OAKLAND — A longtime Oakland political activist was assaulted in two separate incidents in May and June, including one at an address searched by the FBI last week as part of a wide-ranging investigation involving Oakland Mayor Shen Tao.
Authorities say Mario Juarez was shot at his home in the 1800 block of Fruitvale Avenue on June 9. The suspect escaped injury in the shooting, but the incident remains under investigation. No arrests have been announced.
The attack came roughly a month after Juarez was assaulted at 1211 Embarcadero, the same location where FBI and IRS agents raided the offices of California Waste Solutions on June 20, his lawyer, Ernie Castillo, confirmed Friday. He described Juarez’s injuries in the incident as “serious,” but no further information was available about his current condition.
“This was definitely an attempt to kill Mario,” Castillo said in an interview, who declined to speculate on a motive for the attack, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Juarez is a longtime political activist who has run twice for Oakland City Council and whose recent campaigns have drawn the attention of Alameda County prosecutors and state political watchdogs.
In January, Alameda County prosecutors charged Juarez with fraud stemming from campaign ads he allegedly orchestrated to target Tao’s main political opponent, Lauren Taylor, in the final 10 days of the 2022 mayoral election. Juarez’s attack ads also targeted mayoral candidate Ignacio de la Fuente and former Mayor Libby Schaaf.
Prosecutors say Juarez wrote a check for about $53,600 to an Oakland direct-mail company to distribute flyers, but the check bounced because he had less than $215 in his bank account at the time, according to court records. Juarez has since pleaded not guilty.
The Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating the mailings after Juarez ignored warnings that he had not filed disclosure documents detailing the source of his funds as required by state law.
Samari Johnson, owner of Butterfly Direct Marketing, said the impact of the bounced check was immediate and devastating. The postal service severed ties with her company, a blow that nearly forced her family-owned business out of business, she said.
Johnson said this all amounts to a “brutal injustice,” especially considering Juarez kept asking the company for updates as he distributed an estimated 120,000 fliers before the election. Juarez repeatedly stressed how important it was to distribute the fliers because it would affect the mayoral election, and that it was “important that Shen Tao win and make Oakland a better place,” Johnson said.
“It’s very stressful,” Johnson told the paper. “We’ve been in business for 41 years and we’ve never had an issue like this.”
Juarez was unavailable for comment, but his lawyer, Castillo, said his client was innocent and the charges were “politically motivated and unfortunate.”
“If we must fight this case, we will do everything we can to prove his innocence, including exposing the vicious conditions in Oakland politics that led to the charges being brought against him,” Castillo said.
Over the past few decades, Juarez has founded or run a number of businesses specializing in debt collection, entertainment, clean energy and real estate, many of which are now out of business.
At the same time, county records show regulators have filed at least $96,000 worth of state and federal tax liens against him since 2015. As of earlier this week, at least three state liens remained unpaid and the status of a $79,000 federal lien remained unclear. He also had his real estate license surrendered in 2015 amid allegations of fraudulent business practices.
