Sword-wielding owner of Bay Area “squatter removal” service to stand trial on assault, burglary, gun charges

By Carlos E. Castañeda

The owner of a San Francisco-based “squatter removal” service to evict tenants outside of the court system or eviction proceedings, along with his associate, were ordered to stand trial on multiple felonies after five people were forced out of a San Bruno home in the middle of the night in January.

The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that 40-year-old James Jacobs, owner of ASAP Squatter Removal, and 40-year-old Arthur Gutierrez Jr., will be tried on charges of assault, burglary, false imprisonment and gun charges after a two-day hearing this week. Superior Court Judge Renee Reyna dismissed kidnapping charges against the two after finding the evidence insufficient on those two counts, the DA’s Office said.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges and are currently out of custody on $50,000 bail. A third defendant, identified as 39-year-old Angelmike Va Regalado, was not in court and has an outstanding $50,000 arrest warrant, the office said. 

The charges stem from a Jan. 6 incident at a home on Allen Drive in San Bruno, just east of Skyline College, where five tenants of a single-family house were accosted at 2:30 a.m. by seven armed intruders who used a battering ram to enter the home, prosecutors said. 

One man had been living there for 45 years and had continued to live there with his family after his mother, who owned the home, died and the property was sold. The DA’s Office said eviction proceedings had not yet started. 

The new homeowner had contracted with ASAP Squatter Removal to clear squatters from the house on a “don’t ask, don’t tell” basis, according to media notes from District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe. The homeowner had leased the home to an employee of ASAP Squatter Removal, which gave them residency rights over the property; the company then acted on behalf of the lessee and new owner to force the residents out, according to Wagstaffe.   

ASAP Squatter Removal advertises fast removal of “unwanted occupants without the delays of traditional eviction” for clients in Northern California. The company’s website says it removes tenants “quickly and legally while ensuring you are never liable for our actions. Included among the instructions given to potential clients is “Don’t ask about our methods – The less you know, the safer you are.”

Jacobs is featured prominently on his company’s website and YouTube channel, often wielding a katana, a traditional Japanese sword, and boasting of his martial arts and weapons training. In a recent radio interview with KIRO Newsradio 97.3 in Seattle, Jacobs said if a tenant wants to use force, whether using fists or weapons, his associates will match the force accordingly. 

“If somebody comes at you with a knife, what’s great about the katana is that we can do defensive strikes,” Jacobs said on The John Curley Show. “We can go for the limb, we can hit you in the arm, we can take out your legs, we can actually do strikes that will eliminate the combat, completely eliminate combat, without having to actually get into the attempted murder, manslaughter kind of thing scenario.”

Squatter removal services are a burgeoning industry in California, as eviction proceedings can take months, and police will often treat squatter disputes as civil matters. 

Under California law, private companies have no authority to evict occupants, and using force or intimidation can expose those companies to civil or criminal charges. Squatter removal companies instead have their representatives move into the property after the owner leases it to them, and/or negotiate with occupants and pressure them to leave voluntarily.

“I believe Mr. Jacobs and his company serve a need in an area of the law where homeowners have difficulty in using the courts to address the problem of squatters,” said his attorney, Jai Gohel, in an email to CBS News Bay Area. ‘We hope that a jury will see it the same way.”

Jacobs and Gutierrez were scheduled for arraignment in San Mateo County Superior Court on March 18.