Derry Pleads Not Guilty After Judge Declines to Dismiss Felony Charges

San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry pleaded not guilty to felony perjury and failure to report a contribution on Thursday after a judge denied his request to dismiss the charges.

Derry, the third district supervisor, appeared before Judge Michael Dest who had considered a demurrer that sought to have the case dismissed.

The next hearing is scheduled for July 19. A preliminary hearing is tentatively set for July 21.

Derry will continue to be free on his own recognizance, but will have to report to the Central Detention Center in San Bernardino by July 7 to be booked and released.

In April, the State Attorney General’s office charged Derry with felony perjury and filing campaign documents that failed to report a $5,000 contribution from Arnold Stubblefield-Highland Town Shops.

Officials said Derry knowingly submitted a campaign report with the omission. Officials also said he failed to report Stubblefield as a contributor, which is a misdemeanor.

While they were disappointed the demurrer was not granted, Derry attorney George Newhouse said they were not surprised. Demurrer’s are rarely granted, he said. In that document, the supervisor and his attorneys argued that no laws were broken.

“We believe the facts and the law are very clear that there was no violation of the campaign contribution reporting requirements,” Newhouse said.

“The felony counts are utterly without basis and we are going to vigorously attack those counts in the upcoming preliminary hearing,” he continued.

The heart of the case is a $5,000 contribution made by Stubblefield to the Inland Empire Political Action Campaign. Neither the prosecution nor the defense argues that the developer sought to donate to Derry’s campaign.

Prosecutors claim that Derry laundered the money through the IEPAC and failed to report the contribution and its contributor. They claim Derry understood it would go to his campaign.

Not true, Derry said. In reality, he asked for the donation be provided directly to his campaign. Stubblefield declined because they did not want to appear on campaign records.

Derry said Stubblefield asked how to support him. Derry told him the IEPAC was “probably” going to support his campaign, according to court documents. There was never an agreement that the money would be given to the supervisor's campaign, Newhouse said.

Newhouse called the charges absurd and preposterous and said the whole case reeked of politics.

“This is the District Attorney (Mike) Ramos, who’s aligned with Supervisor Derry’s adversary in the upcoming election,” Newhouse said. “And they are improperly using the criminal process to achieve a political end.”

“We’re confident at the end of the day, Supervisor Derry will be exonnerated,” Newhouse said.