Jurors Hear Recordings in Thao Trial; Oakland Artist Sabogal Profiled

Federal courtroom testimony in San Francisco and a spotlight on East Oakland’s visual arts community marked Wednesday’s news across the East Bay, as jurors in the trial of former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao listened to secretly recorded boardroom meetings and East Oakland artist Jess Sabogal reflected on expanding a 16-year mural and printmaking practice into three-dimensional public sculpture, according to Oct. 28, 2026 reports from NBC Bay Area and 48 Hills.

Jurors Hear 40 Minutes of Secret Recordings in Federal Trial

On Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, federal jurors in San Francisco heard approximately 40 minutes of secret audio recordings made inside board meetings at California Waste Solutions, the recycling company run by co-defendants David Duong and Andy Duong, according to Bob Redell of NBC Bay Area.

The recordings were captured by former California Waste Solutions employee Cecilia Mendez, who testified that she recorded board discussions because she was concerned that political campaign contributions were being routed through company employees and associates—a practice prosecutors describe as straw donations.

In the audio played for the jury, political operative Mario Juarez—who had partnered with the Duong family in the modular housing venture Evolutionary Homes—was heard complaining to David Duong and Andy Duong that then-Mayor Sheng Thao and her romantic partner Andre Jones were not keeping their end of a purported agreement to have the City of Oakland purchase modular housing units from Evolutionary Homes. Federal prosecutors allege that Thao, Jones, and the Duongs participated in a bribery and campaign-finance scheme tied to city recycling contracts and modular housing purchases; all 4 defendants have pleaded not guilty.

East Oakland Artist Jess Sabogal Expands From Murals to Public Sculpture

Across the Bay in East Oakland near High Street and Interstate 880, social-practice artist Jess Sabogal is preparing for a May 2027 MFA thesis exhibition at the Stanford Art Gallery, according to a profile by Mary Corbin in 48 Hills.

Born to Colombian immigrant parents at Kaiser Permanente Hospital on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco and raised in Daly City—shaped by drives along Interstate 280 and the murals along 24th Street—Sabogal began painting large-scale community murals 16 years ago and works across public art, printmaking, sculpture, photography, and ceramics to honor queer, trans, migrant, women of color, gender-nonconforming, and Indigenous communities.

"Oakland raised me as an artist, and even though much of my current studio life takes place at Stanford, this is still the city that shaped my practice," Sabogal told 48 Hills.

Four years ago, Sabogal and collaborative partner Shanna Strauss co-founded Taller SANAA on the first floor of their apartment as a shared studio for printmaking, framing, and fabrication, where they steward a 1960s Griffin etching press and also worked with the Kala Art Institute. Sabogal credits a 2012 internship with San Francisco woodworker Jared Rusten at 23rd and Bryant streets, as well as the artistic lineage of Emory Douglas, Yolanda López, Ester Hernández, Amalia Mesa-Bains, and the Mujeres Muralistas.

Now an MFA candidate in Art Practice at Stanford University (class of 2027) commuting 6 days a week to Palo Alto, Sabogal has created photographic and sculptural works—including Let the Dirt Teach Me My Name, Surrendered, Mama Leads Me Across, and La Familia (2026)—incorporating ceramics, gold leaf, bronze soil, and more than 100 hand-sanded brass components polished to a mirror finish, alongside staged photographs documenting their transition before and after top surgery. Sabogal's recent exhibitions include Unearthed, Unbound at Stanford's Coulter Gallery and Beyond The Surface: Exploring Visibility in Print at Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore, which closed in July 2026.