Former Contra Costa County Registrar's Court Case Postponed Again

By Sam Richards, Bay City News Foundation

MARTINEZ, CA— The court case of the former Contra Costa County registrar of voters accused of campaign-related felony perjury and grand theft will stretch into the new year, with no preliminary hearing set or plea deal or other resolution yet reached.

Joe Canciamilla and his attorney, Michael Rains, are now scheduled to return to Contra Costa County Superior Court on Jan. 20 for possible setting of a preliminary hearing date. Those proceedings will be before Judge Leslie G. Landau, and not in front of Judge Laurel Brady, who presided over a brief hearing Thursday, as well as several earlier ones.

"This will be the very last (such hearing) because we've done this at least five times," Brady told Rains Thursday.

Deputy District Attorney Steve Bolen said there is a reason for the delay.

"He's trying to figure out how this (outcome) will affect his retirement," and a possible negotiated plea deal, Bolen said.

Canciamilla has been not only the county registrar of voters, but also was a county supervisor from 1996 until 2000, and is covered by the county's employee retirement program.

There earlier had been discussion of Canciamilla's case being resolved at the Thursday hearing. If the case doesn't resolve by the Jan. 20 date, Bolen said, a preliminary hearing date will be set that day.

Rains did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday afternoon.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney's office in June 2019 charged the 65-year-old Canciamilla with 30 counts of felony perjury for allegedly making misstatements on 30 separate campaign disclosure forms. He was also charged with four additional felonies related to grand theft for using nearly $262,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses between 2010 and 2016.

Canciamilla, of Pittsburg and also with a home in Hawaii, resigned as county clerk-recorder in October 2019, and soon thereafter agreed to pay $150,000 to the California Fair Political Practices Commission after admitting to spending campaign funds on personal expenses such as vacations to Asia, restaurant meals, airfare, repayment of a personal loan and transfers to his personal bank accounts.

Canciamilla pleaded not guilty to the 34 felony counts in July.

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