A man allegedly threw rocks at the glass doors and windows of a downtown San Jose courthouse last Sunday, causing damage that the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office estimates at close to $90,000. Deputies caught up with the suspect near the courthouses after a short chase and booked him into jail on felony vandalism charges.
According to KRON4, deputies responded to a report of a man throwing rocks at glass doors and windows at the Family Justice Courthouse at 201 North First Street last Sunday. The same suspect is also accused of vandalizing planter boxes in front of the adjacent Superior Courthouse at 191 North First Street. A court security guard provided investigating deputies with footage of the suspect, which helped lead to his capture near the courthouses that day.
The Sheriff's Office has not shared the suspect's identity. He was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on charges of felony vandalism and violating probation, per the station's report.
Two Courthouses, One Judicial Complex
The Family Justice Center Courthouse opened in August 2016 as an eight-story, 233,695-square-foot facility with 20 courtrooms handling family law, juvenile dependency, and drug court matters, according to Superior Court of California. Next door, the Downtown Superior Court at 191 North First Street houses courtrooms 1 through 16, handling civil, probate, and small claims cases, per the Superior Court of California. Together, the two adjoining buildings form the primary state trial court complex in downtown San Jose.
Physical security, access screening, and perimeter surveillance across all Superior Court facilities in the county fall under the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office Court Security Division, which is why sheriff's deputies, not city police, led the response and investigation. The suspect was booked at the Santa Clara County Main Jail Complex at 150 West Hedding Street, a facility that processes roughly 30,000 bookings a year and has a capacity of 1,084 detainees.
Not the First Time These Courthouses Were Targeted
This is not the first felony vandalism spree to hit the same courthouse complex. In January 2022, Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputies arrested a 37-year-old man in connection with a multi-facility vandalism spree that also targeted the Family Justice Center Courthouse and Downtown Superior Court, along with police and probation buildings — a case in which surveillance footage similarly helped identify the suspect.
High-dollar felony vandalism has drawn broader scrutiny in Santa Clara County courts recently. In May, a judge ordered District Attorney Jeff Rosen's office to recuse itself from a $100,000-plus protest-related vandalism trial tied to damage at Stanford University, citing campaign fundraising concerns, as San José Spotlight reported — a case Hoodline covered in Rosen's fight to keep the case. Separately, San Jose authorities arrested a suspect in February in connection with a series of South Bay property destruction incidents totaling $200,000 in damage, including an $80,000 single vandalism count involving a railroad trestle, according to Hoodline's own reporting on the case.
Felony Threshold and Potential Penalties
Under California Penal Code Section 594, vandalism becomes a felony once property damage reaches or exceeds $400, giving prosecutors discretion to pursue felony charges rather than a misdemeanor, according to the Law Office of Zak Fisher. A felony conviction under the statute can carry up to three years in county jail, formal probation, and fines as high as $10,000. The law also mandates full court-ordered restitution upon conviction, requiring a defendant to pay the actual cost of repairing or replacing damaged property — separate from any criminal fines.
The San Jose Police Department expanded staffing within its Gang Investigations Unit in late 2025 specifically to address escalating public and private property vandalism across the city, reflecting a broader local enforcement priority around quality-of-life crimes. It remains unclear what motivated last Sunday's alleged attack on the courthouses, and the Sheriff's Office has not released the suspect's name or scheduled arraignment date.
