Former El Cajon City Councilmember Bessmon “Ben” Kalasho and his wife were back in San Diego Superior Court this week trying to convince a judge to delay a pair of 8-day jail they received in a civil case last year.
It didn’t work.
The husband-and-wife defendants, who last month represented themselves in an unrelated code-enforcement lawsuit filed by the city of El Cajon, are required to turn themselves in to San Diego Superior Court on June 9 to begin serving their sentences.
The Kalashos, who also are representing themselves in the long-running civil case accusing them of defamation and other claims, asked Judge Wendy M. Behan to postpone the custody time in light of what they said was new evidence.
The judge heard the argument at a Wednesday hearing and rejected the application.
If the defendants do not surrender to the court next month, they are subject to arrest and incarceration any time they come in with law enforcement — as well as additional penalties for failure to appear.
The Kalashos, who left San Diego several years ago and now make their home in North Carolina and in Dubai, did not respond to a request for comment.
Ben Kalasho was elected to the El Cajon City Council in 2016 but resigned in 2019 amid a flurry of criticism from council colleagues and constituents. Among other things, Kalasho voted on matters involving of a for-profit business group he established.
The couple was sued in 2017 and accused of defamation and other claims by a restaurant, a former beauty queen and San Diego attorney Lina Charry. More specifically, they were accused of creating fake social media posts that damaged the reputations of the plaintiffs.
The other plaintiffs settled their claims or won judgments, but Charry refused to settle hers. Last year, she convinced a judge that the Kalashos were not litigating in good faith, and the defendants were sentenced to eight days in San Diego County jail.
But the couple failed to appear, and warrants were issued for their arrests. The San Diego City Attorney’s Office, which had authority to exercise the warrants due to the offense occurring in a San Diego courtroom, never moved to enforce the bench warrants.
Kalasho won a stay of the warrants so that he could represent himself in a civil dispute brought by the city of El Cajon, which accused him of making unpermitted improvements to a home he owns on Cliffdale Road.
A decision in that case has yet to be entered. The judge asked both sides to submit summary briefs later this month, and a ruling will be issued after that.
