The Not-So-Shocking Fall of “America’s Sheriff”

Everybody loves a good corruption scandal. And the federal indictment debacle breaking open in the life of OC Sheriff Mike Carona (also naming his wife and his alleged mistress) has the makings of a doozy. Thus far, the story has the LA Times and the Orange County Register tripping over themselves in trying to scoop each other with each eyebrow-raising installment.

But both the Times and the OC Reg are reporters-come-lately to this party. It was Scott Moxley at the OC Weekly who has been way out ahead on the Carona story—back when everyone else was still fawning over Carona as “America’s Sheriff.”

Turns out that Moxley and the OC Weekly were right. (Some examples of Moxley’s past reporting here, here, here, and here).

As Carona’s former “brothers for life,” co-conspirators Donald Haidl and George H. Jaramillo, race to make deals in return for ratting out the sheriff, and nearly everyone who courted his favor, is now calling for his resignation, Moxley has yet another take on the scandal in this week’s paper. Here are the opening few ‘graphs:

Besides the $700 million-per-year budget and the right to boss around 4,000 underlings, the sheriff of Orange County enjoys an undeniable perk: Everybody wants to be his friend. A weak individual with deep, unresolved emotional issues would have a hard time resisting the temptations of this weighty job. Members of the opposite sex go wide-eyed over the gold stars on his shirt collar, the badge over his chest and the pistol in his holster. Businessmen with massive yachts and private planes seek an association to enhance their reputations, or to gain secret use of departmental spy equipment. In the hope of obstructing justice, crooks are willing to pay for dinners, drinks, luxury vehicles and vacations, or simply offer old-fashioned cash bribes.

Sadly, Michael S. Carona is a deeply flawed individual. This week, the U.S. Attorney’s office, in conjunction with the FBI and a federal grand jury, threw a 10-count corruption indictment at Carona, two of his former assistant sheriffs, his wife and one of his numerous mistresses. Except for a few of us who never bought Carona’s glad-handing, cheap smiles and constant lies, the indictment is a tsunami for Orange County government, politics and law enforcement.

In a world of constant scandal, this still qualifies as major national news. Carona is chummy with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who once openly considered the sheriff as a possible lieutenant-governor running mate. President George W. Bush appointed him to an elite national-security advisory board—though he has no anti-terrorist training, associates with organized-crime figures and has never made an arrest in his life. Way before anyone was willing to listen to OC Weekly’s lone drumbeat, CNN’s Larry King anointed Carona “America’s sheriff,” and the local media abandoned watchdog roles to treat his word as gospel.

Carona is nothing if not an opportunist. Before the wind could change direction after the national TV exposure, Carona ignited rumors of a planned challenge to U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer. National publications wondered if he was the future of the California Republican Party. The sheriff even sought Hollywood studios willing to feature him in a weekly crime-fighting reality show. He began traveling—at taxpayer expense—with an army of bodyguards that would rival the head of state of a small European nation. Department helicopters became aerial limousines for dates with women. He reneged on more than a dozen campaign promises. During his first election in 1998, Carona guaranteed he would serve no more than two four-year terms because it wasn’t healthy for one person to hold such a powerful job any longer.

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Our sheriff is, of course, an extraordinary skillful liar. If one-tenth of the allegations contained in the 29-page indictment are true, a devious chameleon has been running our county’s criminal-justice system.

(photo from KCET)