Former Tech CEO Seeks To Discredit Woman Alleging Assault In Probation Revocation Hearing
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Attorneys for a former San Francisco tech CEO Wednesday sought to discredit a woman accusing him of a 2014 assault that could lead to the revocation of his probation for a previous domestic violence incident.
Former RadiumOne CEO Gurbaksh Chahal appeared in San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday and today for a hearing on a motion by prosecutors seeking to revoke his probation in light of new evidence. The lengthy hearing began in April but was continued to this week.
Chahal was sentenced to probation in 2014 in connection with a 2013 domestic violence incident in which he was originally charged with 45 felony counts and two misdemeanors. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor domestic violence charges and avoided jail time, however, after a video used as evidence during the trial was deemed inadmissible because it was seized without a warrant.
Prosecutors moved to revoke probation after a new victim came forward, alleging Chahal assaulted her at his South Beach apartment in September 2014.
In a hearing that began in April, prosecutors presented evidence alleging that Chahal, angry about an argument the victim had with his security guard, kicked the victim 10 or 12 times as she lay on his bed. They alleged that Chahal took away the woman's phone when she tried to call 911 and then told her to leave the apartment.
The victim, who is not a U.S. citizen and is currently living in South Korea, was not present in court, either in April or this week. Her absence has led to heated arguments between prosecutors and defense attorneys over what evidence can be admitted in the hearing, with Judge Tracie Brown saying she will admit much of testimony and evidence submitted only provisionally until she can make a final ruling on the case.
Prosecutors in April played multiple brief and sometimes inaudible 911 calls the woman made the night of the alleged assault, in the last of which she states that she called by mistake. They also presented testimony from a physician's assistant who saw her the night after the alleged assault when she reported it, as well as police officers and a district attorney's office investigator who spoke with her.
In an effort to discredit the victim, defense attorney James Lassart this week presented witnesses who testified that she was engaged in a sham marriage for immigration purposes and described her as drinking heavily on the night in question.
Eric Barbaro, a Las Vegas casino executive and a mutual friend of both Chahal and the woman, testified that she told him that she had paid a man to marry her so that she could obtain a visa and was subsequently struggling to obtain a divorce.
"It shows her fraudulent conduct, it goes to her credibility," Lassart said in response to prosecution objections to the testimony. Lassart maintained that the victim's absence was due to her fear of consequences for her green card marriage, while prosecutors have said it is due to fear of Chahal.
Barbaro also described an incident in which the alleged victim had argued with his wife while drunk and then said she had no recollection of it the next day.
Chahal's live-in bodyguard, Moepulou Alaiasa, who was present in the apartment on the night of the alleged attack, presented a portrait of the incident that was at odds with evidence presented by prosecutors.
On the night of the alleged attack, Alaiasa testified that the victim drank a large quantity of tequila in the apartment before retiring to the bedroom with Chahal. She then charged into his bedroom later that night, shouting and cursing at him, demanding to know where the condoms were, he said.
Alaiasa said he then followed her back into Chahal's bedroom, where he saw Chahal lying in the bed. Chahal then told him to escort her out, and she gathered her things and left with him.
Alaiasa denied ever seeing the victim use her phone during the incident, but said she told him that Chahal had kicked her and later sent him a picture of bruises on her leg. He testified that when he checked on her again later that day she did not have any new bruises she had not had previously and was behaving like she was "happy."
She and Chahal spent at least one more evening together after that and they behaved "normally," Alaiasa testified.
Testimony in the hearing is scheduled to continue on June 23 and 24.
