‘City College Three’ await preliminary hearing date

By Hannah Weiner
The Guardsman

A status hearing concerning the misappropriation of funds case involving former City College Chancellor Phillip Day Jr. and former Associate Vice Chancellors Stephen Herman and James Blomquist revealed April 14 that the trial continues to be delayed.

“Right now we’re still reviewing the documents and doing legal research,” Doron Weinberg, Herman’s attorney said. “We informed the court that we had not made progress to make a resolution, but we want to continue to try.”

The District Attorney’s office began the investigation after the San Francisco Chronicle published an article addressing some of the transactions made.

“Those transactions ended up forming the basis of the charges,” prosecutor Evan Ackiron said.

The defense hopes to avoid a trial and instead come to a settlement.

“We think it’s a case that shouldn’t have been brought in the first place,” Weinberg said. “These are not criminals who deserve to be punished. These are people who believed they did what was necessary to help a public institution.”

Ackiron made no comment about the defendants’ motives but said that if convicted, “Day and Herman face a maximum of nine years and Blomquist faces a maximum of three years.”

The next stage in the legal process is to set up a preliminary hearing.

“It’s really just a question of when the defense is ready,” Ackiron said.

Once the preliminary hearing happens, court officials will set a start date for the trial.