By Elise Banducci, The San Jose Mercury News
The Santa Clara County, Calif. District Attorney’s Office will seek an open grand jury hearing into the shooting death of Rodolfo “Rudy” Cardenas -- only the third time the office has requested a public session.
Community outrage and calls for a public hearing followed the Feb. 17 shooting of the unarmed Cardenas by a state narcotics agent who mistook him for a fugitive parolee.
“The public deserves and needs to hear all the facts surrounding the shooting,” Assistant District Attorney Karyn Sinunu said Monday.
Aida Garcia, the slain man’s sister, said her family was happy about the district attorney’s announcement.
“We want to find out the truth, what really happened to my brother,” Garcia said.
When a new criminal grand jury is seated this spring, prosecutors will ask the jury’s leader to join in requesting an open hearing from the Superior Court’s presiding judge, Thomas P. Hansen, who has the authority to approve or deny the request.
The county’s most recent open hearing was in October, when the grand jury cleared a San Jose police officer in the fatal shooting of a Vietnamese mother.
Usually, grand jury reviews of police shootings are confidential.
Deputy District Attorney Lane Liroff, who would conducting the hearing, said a closed inquiry in this case “could lead to great distrust.”
“Somebody has been shot in the back by a police officer,” Liroff said. “There are a variety of things that can explain that -- or not.”
Liroff said it was too early in the investigation to say whether his office would support an indictment in the case.
Cardenas, a 43-year-old father of five, was shot while running from a Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agent who chased him from the San Jose home of a fugitive parolee believed to be armed and dangerous.
Police said the drug agent feared he was about to be shot.
Shortly after the shooting, the Mexican American Political Association, a Latino civil rights group, called for an open grand jury investigation.
Cardenas had a criminal history that included a stay in Pelican Bay State Prison in the mid-1990s on drug and assault charges and a complaint for domestic violence.
But his family said he was reclaiming his life.
“It’s been almost 10 years since he’s been out of prison,” said Garcia, his sister.
Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s office, which is conducting its own investigation into the shooting, said the district attorney’s request for an open hearing was expected and that her office will continue to cooperate fully with Santa Clara prosecutors.