There is so much evidence in this case - secret cellphone videos, text messages, massive computer files - and more. The judge thought they could get the trial done in five weeks, but now, it's looking more like six.
The owner of the recycling company serving Oakland and parts of San Jose, California Waste Solutions, David Duong walked into federal court with his son, Andy, seeing the mountain of evidence against them. They're accused of engaging in a bribery and corruption scheme with former Mayor Sheng Thao and her partner, Andre Jones.
The prosecution introduced a list of more than 1,700 exhibits, but Friday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told them to pair it down to 300. She later eased up and allowed 500 items.
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Dan Noyes: "Does that surprise you, that she's going to limit them that much?"
Steven Clark, legal analyst: "Well, the court has to recognize that this trial can't go on forever."
Former prosecutor Steven Clark is now a legal analyst, and he said, "What the court is saying to the government is this evidence needs to be pared down, go back to the drawing board, come back with a more realistic evidence list, as well as potential witness list."
The Duongs had a side business, Evolutionary Homes, that turned shipping containers into shelter for the homeless. They're accused of bribing Thao and giving her partner a no-show job, and promising a percentage of every $300,000 container home purchased by the city of Oakland.
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The Duongs' partner in Evolutionary Homes, Mario Juarez, already pled guilty in the case and will testify for the prosecution, as will former San Leandro Councilmember Bryan Azevedo.
We interviewed him last year, before his indictment in the federal corruption and bribery case.
Noyes: "Was there some arrangement between you and the Duongs in terms of 'we'll give you a percentage if you sell X number of units?'"
Bryan Azevedo: "I don't remember nothing, no."
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Now, he's admitted accepting a $2,000 bribe and conspiring to help the Duongs sell the container homes to the city. They never did.
Also Friday, the judge ruled that cellphone videos referring to reported sexual activity by Azevedo and others during a Duong-sponsored trade mission to Vietnam will not be part of this case.
Clark said, "The salacious nature of some of this evidence has a chance of having a spillover effect on the defendants that don't have anything to do with it."
The judge did allow the defense to exclude evidence that Sheng Thao and her partner, Andre Jones, falsified a lease for their Oakland Hills home, by faking his current employment and salary. Now, Judge Gonzalez-Rogers is asking all sides in this case to meet and confer, to streamline the evidence to be heard "on their own", before she gets further involved.