Sheng Thao Trial: Former Oakland Employee Alleges ‘Far-Reaching’ Conspiracy
Former Oakland city staffers took the stand in Sheng Thao’s corruption trial on Thursday, testifying about the inner workings of the various departments that advance potential housing projects, like the one alleged to be at the center of a sprawling bribery scheme.
LaTonda Simmons, who served as Oakland’s assistant city administrator during Thao’s mayoral administration, and Jestin Johnson, who Thao named city administrator in May 2023, also testified about the city’s dealings with potential contractors, including Evolutionary Homes, the housing startup founded by defendants in the case, David Duong and his son Andy Duong.
The Duongs, along with Thao and her former romantic partner Andre Jones, are facing bribery, conspiracy and fraud charges for an alleged quid pro quo in which the Duongs purportedly pledged to support Thao’s 2022 mayoral campaign and a no-show job for Jones. In exchange, Thao would allegedly pursue a city contract with Evolutionary Homes and extend an existing contract with the Duongs’ other company, California Waste Solutions.
Prosecutors also allege that Thao agreed to elevate city staffers to director-level positions at the request of the Duongs and their co-conspirator-turned FBI informant, Mario Juarez.
Simmons told the court that after she was fired as the assistant city administrator in June 2025, after 20 years working for the city of Oakland, she wrote and handed over to the Justice Department a document detailing what she believes was a vast conspiracy by city officials during Thao’s administration to consolidate control of all of the city’s homelessness funding into one department.
“You wrote up this treatise … of people you thought were part of a cabal that was trying to merge departments, correct?” Shawn Halbert, Jones’ defense attorney, asked Simmons. She agreed that she did.
“You decided this was a much more far-reaching conspiracy than even the government was alleging,” Halbert said.
“I did believe that, yes,” Simmons told the court.
Simmons testified that she believed former interim City Administrator Harold Duffey and Johnson — both named as witnesses in the ongoing trial — were part of the conspiracy, and that multiple other city staffers had been “secretly recruited amid a ploy to merge the city’s Housing and Community Development Department with the Community Homelessness Services program, which was under the Human Services Department.
The consolidation, which was included in Thao’s May 2023 budget proposal, was not ultimately enacted.
Simmons also accused Duffey and Johnson of being untruthful in certain interactions with her.
Specifically, she referenced an interview she and Duffey both attended while he was interim city administrator with an employee who “had lodged a complaint of sexual harassment.”
Her statements related to the content of that meeting were stricken from the record by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rodriguez.
Johnson, who was terminated this summer over allegations of inappropriate text messages about female colleagues, took the stand around noon. He told the court that Thao asked him to meet with David and Andy Duong in late 2023, and to tour Evolutionary Homes in January 2024. He said she did not ask him to visit any other homelessness operations.
Thao’s attorney Jeff Tsai used his cross-examination to point out that the introductory meetings were typical for a new city administrator, especially given David Duong’s role as a city contractor: “[Thao] introduced you to David Duong in his capacity as the CEO of [California Waste Solutions].”
He also suggested that going on such a tour was not unusual, and that after, Thao didn’t ask him to pursue a deal to purchase housing units from Evolutionary Homes.
“After this text on Jan. 8, [2024], the mayor never discussed Evolutionary Homes with you?” Tsai asked. “I do not recall,” Johnson said.
He’ll return to the stand on Friday morning, before Juarez is expected to begin what could be one of the government’s most pivotal testimonies.