San Jose Police Union’s Fentanyl ‘Grandma’ Case Takes a Turn

The federal drug smuggling case against Joanna Segovia, the “grandmother” of the San Jose police union, has taken a surprising turn.

A criminal complaint filed against Segovia last year accused her of, among other things, attempting to smuggle fentanyl into the Bay Area. But at a hearing Thursday – in a case dragged on by repeated delays – lead federal prosecutor Joseph Tartakovsky said later tests of an intercepted package that initially found fentanyl were incorrect.

“The government has concluded that the test was a mistake,” Tartakovsky said at the hearing.

Thursday's development means the case will proceed without the fentanyl-related charges, potentially weakening the case against Segovia.

She pleaded not guilty on Thursday, and another hearing was scheduled for October 8, presided over by Judge Eumi K. Lee.

The information replaces authorities' 13-page criminal complaint against Segovia from March 2023, which detailed several years of activities that investigators said were consistent with the shipping and receiving of illegal drugs.

Tartakovsky's testimony shocked spectators in the courtroom on Thursday, but Segovia's lawyer, Adam Gasner, said he was glad the government had admitted “what we always knew to be the truth.”

“This case is not a fentanyl case, it never was a fentanyl case,” Gasner told reporters outside the courthouse. “There were errors in the testing that originally led to the complaint saying the drug was fentanyl. Of course, fentanyl is a sensitive word in our communities and a serious situation that provokes many emotional reactions – often for very good reason.”

Segovia was the police union's office manager until she was fired on federal charges in April of last year. She was nabbed last year as part of a broader Department of Homeland Security investigation into an international drug smuggling network in the Bay Area.

At the heart of the fentanyl indictment was a package marked “Watch” – sent from China and addressed to Segovia – that was seized by federal agents in Kentucky and initially found to contain valeryl fentanyl.

The case has dragged on due to more than a dozen requests for extensions. Will Edelman, Segovia's original attorney, recently withdrew from the case due to health and personal reasons and was replaced by attorney Adam Gasner.

In March 2023, federal authorities accused Segovia of using her home and office computers to order thousands of opioid and other pills to her home and agreeing to distribute the drugs in other parts of the U.S. In at least one case, she used the police union's UPS account and return address to send a package to North Carolina that investigators believe was a drug shipment.

Investigators said Segovia lied to them when confronted and tried to blame the whole plot on her housekeeper. Segovia was placed on paid leave the month she was charged, when the union was notified of the investigation by federal officials, and searched her office and home. Investigators said they found pills at both locations. In her office, they seized 283 tapentadol tablets, another synthetic opioid.

Between July 2019 and January 2023, officials intercepted shipments to her home from China, Hungary, India and other countries and “found them to contain thousands of pills of controlled substances, including the synthetic opioids tramadol and tapentadol.” Some of the packages contained thousands of dollars' worth of drugs.

Segovia allegedly used encrypted WhatsApp communications for the logistics of the pills. Between January 2020 and March 2023, according to the indictment, Segovia exchanged hundreds of messages with someone using a phone with an Indian country code to discuss shipping and payment details for the pills.

When investigators confronted her about her involvement, she initially tried to deny that she had ever ordered anything other than supplements, claiming to be “working for the police.” She also refused to give investigators any insight into her CashApp transactions.

In a subsequent interview with investigators, officials said she lied and tried to shift the blame onto a woman she described as a “family friend and housekeeper” who had a drug problem. Segovia's CashApp account was used for 127 transactions that investigators said were likely for drug purchases and was linked to her police union email account.

A photo sent from her WhatsApp account in June 2021 shows an HP computer monitor that appears to be Segovia's monitor at work. The monitor shows a receipt from the PayPal website for $999.99 sent to an entity with an “obviously Indian name,” the complaint says.

“Several items are visible in the area in front of the monitor, including a San Jose Police Officers' Association letter opener with a business card with Segovia's name on it and notes with obvious POA-related codes,” the complaint states.

Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.