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Businesses Advertising Crime The Courts United States

One Year in Jail For Abusive Silicon Valley CEO (theguardian.com) 287

He grew up in San Jose, and at the age of 25 sold his second online advertising company to Yahoo for $300 million just nine years ago. Friday Gurbaksh Chahal was sentenced to one year in jail for violating his probation on 47 felony charges from 2013, according to an article in The Guardian submitted by an anonymous Slashdot reader: Police officials said that a 30-minute security camera video they obtained showed the entrepreneur hitting and kicking his then girlfriend 117 times and attempting to suffocate her inside his $7 million San Francisco penthouse. Chahal's lawyers, however, claimed that police had illegally seized the video, and a judge ruled that the footage was inadmissible despite prosecutors' argument that officers didn't have time to secure a warrant out of fear that the tech executive would erase the footage.

Without the video, most of the charges were dropped, and Chahal, 34, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor battery charges of domestic violence... In Silicon Valley, critics have argued that Chahal's case and the lack of serious consequences he faced highlight the way in which privileged and wealthy businessmen can get away with serious misconduct.. On September 17, 2014, prosecutors say he attacked another woman in his home, leading to another arrest.

Friday Chahal was released on bail while his lawyer appeals the one-year jail sentence for violating his probation.
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One Year in Jail For Abusive Silicon Valley CEO

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  • by Marful ( 861873 ) on Saturday August 13, 2016 @09:41PM (#52698023)

    Chahal's lawyers, however, claimed that police had illegally seized the video, and a judge ruled that the footage was inadmissible despite prosecutors' argument that officers didn't have time to secure a warrant out of fear that the tech executive would erase the footage.

    A warrant is a phone call away; arresting the guy and then calling in a warrant to search for video evidence when seeing cctv isn't that hard nor time consuming.

    All it takes is one Judge who follows the law to shut down crooked cops and now a violent offender is getting away with minimal sentencing.

    Good job, cops.

    • by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Saturday August 13, 2016 @11:13PM (#52698309)

      The majority of offenders plead out if they know they have evidence against them so examination of chain of evidence doesn't happen. Police are largely unaware of the law. If all criminals had good lawyers and could afford full trials with defensive investigations we would barely have any behind bars.

    • by mikeiver1 ( 1630021 ) on Saturday August 13, 2016 @11:18PM (#52698329)
      Just my thought too. All they had to do was arrest the guy and get the warrant to the on call judge. FUCKING SIT TIGHT FOR AN HOUR OR TWO IS ALL IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU FUCKING KEYSTONE COPS. Instead they seized the recordings outside of a warrant and the little prick goes free yet again. If I were the girl I would bring a suit against the department for bumbling my justice and letting the shit get away with it yet again. It is going to happen, people are getting tired of this sort of shit that the rich get away with. There is going to be that tripping point and watch out. Allot of these shits and their scumbag lawyers are gonna end up face down in a pile of their own blood. The public is tired of reading about this time and again. Keep in mind that they are working hard to make sure that they are able to own and carry guns while taking the right away from the common person... You work it out.
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot.worf@net> on Sunday August 14, 2016 @05:54AM (#52698975)

      A warrant is a phone call away; arresting the guy and then calling in a warrant to search for video evidence when seeing cctv isn't that hard nor time consuming.

      All it takes is one Judge who follows the law to shut down crooked cops and now a violent offender is getting away with minimal sentencing.

      Actually, to arrest him, you need probable cause. Otherwise you run the risk that the arrest was not done out of probable cause and because of that, the warrant was therefore invalid since the arrest was invalid.

      Now, it is actually legal to seize evidence without a warrant, providing you can prove there is a time-sensitive nature to it.

      In this case, the police have information that the surveillance footage contains important information to arrest the guy. But without seeing that footage, they technically can't arrest him. So in the meantime, while we ponder how the police are going to get evidence to arrest the guy, but they can't arrest him now (not enough evidence) the guy is free to do whatever, including destroy evidence.

      Judges generally look down at warrantless evidence, and they usually convene a subtrial to figure out if the evidence should be thrown out or not.They look to see if exigent circumstances exist to allow the evidence to be used without a prior warrant - i.e., is it possible and likely the evidence would've been destroyed during the time to get a warrant. There's a lot of case law and interpretation behind it - if it was a surveillance system belonging to the building, for example, then it would've been tossed out (it is unlikely the building manager would erase the evidence, and most likely, if you ask nicely, they'll turn it over without questioning).

      Oh, and there are times when it is LEGAL for law enforcement to enter your home without a warrant, probable cause or anything else (called "hot pursuit"). In fact, if they came in (during those circumstances) and you're openly doing drugs inside your house, they can arrest you for that, even though in a normal situation, that would be highly illegitimate! (No, most of the time, the cops are not allowed to enter a private residence without being invited or if they have a warrant, except in the narrow case.of hot pursuit).

      http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=2... [lawcomic.net]

    • A warrant is a phone call away; arresting the guy and then calling in a warrant to search for video evidence when seeing cctv isn't that hard nor time consuming.

      You're assuming a specific and linear timeline for this to be the case, and making assumptions on what happened at the time that you could not know.

    • by stephanruby ( 542433 ) on Sunday August 14, 2016 @06:44AM (#52699059)

      All it takes is one Judge who follows the law to shut down crooked cops and now a violent offender is getting away with minimal sentencing.
      Good job, cops.

      This wasn't some unrecorded probably fake anonymous tip over the phone, this was a bloody girlfriend who could finger her attacker. That's more than probable cause. The cops did their jobs in this case. The judge, or someone who can influence the judge, got paid off. It is as simple as that.

      Now, this piece of trash did the same to another woman. The only reason the same judge did anything this time is because he probably didn't want to face the same repercussions and recriminations the Stanford judge faced.

    • It is funny how Slashdotters don't know anything about the real world. You don't just "call up and order a warrant" like you would get a pizza. For fucks sake.
      • It is funny how Slashdotters don't know anything about the real world. You don't just "call up and order a warrant" like you would get a pizza. For fucks sake.

        That's not entirely fair. The youngsters probably assume there's an app for that.

  • by CanadianMacFan ( 1900244 ) on Saturday August 13, 2016 @10:34PM (#52698207)

    I'm sorry but the only reason he wasn't convicted was because the tape wasn't admissible? If some ass hits and kicks his girlfriend 117 times I'm calling in the forensics team because there's going to be the girlfriends blood in the apartment and on his clothes. They will find her blood which will corroborate her statement. Then it doesn't matter if he deleted the video. Besides from the sounds of it he doesn't really sound smart enough to securely delete so that a digital forensics team couldn't retrieve it.

    But if all you are going into your trial with is a tape that the police questionably obtained (the lawyer should have seen this coming) then what is your police department and prosecutors office doing with their time because it certainly isn't preparing for cases.

    • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Saturday August 13, 2016 @10:59PM (#52698285) Journal
      Yeah, it's corrupt. The whole city of San Francisco is as corrupt as the cesspools on market street. Former Mayor Willie Brown was paid to cover this problem up [sfist.com]. Ed Lee (the current mayor) is extremely unpopular among the citizens, got appointed to that office initially. The state senator from the area was convicted of gun running! [google.com] Notably he favored gun control laws, I guess he wanted to get rid of the competition. Another guy was demanding "protection" money [wikipedia.org].

      That's just the surface, the ones who've been caught. I don't know how deep it goes, but it definitely extends into the police department.
    • Well, part of what you are describing could be construed as parallel construction. Did the cops have reason to search for that evidence before seeing the illegally obtained video? If not, then obtaining that evidence would be "fruit of the poisoned tree". Though, police frequently use parallel construction in the US to get around that pesky constitution stuff. In this case, it sounds like they tried to play a trump card (No pun intended) and got caught cheating. It's obviously an extremely unfortunate

    • by c ( 8461 )

      If some ass hits and kicks his girlfriend 117 times I'm calling in the forensics team because there's going to be the girlfriends blood in the apartment and on his clothes.

      Police aren't likely to bring in a forensics team on a domestic assault case unless the guy has gone out of his way to piss of authorities and they want to nail him on something, anything.

      The video evidence was simply low-hanging fruit; it was in their face and easy to get, so they grabbed it.

      • The problem I have with this is that I don't call hitting someone 117 times domestic assault. Once you get above a couple it should be a higher charge and this many should be attempted murder. While domestic abuse is wrong in any circumstances this guy is especially dangerous and the resources should have been used to make the case.

        • by c ( 8461 )

          Once you get above a couple it should be a higher charge and this many should be attempted murder.

          I don't entirely disagree, but proving it would be an uphill battle against very expensive lawyers.

  • Pattern:
    From the sources one can make a prediction by just looking at that pattern, and the knowledge about other people[1] that have exert these patterns: they are very likely to exert these patterns again.

    Prediction on his longterm whereabouts:
    So my prediction is unless he undergoes successful counseling he is doomed to do it again and again and again, till the point he is sent to prison for life under the three-strikes rule.

    Lawyers can find caveats however at a point in time these caveats will run out (a

  • In very demonstrable ways, the Silicon Valley 'judicial system' is far worse (and misogynist) than even freaking Texas.
  • I want to be a Silicon Valley CEO. Commit 47 felonies and only get a year in jail.

    Where do I sign up?
    • I want to be a Silicon Valley CEO. Commit 47 felonies and only get a year in jail.

      On the other hand... The guy could have just been happy with the $300 million he got for selling his company and lived well for the rest of his life. Being rich doesn't mean you *have* to be a dick.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 14, 2016 @10:25AM (#52699615)

    2013 - PoS assaults girlfriend. Lawyers work magic and get video evidence barred. PoS s convicted of lesser crime. PoS gets probation. Grrr. OK.

    2014 - PoS assaults another woman, violating probation. Case drags on until 2016(!).

    2016 - PoS finally gets sentenced to 1 year in jail. Instead of going to jail, PoS is released on bail pending appeal. Grrr. This is ridiculous.

    That's three years, two violent assaults, two convictions and this fucker has still not been jailed. WTF?

    • I hope he winds up dating a woman who's secretly a highly-skilled martial artist. Let him get his ass kicked for once.

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