Ex-Santa Clara Vice Mayor Anthony Becker officially filed his notice of appeal today, kicking off a process that could reaffirm or reverse his conviction for leaking an explosive civil grand jury report about the San Francisco 49ers and then lying about it under oath.

In December, a jury found Becker guilty of felony perjury and violating his duty as a government official. He was sentenced to 40 days in a county jail work program earlier this month and issued his first public apology “to the people of Santa Clara for this long ordeal.”

No information was immediately available in regards to what grounds Becker plans to appeal the case on, which will be heard in the Sixth District Court of Appeal. One legal expert previously told the Mercury News that his attorneys might argue that the judge should have let them present evidence to the jury that someone else could have been the source of the leak.

“Unsportsmanlike Conduct,” the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report in question, leaked several days before it was set to become public ahead of the November 2022 Santa Clara mayoral election, for which Becker was a candidate. The report accused members of the City Council, including Becker, of getting too cozy with lobbyists from the 49ers — the NFL team that plays at the publicly owned Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

Rahul Chandhok, the former chief of communications for the 49ers, testified at trial that Becker leaked him the report. The jury also found Becker guilty of leaking the report to a local news outlet.

Ahead of the trial, Becker’s attorneys were building a case that someone else leaked the report and that he was being selectively prosecuted by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

“We have reason to believe, based on the evidence disclosed by the government, that someone other than Mr. Becker leaked the grand jury report to the San Francisco Chronicle among other possible sources,” deputy public defender Christopher Montoya and Grant Fondo and Hayes Hyde of Goodwin Law Firm said in a statement to The Mercury News last year. “To our knowledge, the government did not pursue that particular leak. We believe determining who leaked the report is important to this case.”

Last year, Becker’s attorneys subpoenaed Mayor Lisa Gillmor, who Becker tried to unseat in 2022, and then-Councilmember Kathy Watanabe and her husband, Karl Watanabe. Many of the subpoenas were quashed, with Deputy District Attorney Jason Malinsky accusing Becker at the time of using “the court to investigate his political adversaries and media organizations he perceives as unfriendly to him.”

A judge ultimately ruled that Becker couldn’t use the argument that other individuals leaked the report. Throughout the trial, the prosecution objected to questions from the defense that sought to answer who else had access to the report before it was public.

Before the jury deliberated back in December, Becker’s legal team filed two separate last-minute motions requesting that Superior Court Judge Javier Alcala toss the case altogether. They argued that the prosecution didn’t present “substantial evidence” that Becker leaked the report, and asked for a mistrial on the “grounds that the destroyed, late discovered and excluded evidence in this case and questioning of witnesses” are prejudiced. Both attempts were quickly rejected.

Becker’s attorney and a representative from the district attorney’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

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