|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office will not pursue a second trial of the former chancellor of the San Mateo County Community College District who was convicted of eight felonies related to alleged kickbacks from contractors and false tax documents from his tenure at the district. The jury declared it was deadlocked on an additional 18 charges.
A jury found former chancellor Ron Galatolo guilty of four counts each of perjury and tax fraud in a 40‑day trial that ended Jan. 21. Because the jury deadlocked on 18 other counts, Judge Leland Davis declared a mistrial and gave the prosecution until March to decide whether to retry Galatolo.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said the decision not to retry Galatolo came down to the time he is facing on the eight felonies and the length of a new trial. Wagstaffe said Galatolo is facing up to seven years and four months in prison. A new trial would be lengthy and complex, Wagstaffe added, and he felt the best use of judicial and taxpayer resources would be to leave the case as it stands.
The District Attorney’s Office can recommend a sentence to Judge Davis before the sentencing on June 5.
Galatolo’s convictions were on charges that he falsified financial disclosures and tax filings and failed to properly report income and gifts. Jurors acquitted him on one perjury count for tax forms filed in 2015 but could not reach unanimous verdicts on the remaining charges after eight days of deliberations.
Galatolo, a 62-year-old Menlo Park resident, has maintained his innocence and blamed honest mistakes made when filling out forms.
The 27 charges Galatolo faced included conflict of interest, misuse of public funds and embezzlement, from his time leading the community college district. As chancellor from 2001 to 2019, he oversaw a budget of nearly $1 billion for improvements to the district’s three campuses: Cañada College in Woodside, Skyline College in San Bruno and the College of San Mateo. Some of the charges stemmed from benefits and gifts he allegedly received from district contractors while others are related to omissions on Galatolo’s personal tax and DMV filings.
After stepping down in 2019, Galatolo served 18 months as the district’s chancellor emeritus with a $468,000 annual salary. In 2021, the community college board fired him for failing to do any work.
Galatolo’s sentencing is on June 5 at the San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City.
