‘We should all be livid,’ San Jose mayor says

(KRON) — San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said “we should all be livid” after a repeat offender was released from custody. The offender is a drug addict who recently violated a stay-away order from St. James Park downtown. He has been arrested by police several times for using drugs in public, including at the park, authorities said.

A community center located near St. James Park is unable take children to the playground “because of persistent meth and fentanyl use,” Mayor Mahan wrote. One drug addict’s freedom should not be prioritized over everyone else in the community, the mayor said.

“The judge simply returns this repeat offender to the streets to continue to make one of our most historic public parks unusable for the rest of the community. Extremely disappointing — we’ve pleaded with our criminal justice system to hold drug dealers and users accountable for the significant impact they have on our public spaces,” Mahan wrote on X.

Mahan continued, “We should all be livid over a system that prioritizes the supposed civil liberties of the deeply addicted over everyone else’s right to access and use the public spaces for which they are paying. This person needs to be given a choice between treatment or jail, not endless drug use in our parks.”

St. James Park has been the hub for homelessness, crime, and drug dealing for years, city officials said.

Earlier this year, the city was granted an injunction to ban seven people who “repeatedly engaged in illegal activities at St. James Park, making the public park an unsafe space for families,” the San Jose Police Department wrote.

People named in the city’s St. James Park stay-away order are: Jose Lomeli, Rayvontae Malone, Joseph Cota, Antonio Evangalistsa, Steven Serrano, Samuel Cotton, and David Romero. The court banned the seven people from loitering, standing, sitting, or camping within 100 yards of the park.

Despite the St. James Park restraining order, one of the seven returned and was caught using illegal narcotics. The District Attorney’s Office “fought hard to make sure the individual was placed back in custody,” however, a judge freed him from custody, the San Jose Police Department wrote.

On Saturday, Mayor Mahan called on California Governor Gavin Newsom to direct more funding toward Prop 36. He also urged Santa Clara County supervisors to “fix this huge gap in our county’s system of criminal justice and behavioral health.”

The mayor thanked the district attorney and police for standing up for community justice.