Contra Costa County politician Joe Canciamilla has been sentenced to a year in jail for misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds.
The former county clerk-recorder, county supervisor and state legislator from Pittsburg, pled guilty Monday to nine counts of perjury and grand theft, according to the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
That’s five felony perjury counts and four felony misdemeanor counts, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Canciamilla was sentenced to 365 days in county jail and two years of formal probation. Canciamilla also must surrender his law license and he will lose his ability to hold public office.
Prosecutors charged Canciamilla last year with 34 felony counts of perjury for alleged mis-statements on campaign disclosure forms and his alleged personal use of more than $261,800 in campaign funds.
Canciamilla spent funds on a personal vacation to Asia, restaurants, airfare via Southwest Airlines and American Airlines, among other things.
Canciamilla agreed to pay a $150,000 fine to California’s campaign ethics watchdog in 2019, a settlement that became public days after he resigned abruptly as county clerk-recorder.
Canciamilla is the second Contra Costa County official in the past four years to be caught improperly spending campaign funds. Former District Attorney Mark Peterson was charged with 13 felonies over his use of $66,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses in 2017.
The state attorney general’s office handled the Peterson case instead of Contra Costa County. Peterson pleaded no contest to perjury and resigned as part of the deal.
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