I (Cody Salfen) am not Mr. Alan Viarengo's attorney. Rather, I specially appeared in court with
him today to assist him in requesting additional time to consult with and hire a lawyer. While in
court this afternoon, the Court unexpectedly decided to remand Alan into custody and hold him
without bail, despite the fact that he had already been arrested, he had already posted bail, had
already been released last week, and despite the fact that he has yet to have a meaningful
opportunity to hire a lawyer. Despite the fact that I am not his attorney, I am releasing this
statement, at Alan's specific request, being that he is in custody and unable to release a
statement on his own.
Alan and his family are shocked and traumatized by the sneak attack launched against them by
law enforcement and Jeff Rosen's District Attorney's Office this past week.
Alan is a lifelong resident of Santa Clara County. He is a dedicated father, husband,
community activist, respected professor, and volunteer. Each year, he devotes over 400 hours
of his time, guiding and teaching youth and other members of the bay area communities he
serves. He works two jobs to support his family. He holds a master's degree and as a professor,
he is loved by his students and has consistently received praise (and awards) in recognition of
his service and dedication to the diverse group of students he has taught each term for nearly
two decades. Alan is a law abiding citizen. He respects the rule of law and the Constitution.
At this time we have allegations. Allegations are not facts. Very few facts, if any, have been
provided by the District Attorney's Office about the law enforcement activities in this case. But,
with the little information that has been provided, at present, the only apparent attacks
that have occurred are against Alan and his family.
What we do know is that Jeff Rosen and his District Attorney's office have worked tirelessly to
launch a full-blown sucker-punch style attack on Alan's character, his livelihood, his family, and
apparently against the United States Constitution, including the First Amendment freedom of
speech.
My understanding is that this past week, without notice, a team of heavily armed law
enforcement officers broke into and ransacked Alan's home - the home Alan shares with his
family — calling Alan's family out at gunpoint while his family was in their sleep clothes (when
Alan was already in custody). Law enforcement seized Alan's personal property and other
property belonging to Alan's family members. They arrested Alan and held him in a "no bail
status", in direct violation of the 8th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which
prohibits cruel and unusual punishment by the government and prohibits the setting of
excessive bail. No-bail is typically reserved for murderers and those who have raised a hand
against others.
It is hard to fight against conclusory allegations. Historically, Jeff Rosen's pattern of silencing
those who engage in constitutionally protected questioning and critique of public officials is well
documented. This is part of an unfortunate trend that has existed and persisted for many years
in Santa Clara County.
In a time where criminal justice reform is beyond past due and is at the forefront of the
conversation as a result of government endorsed violence such as the police murder of George
Floyd, locally and in Santa Clara County, law abiding members of our community are being

 persecuted and prosecuted for questioning and criticizing those in power -- activity that is,
without question, protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. We
should not fear prosecution when we lawfully exercise our constitutionally protected freedom of
speech.
We have seen Chief Eddie Garcia's San Jose Police Department nearly castrate a peaceful protester
with rubber bullets. DA Jeff Rosen hasn't charged the police officers who perpetrated that
attack. We have seen police in this county unlawfully detain and force a young Mercury News
reporter down to the ground for a number of minutes while she was engaged in constitutionally
protected newsgathering activities (she was covering the protests in San Jose). Jeff Rosen's
DA's Office has not prosecuted any of those officers. Over two years have passed since a cadre
of Palo Alto Police Officers violently assaulted and a gay Latino resident, covered up the
incident, failed to include any mention of use of force their reports, and did so without realzing
their actions were captured on the resident's home surveillance camera (the officers slammed
the handcuffed man's face into the windshield of his car and the sergeant later mocked the man
for being gay). DA Jeff Rosen hasn't charged any of the officers and instead fought tooth and
nail to charge the victim in the case (all charges against the man were dropped when a judge
ruled the police violated the man's constitutional rights when they unlawfully detained and
arrested him in his own driveway).
There are a number of disturbing recent incidents where DA Jeff Rosen has continued to use his
position of power and authority as the District Attorney and has used the legal system to
attempt to silence those who exercise their constitutionally protected freedom of speech and
expression in the form of questioning and/or criticizing the actions of public officials. Just a
couple short months ago, a public defender in Santa Clara County by the name of Sajid Khan
wrote a blog post - an activity that, without question, is constitutionally protected. In his blog
post, he demanded sweeping criminal-justice reform and encouraged readers to consider the
role that prosecutors play in perpetuating racial bias and police brutality. In response, DA Jeff
Rosen vindictively placed Kahn in his figurative crosshairs. DA Jeff Rosen emailed his staff,
feigned fear by mischaracterizing Kahn's blog post as a threat, and engaged in a course of
conduct that was clearly intended to abuse various legal processes and to punish and silence
Khan for his constitutionally protected exercise of freedom of speech that was critical of
prosecutors and Jeff Rosen's office.
We are in the United States of America. Just like you, me, and everyone else, Alan is entitled to
the presumption of innocence. In Alan's case, I can say that there are one or more
law enforcement officers directly involved who have serious credibility issues. The investigation
in this case was apparently spearheaded by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office - the law
enforcement agency headed by the county's top law enforcement officer, Sheriff Laurie Smith.
This is the same Sheriff Laurie Smith who just recently refused to testify in a grand jury
indictment into allegations of public corruption involving allegations of public corruption relating
to donations to Sheriff Smith's reelection campaign and concealed weapon permit issuance in
this county. And, there are very serious credibility issues with at least one of the Sheriff's
Office peace officers directly involved in Alan's case. One of the involved sergeants from the
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office put information in a past police report (in an unrelated case)
that was clearly incorrect. Specifically, in a recent unrelated case, that sergeant wrote detailed
information in a police report about what he claimed to have observed in a surveillance video
(which, if true, would have not surprisingly implicated the defendant in that case in criminalactivity). However, when that sergeant testified in court, he was presented with that same
video footage, which clearly failed to match-up with the description of the footage, as written in
the police report. And, when that sergeant was cross-examined by the defense, he eventually
conceded that the information he wrote in his report was incorrect.
Jeff Rosen's District Attorney's Office had an annual budget of around $140 million. Apparently
more of this abundance of our taxpayer money needs to be better spent in the form of training
Jeff Rosen about the United States Constitution, including the First Amendment and the
freedom of speech.
I would say that Alan looks forward to his day in court to further expose the injustices we are
currently witnessing. But, he doesn't want to be in court. He wants to be at home with his
family, where he belongs. He should have never been in court.