Crime & Safety

Former County Supe Shirakawa Sentenced to Year in Jail

Charges stemmed from misuse of public and campaign funds.

—By Bay City News Service

Former Santa Clara County Supervisor George Shirakawa was sentenced today to serve a year in county jail for a dozen criminal charges related to his misuse of public and campaign funds.

Shirakawa, 51, was remanded into custody and taken out of the courtroom by a sheriff's deputy following this afternoon's sentencing hearing in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose.

He was sentenced to the year in jail -- with credit for one day of time served -- and three years' probation.

Shirakawa resigned from office earlier this year after pleading guilty to four felony counts of perjury, one felony count of misuse of public funds and seven misdemeanor counts of filing inaccurate campaign and government finance reports.

Prosecutors said Shirakawa used more than $130,000 in public and campaign funds for personal use and to gamble at casinos.

Shirakawa's defense attorney declined to comment on the sentencing after today's hearing.

Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.