SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A former candidate for Santa Clara County Sheriff has been charged with perjury for allegedly lying about required experience to run for the job.
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Santa Clara County authorities on Thursday said Anh Colton, 48, "has had no law enforcement experience in the last five years," during which one year of experience is required. Colton swore that she had experience as a "peace officer" in her declaration as a candidate.
Colton received 13,620 votes, or about 4% of the overall vote, coming in dead last of the five candidates in the June primary election. Palo Alto Police Chief Robert Jonsen and retired sheriff's deputy Kevin Jensen – who came in first and second, respectively – are headed for a runoff in the November election.
In all, over 312,000 people voted for sheriff in the county's primary election.
An investigation was launched into Colton's qualifications following a media report, Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney John Chase told KCBS Radio on Thursday. "Proving that a person never worked some place, unless you can find their friends or someone that knows them, it can be difficult," Chase explained. "There are some databases that we tried to access and were finally able to access one."
When directly asked about her qualifications in April, Colton referred authorities to a campaign advisor.
As the inquiry progressed in May, officials said someone acting as Colton's campaign advisor told an investigator they "should stay away from Colton and she did not have to and would not answer his questions."
State law did not allow authorities to remove her from the ballot, allowing several thousand votes to be cast in her favor.
"This was a concern for our office. Absolutely," Chase said. "From the beginning of the investigation we thought that if we could complete it in time, meaning before the primary or sometime before the primary, we should try to charge it so that people would not vote for someone who wasn't qualified.
But as it turned out...we weren't able to complete it until pretty much the day or the day after the primary election."
Colton is expected to be arraigned on the charge later this summer.
She faces up to four years in jail.
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