May 20, 2022
SAN JOSE, California—The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced that William Gerry has been sentenced to 35 years in prison after being convicted of soliciting bribes and extorting sex from Asian massage parlor owners.
The 47-year-old former San Jose city employee was also found guilty of molesting two people years prior when they were children. Gerry worked for the city code enforcement from 2007 to 2019 and later moved to McKinney, Texas.
It was revealed Gerry received more than $140,000 from extortion victims between 2017 to 2019 and also coerced some of his victims to perform sex acts with him, reports KRON4.
“This man abused his power over some of the most vulnerable members of our community – immigrants and children,” stated District Attorney Jeff Rosen. “It is confusing and criminal when people use their trusted position of authority to hurt the people they are expected to help.”
Ex-@CityofSanJose @buildingsanjose code enforcement insp. William Gerry faces 35 years after being convicted of extorting Asian owners of health spas or massage parlors for sex, as well as for sexually assaulting 2 other victims when they were kids, per @SantaClaraDA @SanJosePD pic.twitter.com/tPfS8Tyfdb
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) March 22, 2022
Gerry was charged back in November 2020 with felony counts of extortion of the massage parlor employees and owners. In return, he protected them from police raids by giving them inside information he received from law enforcement as part of his job, according to KRON4.
Soon after the DA’s office filed charges related to extortion and sexual assault, a further investigation revealed sex abuse crimes going back decades. Eventually, two victims came forward and accused Gerry of sexually assaulting them when he was a youth group leader at their church. Another victim was Gerry’s relative, whom he molested when she was a little girl.
One of the victims, now 24, was in the courtroom Friday as Gerry was sentenced and said: “The defendant is set to serve 35 short years in prison for his crimes and even though I am thankful that he will be locked away and society will be safeguarded, for now, I cannot help but sit in the pain knowing that I am serving a life sentence because he chose to destroy my life for his own pleasure.”
Feature Screenshot via KRON4