Jesus Cardenas, who helped some of the most prominent Democrats in San Diego County get elected, was sentenced to a combination of work furlough and home detention Wednesday after pleading guilty to two felonies.
The former chief of staff to San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn avoided any time in county jail, even though he admitted stealing more than $200,000 from state and federal taxpayers.
Instead, he was sentenced to two years of probation and 45 days in a work-furlough program that only requires him to report to the facility at night.
Upon successfully completing that portion of his sentence, Cardenas will have to spend 135 days in a separate home-detention program, under the decision by San Diego Superior Court Judge Rachel Cano.
Prosecutors had sought six months in San Diego County jail for Cardenas, who was running his Grassroots Resources political consulting firm for much of the time he was serving as Whitburn’s chief of staff.
Cardenas and his sister, former Chula Vista Councilmember Andrea Cardenas, pleaded guilty to using Grassroots Resources to fraudulently claim just over $176,000 in federal COVID-19 relief funds.
Andrea Cardenas is scheduled to be sentenced for her role in the crime in late August.
Jesus Cardenas, who also pleaded guilty to illegally collecting $27,700 in state unemployment benefits, declined to comment on the sentence outside court.
Deputy District Attorney Chandelle Boyce noted after the proceeding that she had asked Cano to send the defendant to jail for half a year.
“We argued for 180 days in custody with no alternative,” the prosecutor said outside the courtroom. “We thought that was appropriate.
“It would have sent a stronger message if he had been sentenced to actual custody,” Boyce said.
Prosecutors also sought to prohibit Cardenas from working as a political consultant during the period of his two-year probationary term. But that request was not approved.
He will start paying restitution at a rate of $500 a month, although his defense lawyer said both Cardenas siblings are planning to pay off the restitution after refinancing a property owned by Andrea Cardenas.
While prosecutors argued for six months in county jail for Jesus Cardenas, defense attorney Fernanda Ezquerra told the court that her client was remorseful and acknowledged his crimes soon after he was charged.
She noted that he had grown up in the area, had just gotten married and said his family, including elderly parents who require regular caregiving, relied on him for financial support.
“He’s been working to support his family since he was 16 working at a taco shop,” Ezquerra said. “He was pretty successful at what he did. He has been serving the community for some time.”
Ezquerra also noted that the Rancho Santa Fe Association was recently found to have illegally collected $1.5 million under the same federal pandemic aid program, but that entity was permitted to repay the money under a civil settlement.
“There were never any charges filed against them, yet the Cardenases are here in court,” she said.
Boyce painted a different picture of Jesus Cardenas in asking Cano to send the defendant to jail.
“This was not a mistake,” she said. “The defendant made the choice to steal more than $200,000.”
The prosecutor also noted that Cardenas was running his consulting firm while also serving as chief of staff to a San Diego City Council member — and was doing so even though the company had been suspended by the state Franchise Tax Board.
She told the court Cardenas has opened two companies just this year and was still delivering political consulting services through Margin Victories, a company opened by one of his former employees.
“He needs to be punished,” Boyce told Cano. “He needs a time out.”
Both Cardenases were charged late last year with a combined 12 felonies related to a Paycheck Protection Program loan taken out by Grassroots Resources, the political consulting firm Jesus Cardenas established around 2016.
According to prosecutors, the Cardenases told the U.S. Small Business Administration that Grassroots Resources had 34 employees. Investigators later found those alleged employees actually worked for Harbor Collective, a San Diego cannabis dispensary.
The dispensary relied on Grassroots Resources for payroll services, providing the Cardenases with the workers’ data they needed to submit the federal loan application.
In a sentencing report prepared by the District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors said they learned of the improper loan from La Prensa San Diego. The news organization reported that Grassroots Resources applied for and received the COVID-19 loan last year.
In the criminal complaint, prosecutors said their investigation showed that Jesus and Andrea Cardenas applied for the federal relief funds in early 2021, just weeks after Jesus Cardenas began working for Whitburn and his sister was sworn in as a member of the Chula Vista City Council.
They received the funds later that year and used the money to pay thousands of dollars in personal expenses, credit card debt and leftover debt owed by Andrea Cardenas’ council campaign, prosecutors said.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in 2022 that Jesus Cardenas was running his political consulting firm at the same time he was serving as chief of staff to Whitburn, who was elected to the San Diego City Council with Cardenas’ help and guidance.
Whitburn defended his chief of staff for more than eight months before insisting last spring that Cardenas choose between his political work and his public-sector job. Cardenas agreed to resign from San Diego City Hall.
Jesus Cardenas, whose consulting firm also helped elect San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas and a host of South Bay city council and school board members, was directed Wednesday to report to the overnight program by 8 a.m. April 17.
If Cardenas violates terms of his probation, he could be ordered to serve up to two years and eight months in custody.
Boyce declined to say whether the investigation into the Cardenas siblings has closed.
“We are always happy to gather additional information from anyone in the public,” she said outside court.
