Former SMCCCD Chancellor, Ron Galatolo, will stand for sentencing at 9 a.m. on Friday, June 5, at the San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City by Superior Court Judge Leland Davis III.
Galatolo, who spent 18 years as Chancellor for the SMCCCD, could be sentenced up to seven years and four months, after being found guilty on Jan. 20 on four felony counts of perjury, and four felony counts of tax fraud. In 2022, Galatolo was arrested at SFO Airport, and pleaded not guilty to over 20 felony counts of allegedly taking bribes from construction companies in a long-lasting pay to play scheme, while he was the Chancellor for the district.
District Attorney Stephen M. Wagstaffe said that Galatolo’s attitude towards his conviction, whether he is remorseful or not, will heavily influence the amount of time the D.A’s office will ask the judge to sentence him.
“If Mr. Galatolo gets in there and minimizes it … that’ll motivate us one way,” Wagstaffe said. “If on the other side he were to be remorseful … that motivates a different one.”
Former Vice Chancellor Jose Nuñez, who pleaded no contest to two felony counts of misuse of funds and testified against Galatolo, will also be sentenced at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday May 5. His sentencing date was pushed back to May 5 because the D.A. ‘s office had not yet decided on whether they would like to retry Galatolo on the remaining 18 hung counts and they would want to sentence Nuñez after Galatolo.
Wagstaffe said that Nuñez’s attorney may also want to wait until Galatolo is sentenced because they may argue that Nuñez should get a lighter sentence than Galatolo.
After a brief examination with his team, Wagstaffe said they would not retry Galatolo because they felt it would not be worth the taxpayer money.
“With eight convictions in hand, I did not feel that going back would result in a different outcome and I didn’t think that was a good use of taxpayer money,” Wagstaffe said.
Wagstaffe said his team has not settled on the amount of time they will ask the judge to sentence Galatolo as they are still waiting for a statement from Galatolo, and to look over his pre-sentencing report.
