There’s been yet another installment in the ongoing legal battle between former Milpitas City Manager Steve McHarris and the City of Milpitas – and this one has involved former Mayor Rich Tran…
During a March 27 hearing, the Superior Court of Santa Clara County ruled that Tran will have to pay $6,900 in sanctions to the plaintiff, due to Tran not having appeared for a deposition as part of the McHarris lawsuit back in December 2024.
The court order also requires that Tran appear for a deposition no later than April 10, 2025.
Some background: In 2023, McHarris filed a lawsuit against the City of Milpitas, citing wrongful termination when his contract wasn’t renewed. In the lawsuit, Rich Tran, who was Milpitas Mayor from 2016 to 2022, was mentioned as having played an integral role in creating a hostile work environment during the time when McHarris was City Manager.
In 2024, Tran’s deposition – the oral statement of a witness before a trial takes place – was begun but never completed. Tran left Milpitas for Vietnam, but was due to appear and complete his deposition last December.
In an interview with The Beat earlier this year, Tran claimed that the deposition had never been scheduled, which was why he failed to make it.
In January, McHarris filed a motion against the City, stating that its discovery process had been impeded by its inability to continue deposing Tran, who has spent much of his recent time traveling.
In that motion, it was stated that Tran’s activity on social media showed that he was in town during the deposition period. But the City of Milpitas’ attorney stated that Tran was not responsive to scheduling efforts.
The motion originally sought sanctions against the City, but at last week’s hearing, the City’s lawyer argued that Tran was not their client…
“I have said repeatedly, I don’t represent him. I cannot represent him,” said Milpitas’ attorney Nadia Bermudez during the hearing. “He’s not talking to me. I don’t represent him.”
She added, “I’m at a loss because the City cannot control Mr. Tran. And because of that, it should not be sanctioned for his refusal to show for deposition.”
The court understood, and the $6,900 penalty was therefore directed toward Rich Tran.
Said the judge, “This order is to be served on Mr. Tran. This order and Defendants’ conduct may be considered and addressed by the trial judge. That is the final ruling of the court.”
Tran, who The Beat confirmed is currently in Thailand, has been traveling around the world since last summer for work. He has not been affiliated with the City of Milpitas since he finished serving as Mayor back in late 2022.
The Beat reached out to Tran for comment and he stated that he had reached out to the court, requesting that they terminate the sanctions. In a message to The Beat, he wrote, “I hope the court will accept my request to terminate sanctions. I have made the plaintiff and defendant legal teams aware.”
Delay, delay, delay! This lawsuit is looking like lawsuits against *rump. Remember that he was only convicted of 43 felony counts. The other 40+ were dropped when he weaponized the Department of Justice. Locally, McHarris filed the lawsuit in December 2023, but the case remains unsettled, and we don’t have an accounting of how much taxpayer money is being spent defending … the guilty?
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Mr. Tran, please hire a lawyer, and submit to the deposition so we can confirm (or not) the claims by Steve McHarris in his lawsuit against the City (https://meansfordemocracy.org/blog.html#mcharris). Once your testimony is submitted to the court, then we taxpayers can learn for sure what we now suspect, that City Council members Montano, Chua, and Barbadillo took a bribe from you. Take the Fifth! Refuse to answer questions that might incriminate you. That is fine, but at least tell us what you know that is not incriminating. That’s the least you can do for your former constituents you so proudly represented for 6 years.