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Former Supervisor Ed Jew was sentenced Wednesday morning to one year in county jail for lying on election-related documents about where he lived when he ran for office. The sentencing caps an arduous legal journey for Jew that began when the former District 4 representative solicited cash bribes from owners of Quickly tapioca-drink shops in exchange for promising to help them obtain city permits to operate legally. Jew was under FBI surveillance when he accepted $40,000 in bills marked by federal agents, as a partial payment from the business owners. Jew pleaded guilty in October to soliciting cash bribes and...

Ed Jew pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of perjury for lying about where he lived when he ran for San Francisco supervisor in 2006. Eight other charges of violating the elections code violations and committing voter fraud were dropped. When Jew took out papers to run for the District 4 seat, he claimed to live in the sunset neighborhood when he in fact lived in Burlingame. City law requires the supervisors to live in the district they represent. He resigned from the Board of Supervisors at the beginning of the year. In a separate federal case, Jew pleaded guilty...

Ed Jew, the former San Francisco supervisor who resigned from office in January after state and federal prosecutors accused him of corruption, pleaded guilty to federal charges this morning. Jew admitted to mail fraud, extortion and soliciting a bribe in connection with a scheme to shake down Chinese immigrant owners of tapioca drink shops in the Sunset District for $84,000 in bribes. Jew's attorney said his client believed his actions were legal because that's how he learned to behave in politics. At his sentencing on Feb. 13, Jew is prepared to name others who he says have engaged in similar...

Former supervisor Jew pleads not guilty in extortion case Bay City News Service Former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew pleaded guilty in federal court today to three criminal counts related to extorting a $40,000 bribe to help local business owners obtain permits. Jew, 48, pleaded guilty to counts of extortion, mail fraud, and soliciting a $40,000 bribe from representatives of Quickly tapioca drink shops. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston will sentence him in San Francisco on Feb. 13. The three counts carry a possible maximum sentence of 50 years in prison. Defense attorney Stuart Hanlon said outside of court that...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal grand jury indicted suspended San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew today on charges of soliciting $80,000 in bribes from local businesses by threatening their city permits. The five felony charges - two counts each of bribery and mail fraud and one count of extortion- expand on a mail fraud charge that federal prosecutors filed against Jew on Sept. 20. San Francisco prosecutors have also charged him with nine counts of perjury and fraud in Superior Court for allegedly lying about his residence in order to become a candidate and vote in local elections. In today's indictment,...

San Francisco -- San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit Thursday to seek the permanent removal of Ed Jew from the Board of Supervisors, an action that could lead to a relatively quick resolution of the suspended supervisor's fate in city government. The suit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, contends that Jew did not live in the district he represents on the board when he filed papers to run for election in 2006 or when he took office in December. Of the myriad legal problems facing Jew, the suit most directly addresses the question of his residency and...

San Francisco - -- (09-25) 16:15 PDT SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom suspended Supervisor Ed Jew today for alleged official misconduct, began proceedings to remove him from office and named a 29-year-old political novice to take his place. Jew was served this morning with a seven-page outline of charges at the Canton Flower Shop he owns on Waverly Place in Chinatown. The document, drawn up by the city attorney's office and signed by Newsom, accuses the rookie supervisor of misconduct for allegedly lying when he said he lived in District 4 in the Sunset and takes note...

San Francisco (AP) -- Mayor Gavin Newsom has temporarily removed from office a San Francisco city supervisor accused of shaking down small business owners having permit problems. City officials say Newsom replaced Ed Jew on the 11-member Board of Supervisors with Carmen Chu of the mayor's budget office. Jew has been charged in federal court with fraud.

With an informal deadline looming, Mayor Gavin Newsom and his staff spent Sunday vetting possible replacements for Supervisor Ed Jew, while Jew's attorneys vowed to fight his suspension every step of the way. "The first step would likely be up the federal courthouse steps to ask for an injunction," said Jew's lawyer Steve Gruel, who is defending the supervisor against a federal mail fraud complaint that accuses him of instigating a $40,000 shakedown of local businessmen.If Newsom suspends Jew, a hearing before the Ethics Commission would follow, probably leading to a trial, in effect, before the Board of Supervisors.Gruel argues...

The standoff between San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and embattled Supervisor Ed Jew shot up another notch this weekend with the mayor asking the city attorney to draw up charges that could lead to Jew's forced removal if he does not resign. According to sources close to the case, the paperwork is being drawn up today and will likely be ready sometime this week."It's not a position I want to be in," Newsom said late Saturday after Jew didn't return repeated phone calls. "But I'm compelled to move because this is just the type of situation that the City Charter...

SAN FRANCISCO - Federal authorities on Thursday charged a rookie San Francisco lawmaker with fraud, accusing him of attempting to extort $80,000 from a group of fast-food franchisees who had business permit troubles with the city. During an FBI sting earlier this year, the tapioca drink shop owners delivered a $40,000 payment to Supervisor Ed Jew in marked $100 bills and promised to pay the rest later, authorities said. Jew has acknowledged taking the money, but said he did so at the businessmen's insistence and on behalf of a consultant he recommended they hire to help with their permit problems....

As if San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew didn't have enough headaches, now comes word that the city's Taxi Commission is reviewing whether his family should be allowed to keep a long-held taxi medallion that allows them to rent out a cab for thousands of dollars a year without ever driving it. The Jew family isn't being targeted in particular -- the commission is looking into all 100 "corporate medallions" that the city issued before 1978. That's when rules were changed to require that future medallions be given only to working cabbies who drive at least 800 hours a year. Now...

San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew may be facing the legal fight of his life, but you wouldn't have known it the other afternoon as he sat in a booth at the Noriega Teriyaki House at 25th Avenue and Noriega Street and fielded a complaint from an elderly constituent about her pesky problem with raccoons. "I will contact Animal Control," Jew assured her. For nearly 90 minutes, Jew scribbled down notes and collected complaint forms from residents with a litany of grievances -- a sinkhole on Geary Boulevard near the Great Highway, bicycle riders not obeying the law, the garbage piling...

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom increased the pressure on Supervisor Ed Jew Tuesday, saying evidence that suggests that the embattled lawmaker does not live in the district he represents is mounting and urging him to provide a credible explanation soon. Newsom expressed concern about Jew continuing to cast votes while the legitimacy of his claim to his office has been called into question and said he is reviewing city law to understand exactly what power he has to force Jew out of his seat. "The fact that I am reviewing the charter and my role ... is suggestive of the...

City Attorney Dennis Herrera's request Monday for permission from the state attorney general to file a lawsuit that could force Supervisor Ed Jew out of office is a legal tactic rarely used in California and believed to be unprecedented in San Francisco. - Saying his office's investigation into Jew's residency found overwhelming evidence that Jew has not been living in the Sunset neighborhood he represents, Herrera asked Attorney General Jerry Brown for approval to sue Jew so that the freshman lawmaker can be ousted from his seat on the Board of Supervisors. It is the first time in modern San...

SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sought the approval of the state attorney general this morning to to file a lawsuit to oust Supervisor Ed Jew from office, charging that the rookie supervisor lied about where he lived when he ran for office last year. Citing records and declarations that showed little or no use of utilities -- and interviews with nearly three-dozen neighbors -- Herrera said that Jew's claims to reside in the Sunset District were false. Most records that would "typically be relied on to demonstrate legal domicile" during the relevant time period -- including...

The fate of Ed Jew on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors may wind up being decided not by his colleagues or Mayor Gavin Newsom, but by state Attorney General Jerry Brown. Here's why: Short of a voter recall, only the mayor or attorney general has the authority to set in motion Jew's possible removal from office. And the mayor can order a supervisor suspended only for "official misconduct." Therein lies the problem. City Hall insiders tell us that the bulk of the evidence gathered against Jew so far -- in the city attorney's civil investigation and the district attorney's...

San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew and District Attorney Kamala Harris are certainly at odds now -- she's trying to throw him in prison, after all -- but it wasn't always that way. In fact, the two have a relationship that goes back to 2003, when the Harris campaign paid Jew between $15,000 and $20,000 to help get out the Chinese American vote. Harris' campaign manager Jim Stearns credits Jew with helping to produce Chinese-language ads, putting together events with the Chinese American press and recruiting volunteers for Chinese-language phone banks. It apparently paid off big on election day. Harris not...

The media and City Hall leaders want San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew out of office because he is Chinese American and politically conservative, loyal supporters of the beleaguered supervisor claimed Friday. Separate groups held a rally at City Hall on Friday and met over tea in Chinatown to voice their support for Jew and decry what they see as persecution of a man who has yet to have his day in court. Jew did not appear at either event. Calvin Louie, president of the Chinese American Democratic Club of which Jew is a board member, helped organize the rally. About...

San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew ignored the city attorney's deadline Friday to agree to be interviewed by investigators and to submit additional proof he lives in the Sunset District, maintaining that his hands are tied by the overlapping investigations of which he has become a target. Jew, who took office in December, is under scrutiny by the city attorney over whether he meets residency requirements to hold his District 4 supervisor's seat. The city attorney gave Jew two extensions -- the last expired Friday -- to prove he lives in a 28th Avenue home, owned by his father, where Jew...