Policeman Tam Truong, 42, has a history of making news in the Vietnamese - American community. In 2012, he made the headline as a 30 year-old candidate running for the D4 City Council seat against the incumbent Kansen Chu. Former Mayor Chuck Reed and his wife hosted a fund raiser at their house in D4. Former Vice Mayor Madison Nguyen gave a nice speech endorsing him. With all the powerful endorsements and funding supports, he managed to raise as much campaiging money as Chu. San Jose D4 at that time had 25% Vietnamese-American registered voters. He was walloped by Chu.
Now he is running for D8 City Council seat against the incumbent Domingo Candelas with a campaign slogan of safety, trust and integrity.
In between his new campaigning endeavor, he managed to be charged with wage theft of $34,000 for not paying a former employee of his private security firm, Training and Protective Services. He promptly declared bankruptcy to get away with paying the penalties and salaries.
Recently, he was indicted by Santa Clara DA Jeff Rosen's office for alleged mortgage fraud. The one count of grand theft of personal property filed on Sept 5 in a criminal complaint alleging that Truong defrauded title and insurance companies and pocketed $540,000. The details can be read in San Jose Spotlight and Mercury News.
The same day that the indictment was served, Truong and Candelas were having their debate hosted by the D8 Community Roundtable. A question from the audience was if Truong has any skeletons in his closet that he should disclose. He replied:"No, I don't". It was about 7:00 pm when he answered as noted by the blogger who put the debate video on the Nexdoor portal. The criminal complaint was received by Truong in the morning.
As expected, Truong had his lawyer issued a statement denying the charge and blasted the criminal indictment as a political ploy against him before the voting begins. He went on Vietnamese-American media vowing to continue his campaign and again claiming
to be a victim of dirty politics by the DA office.
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| Matt Mahan from tamsj.com |
In the meantime, SJ Mayor Matt Mahan immediately withdrew his endorsement. This is a serious charge that requires a fair, thorough and timely investigation,” he told San José Spotlight. “While I understand Tam Truong has stated he is innocent of this single charge, that must now be determined through our judicial system. Given these facts I am withdrawing my endorsement until such time as this case is resolved.”
Truong is now on administrative leave from his police duty. He has not shown up for any debates or planned rallies. His campaigning staff is on furlough until further notice.
Interestingly enough, even before the criminal indictment, the SJ Police Officers' Association (POA) did not endorse him but his opponent, Candelas.
Some of the Vietnamese-American businesses around the area have expressed relief since some were approached by Truong asking for support. He made them felt very intimidated if they didn't support him as he purposedly presented himself as the authority in position of power.
This criminal case will have a life of its own as Tam Truong will have his day in court to be proven guilty. But the conventional wisdom tells us that he is cunning enough to cut the deal with the DA while hoping that he can still win the city council race.
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