Former Santa Clara supe Shirakawa Jr. indicted

Disgraced former Santa Clara County supervisor George Shirakawa Jr. has been indicted by a grand jury on charges that he impersonated a San Jose City Council candidate on bogus mailers that linked her to the communist government in Vietnam, authorities said Monday.

The indictment, handed down Thursday, accused Shirakawa of a felony count of false personation for allegedly pretending to be council candidate Magdalena Carrasco, whose candidacy he opposed, in May 2010.

Saliva left on the stamp of an illegal campaign mailer led to Shirakawa's arrest in the case in June, authorities said.

The hit piece - whose origin had long been a mystery - was sent to residents of a district with a large population of Vietnamese Americans, and it may have affected the outcome of a tight council race.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Former-Santa-Clara-supe-Shirakawa-Jr-indicted-4933566.php

But the crucial break came earlier this year, when Shirakawa was arrested on charges that he stole public money and nearly $100,000 in campaign donations to finance a gambling habit, then covered up the thefts on government disclosure forms.

Shirakawa, like other criminal suspects, had to provide a DNA sample when he was booked into jail, said District Attorney Jeff Rosen. That sample was entered into a state database and eventually was matched to DNA found in saliva on a 44-cent stamp from one of the 2010 mailers.