SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A convicted longtime California politician has been released from jail after serving time for corruption and misuse of public funds, authorities said.
Former Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. is out of custody from the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, Santa Clara County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Kurtis Stenderup said Friday.
Shirakawa, 52, was released on May 9, a jail employee said.
Shirakawa served seven months of a 15-month jail sentence after pleading guilty in November to 12 charges, including gambling with public funds and bilking donors to his political campaigns. He served his sentence in Alameda County because he was known to both law enforcement and criminals in Santa Clara County.
Shirakawa also must serve three years of probation. He may not gamble and must attend counseling or face additional jail time.
Shirakawa acknowledged filing inaccurate expense reports and using his county-issued credit card to support what he described as a gambling addiction.
Shirakawa moved $130,000 from campaign accounts to casinos in Las Vegas and Southern California, prosecutors said. All total, Shirakawa’s misdeeds cost taxpayers about $2.7 million.
Shirakawa also faces another separate felony charge of illegal campaigning for a friend. In October, a Santa Clara County grand jury indicted Shirakawa on felony false personation for allegedly pretending to be San Jose City Council candidate Magdalena Carrasco in May 2010.
Shirakawa’s saliva matched DNA found on a stamp used on an illegal campaign flier that connected Carrasco to Vietnam and showed the flag of that country, which is considered offensive to many members of San Jose’s Vietnamese community, particularly those who escaped the communist regime, prosecutors said.
Carrasco lost a runoff election against former Shirakawa aide Xavier Campos by just 400 votes in November 2010.
If convicted, Shirakawa could face a maximum possible sentence of three years in prison.
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