If we needed any more indication (which we don’t) that former OC Sheriff Mike Carona was a creep and a weasel, the recent and horrifying OC jail revelations make clear the extent of his inexcusable mismanagement.
Here’s some of what the LA Times had to say in this morning’s editorial on the subject:
Newly released grand jury transcripts provide terrifying insight into life inside Orange County jails. There is the shocking admission by one deputy that “inmates do run the jail system.” There is the callous indifference of deputies watching television and text-messaging while inmates ran amok, of deputies so committed to evading their responsibilities that they devised a code to alert one another when supervisors were coming. There is the haunting realization that while those deputies snickered and ducked their duties, an inmate was sodomized and beaten to death. And then, as has so often been the case when there is disgrace in Orange County, there are the actions of its fallen sheriff, Michael S. Carona.
Carona’s first offense was to treat the inmate’s killing as an internal matter and to fend off outside investigation. Then the Sheriff’s Department, continuing its emphasis on secrecy over safety, fought media requests for copies of the grand jury transcripts — a natural if abhorrent impulse, given that members of the department lied to the panel and tampered with witnesses, among other offenses. But it was only this week, after a judge overruled the department, that the full extent of Carona’s misuse of his office became apparent.As the transcripts reveal, on Jan. 15, Carona was summoned to the grand jury and asked to testify about the death of John Derek Chamberlain, who was brutalized and killed while deputies ignored his cries. At that session, Carona, who earlier had resigned, agreed to spell his name and to tell the truth. But when asked whether he would cooperate, Corona responded: “On advice of counsel, I respectfully wish to rely on my 5th Amendment right and decline to answer this question.” He was asked nine more times, and Corona invoked his right in each instance. Finally, he was dismissed….
Read the rest here.
“Carona has every right not to give evidence against himself, but the spectacle of a law enforcement officer using that right to thwart a public inquiry serves to remind that Carona long ago put his own interests above those of his duty and his agency. …If anything, Carona’s invocation of the right is even more dispiriting, as he used it to impede an investigation of a department he had headed.”
This guy sure sounds like scum, but it’s wrong to make him sound scummier, if that’s possible, by criticizing him for following his attorney’s advice and invoking his Constitutional right.
You can bet that if I were pulled over by the police and they asked to look in my car trunk, I would tell them that they are perfectly free to do so–after they convince a judge that they have reasonable cause and obtain a valid search warrant. All they would find is a tire, some anti-freeze, and a box of accounting papers. However, I’m not giving up rights just because someone expects me to or says that I must be hiding something if I invoke my right.
I bet that the LA Times’ attitude on the Fifth Amendment would be different if they were describing its use by some radical, flag-burning, vet-spitting, law-breaking, dirty leftist.
Let the process play itself out before implying accusations that are unfair.
Culture Clash, in their current show at South Coast Rep, has a skit that is based verbatim on the released Carona transcripts.
Pretty damning stuff.
And though they don’t like to remind you now it wasn’t so long ago that Carona was the GOP’s great latino hope and all kinds of good things were seen for him – like Governor or Senator. But this has been good news for Tony Rackakhaus – our singuarly challenged DA who rode in on a platform of not going after Republicans like former DA “Mad Dog” Capizzi did. And he was a Republican too!
What is this, Carona can NOT be a REPUBLICAN CROOK !!!!
Which goes to show that Republicans will police their own while Democrats also police only Republicans.
Here’s a case of a Democrat supporting lawlessness and demanding that enforcement be halted against the lawbreakers. Where’s the outrage?!
Villaraigosa warns ICE to back off immigration raids
Coming from someone who has defended waterboarding (aka torture), your concern about upholding the law is, to be charitable, selective.
Woody one word – Siegelman
And, sadly, the person who brought us the most incisive aspects of the Siegelman Chronicles announced his retirement from blogging today.
Is There Life After Blogging?
Siegelman is as guilty as they come. He’ll be back in the slammer after the appeals. My older sister and her husband make you guys look like Sean Hannity, and they voted against Siegelman because of his corruption.
Randy, coming from someone who condemns waterboarding, your lack of concern about an American invoking his Constitutional right is less than charitable.
Don’t tell me about waterboarding. I’ve been to the dentist.
I suspect that WBC sees, as I do, that today’s people attacking our police are as the same ’60s mobs that used to call them PIGS.
Well Woody the Court of Appeals found very thin evidence for the charges and 55 state AG’s – led by the Republican AG of Arizona – think this conviction doesn’t pass the smell test. Why should I listen to your older sister? What do they know that the AG’s and the 11th Circuit don’t? I bet you can’t even tell me what he was charged of. And no fair GOOGLEing it now!
My brother-in-law is a federal judge. I suspect that he knows a little about laws and ethics.
I followed this mess with Siegleton and Scrushy for a while. The smell test for them is that they both stink up the state, and I’ve discussed this with people who know them personally.
In other news, it must be in the name…
Meet Woody, the bird with a massive pecker that’s triple the normal size
Of course, I meant Siegelman.
Randy, coming from someone who condemns waterboarding, your lack of concern about an American invoking his Constitutional right is less than charitable.
More non-sequiturs.
Meet Randy, the bird with a pecker that’s three times smaller than normal
Why hasn’t Celeste mentioned Jamiel Shaw’s family and the in-action and lack of concern by the Mayor and City Council about the Shaw’s family tragedy and so many others?
The story about Woody and the 3x normal size pecker, is full of baloney, just like the person posting it, the articles says “The creature does have a serious beak deformity. It’s probably 120 per cent bigger than it should be.”
120% is not equal to 3x normal size.
Fuzzy, it’s not just the length but how thick it is.
Meet Randy, the bird with a pecker that’s three times smaller than normal
grow up.
Job Opportunity for Randy
The Times is not correct when it implies that Carona was involved in the attempt to keep the Grand Jury transcripts sealed. That was the work of the Acting Sheriff, Jack Anderson, who has set himself up as the savior of the department. However, no one seems to remember that he has been a lieutenant and a captain in Internal Affairs, so he must have known of the type of abuses that the Grand Jury reports; and he was picked by Carona, so he must be cut of the same cloth.
Hmmmm. Interesting point, Charles. Thanks for the info and insight.