A retired Stanislaus County sheriff's captain accused of lying to federal investigators will return to a Fresno courtroom next week to try to get the charges against him dismissed.
Raul DeLeon, 52, of Modesto is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
DeLeon faces up to 25 years in prison and $250,000 in fees if he is convicted of lying to investigators about his relationship with retired sheriff's deputy Robert C. Holloway III, sharing sensitive information with Holloway and concealing Holloway's alleged illegal activities from law enforcement.
Holloway, 61, of Turlock was arrested with about a dozen other men, including DeLeon, in 2008 after a lengthy federal investigation involving wiretaps, surveillance and confidential informants.
Authorities say Holloway and his son, Brent Holloway, 37, of Modesto, ran a chop shop out of the Denair motorcycle business they owned and that Robert Holloway encouraged threats and violence against customers who didn't pay bills.
According to court documents, investigators began to look into Robert Holloway in 2006.
"The investigation centered around Mr. Holloway's association with outlaw motorcycle gangs, firearms offenses and trafficking in stolen motorcycles, drug trafficking and other crimes," according to a document that prosecutors filed in January.
The same year, Holloway's wife, Kathy, was fired from the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department for, according to the court filing, accessing departmental databases for Danny Dugranrut, a Hells Angels member who worked at Road Dog Cycle.
The same document quotes Robert Holloway discussing his wife's termination, expressing anger that she was let go after "26 years of exemplary employment" and that she had simply looked up information about trouble that Dugranrut's son was in at school.
Because of the allegations against Kathy Holloway, prosecutors wrote, members of the Central Valley Gang Impact Task Force became concerned that their investigation was being compromised.
"As the investigation progressed, it became apparent that there were 'leaks' in the investigation, i.e., that information about law enforcement's strategies and activities was reaching Robert Holloway and his associates through unauthorized channels," the court document says.
Transcript details phone calls
On Sept. 7, 2007, authorities received permission from a federal judge to set up a wiretap to monitor certain telephones associated with Robert Holloway.
About a week later, on Sept. 19, investigators overheard several conversations about a "friendly" traffic stop DeLeon made on Robert Holloway near Keyes and Geer roads, during which, prosecutors wrote, DeLeon hugged Holloway and chatted with him before the men drove off.
Prosecutors include a transcript in their document describing a phone call they say Holloway made to his wife to tell her about the traffic stop.
Based on the "content and tone" of the conversation, and to find out if DeLeon was responsible for leaking information to Holloway, investigators served DeLeon with a state grand jury subpoena Oct. 15, 2007. The subpoena, to testify before the grand jury in December 2007, asked him to bring with him documents related to Kathy Holloway's employment.
The next day, prosecutors say Holloway called DeLeon about 3:50 p.m. about a search at Dugranrut's home in Keyes. According to a transcript in the court document, Holloway asked DeLeon to find out who was conducting the search. Holloway also said he would cooperate with investigators to help Dugranrut turn himself in, if authorities wanted that.
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