 25 at the Neiman Marcus store on Stockton Street.
Judge Gerardo Sandoval immediately sentenced Hayashi to three years of unsupervised court probation and ordered her to stay 50 feet away from the store. She'll remain on probation through the November general election.
(KPIX 5 reported on Hayashi's shoplifting charges on 10/11/11)
In October 2012, Hayashi's defense attorney Douglas Rappaport told KPIX 5 that the assemblywoman has a benign brain tumor that may have impacted her decision-making abilities.
Rappaport said the tumor is curable and treatable and "is no longer affecting her concentration or her judgment."
Hayashi, 45, is a Democrat and has served in the Assembly since 2006. She was re-elected in 2008 and 2010, and is married to Alameda Superior Court Judge Dennis Hayashi.
CBS SF is awaiting comment from Wieckowski and Hayashi campaign representatives.