Police group presents $11,000 check to family of slain San Jose woman

By Jessie Mangaliman and Sean Webby

One note on an index card said, "I wish I can afford to give more." Another card in the giant stack said, "My deepest sorrow for your loss." Sokhim Sann, standing outside her East San Jose home, clutched them all to her chest and fought back the tears.

In the weeks since Sann's niece Sany San, 46, was slain in what police say is one of San Jose's most horrific attacks in recent years, kind wishes and checks had been flooding the San Jose Police Officers Association. Friday morning, association officials presented Sann with the cards and, in a flooring gesture, a check for $11,000.

"I'm moved and happy that people care," Sann said, accepting the donation on behalf of her sister, Muykeh Him, 64, San's mother, who lives in western Cambodia.

Bobby Lopez, president of the police association, said his organization received hundreds of donations, from $5 to $100, many of them accompanied by handwritten notes. The San Jose woman's shocking death touched a nerve throughout the community. In addition to the outpouring of generosity, hundreds of people also turned out for San's memorial service late last month.

"Cops don't just leave the scene of a crime," Lopez said. "We have compassion. We have to be able as human beings to provide and give something back to the city."

Sann's 26-year-old son, Dararith Kim, said the money will be wired to San's ailing mother, and two siblings in Cambodia - a sister, Sochiata Him, 30, and a brother, Chancoma Him, 28

who live in a decrepit farmhouse in Battambang, in western Cambodia. The siblings are seasonal farm workers. The money will pay for health care for San's mother, and improvements to the farmhouse, Kim said.

San, a seamstress, emigrated from Cambodia four years ago to earn a better living for her impoverished family. Her dream, Kim said, was to save enough to help her family pay for home improvements.

San had survived the genocidal rampage of the Khmer Rouge - a regime that killed 3 million people in the 1970s. But her family, like many in Cambodia, endured great hardships, including starvation and death in forced-labor camps. San's father and four of her siblings died during the Khmer Rouge rule, which ended in 1979.

Early July 22, a Sunday, San was walking from her aunt's house in East San Jose, on her way to catch a bus to her job at a doughnut shop near Palo Alto. Police say two homeless men approached her, looking to rob her. The men then beat and dragged her behind bushes, raped her, then stabbed her repeatedly, leaving her to die, police said.

Two men are in custody, awaiting a hearing on charges of kidnapping, murder and rape.

"This is one of the most violent and senseless crimes we've seen in years," Lopez said. "People care very much about what happened."

For that reason, Lopez said, the association, which represents San Jose's police officers and has raised more than $100,000 on behalf of victims since 2006, chose to collect money for San's family. The Santa Clara County Victim Witness Assistance Center also pitched in $7,500, to help with funeral expenses.

"We don't know where we would be if people had not helped us," Kim said. "It's just overwhelming for me and my mother, and we can't say enough thank yous to everyone who helped."