Former SF Supervisor Ed Jew fighting return to jail

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- ABC7 News has learned that disgraced fo$rmer San Francisco supervisor Ed Jew is back home again after serving time on federal extortion conviction. He's now fighting his state sentence for perjury which he is supposed to serve in county jail.

Jew was released last week after serving almost five years in federal prison. He was apparently a model inmate who taught yoga in English among his other jobs in prison.

Jew did not want to be interviewed, so his attorney spoke to ABC7 News instead.

Vic: What are your future plans when you get out?

"I'll spend more time with my daughter and my wife," former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew said.

That's what Jew told ABC7News in an exclusive interview just before he went to prison almost five years ago.

And that's exactly what his attorney says Jew is doing today.

Jew was convicted on federal bribery charges of trying to extort 80,000 from the owners of Quickly tapioca drink shops who had permit problems with the city.

Security video in Jew's Chinatown flower shop captured him accepting a bribe -- $40,000 in cash.

He didn't realize the money man was working for the FBI.

Jew served 4.5 years in federal custody, first in a minimum security prison in Arizona.

"His job was, he was driver to other people, other inmates, so he had a car and keys and he drove off the prison grounds. He had total freedom," defense lawyer Stuart Hanlon said.

Hanlon says Jew spent most of his last two years in a prison camp in California.

Jew was also convicted in state court for perjury after lying about where he lived when he ran for supervisor.

San Francisco prosecutors found that he actually resided in this home in Burlingame with his wife and daughter.

For that, he got one year in county jail, a sentence he will have to serve now that he's completed his federal prison time.

But Hanlon went to court Monday, asking the judge to be lenient and waive that sentence.

He says federal authorities sent Jew to a maximum security lockup jail for his last six months instead of a halfway house when they learned he still had to complete his county jail time.

That's all the extra punishment he needs.

District Attorney George Gascon says his position now is that Jew ought to serve time for the perjury conviction.

"I think it's important to send a clear message that the local case is also important and there's some accountability to this community that still hasn't necessarily taken place," Gascon said.

So while Ed Jew fights another court battle, what is he doing with life now that he's free for the time being?

Hanlon says he definitely won't get back into politics and he will probably work in the family flower shop business again.