Justice delayed

A top lobbyist for San Diego business interests has switched jobs, but as is traditional with the city’s revolving-door politics, he hasn’t wandered too far from home. Sean Karafin, formerly registered as an influence peddler for the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, has moved over to the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, where he is now registered to lobby under the official title of executive director of public policy and economic research. Karafin was briefly interim CEO at the taxpayers association when that group’s previous honcho, Felipe Monroig, went to city hall to become a deputy chief of staff for Republican mayor Kevin Faulconer. “We are very fortunate to be in a position to attract top talent to the Chamber team,” ex–mayor Jerry Sanders, a Faulconer insider who now runs the chamber, said of Karafin in a news release.

Those awaiting the final denouement of San Diego’s biggest campaign-finance violation since Republican mayor Roger Hedgecock went down in 1985 will just have to be patient. That’s the word from the federal courthouse where prosecutors and lawyers for Jose Susumo Azano Matsura, Ravneet Singh and his political consulting firm, and Marco Polo Cortez have agreed to once more delay their pleadings.

“The case involves significant factual and legal complexity,” notes a recent court order to exempt the proceedings from the federal speedy trial act. “The charges include two conspiracies, in Counts One and Two, of which the former is a multi-object conspiracy. The charges also include offenses under Title 2 of the United States Code, 24 which are infrequent in this district and necessitate time for additional legal research by the defense. There are four defendants, and the charges cover a wide range of offense conduct, with some alleged conduct beginning on a date unknown to the grand jury and other alleged conduct occurring as recently as January 2014.” Next motions in the matter are now set for July, with a trial date possibly a year or more away.