San Jose: More charges filed against man who fought with mayor’s bodyguard

SAN JOSE — The man charged with attacking a San Jose police officer assigned to Mayor Matt Mahan’s security detail, in the middle of a TV interview in April, is now being charged with another fight-related allegation that could prompt another look at his release status.

Wesley David Pollard, 35, of San Jose, was originally charged April 25, two days after the downtown confrontation at First and San Fernando streets while Mahan was speaking on-camera to a television journalist.

Ahead of his next scheduled court date Thursday, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to amend the initial charges of one felony count of resisting an officer and misdemeanor counts of battery and disturbing the peace by fighting or challenging someone to a fight.

The new charge is an additional misdemeanor disturbing the peace count filed at the end of June involving a Feb. 2 allegation that Pollard confronted a patron at the Starbucks coffee shop on East Santa Clara Street — across from City Hall — and claimed a past dispute with the man, who later told police he had never met Pollard.

When the man tried to walk away, Pollard is accused of telling the man to meet him outside, and at one point a screwdriver fell out of Pollard’s pocket, according to a police report. Pollard reportedly left after a Starbucks employee called police.

At his April 26 arraignment for the original charges, Pollard was granted supervised release over the objection of the DA’s office. Adding the new charge to the existing complaint, as opposed to filing it separately, could compel a judge to deem it a significant enough change to the case to warrant re-evaluating Pollard’s custody status.

The district attorney’s office declined immediate comment, citing the pending arraignment.

Court records show that while Pollard was on supervised release, he was arrested and charged with felony counts of vandalism and one misdemeanor count of exhibiting a deadly weapon. Those charges stem from allegations that on the night of May 17, Pollard was near a Palo Alto laundromat and used scissors to stab and slash the driver’s side door and window of an occupied car.

A police report contends that during the same incident, Pollard approached and opened the door of another car occupied by a teenager, then fled after the teen’s screams summoned bystanders to rush to the commotion.

In the April 23 fight with the mayor’s bodyguard, police said while the mayor was participating in an interview, Pollard approached the group and “began displaying erratic behavior toward him and surrounding staff,” prompting the plainclothes police officer to intervene.

Pollard allegedly threatened the officer and did not back away, and eventually punched the officer in the head, all of which can be seen in video of the incident that was widely disseminated afterward. Police later stated that the video did not capture the officer identifying himself or attempting to de-escalate the confrontation.

Pollard was eventually arrested after a lengthy struggle — during which the officer was punched several more times — that ended after several bystanders came to the officer’s aid. The officer was treated and released at a local hospital.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.