To further bastardize the immortal" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen> words of the great Bob Marley, “And he also shot his deputy..(Oh no, no…)”
You have to admire the grindingly mean-spirited thoroughness of Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona who, as he left office on Monday to fight seven criminal corruption charges, in effect blew up the town as he was evacuating. Specifically, he further destabilized his already reeling command staff by firing one of his assistant sheriff’s “without explanation” as he walked out the door. (The LA Times has additional details.) Then he demoted his Undersheriff and, if that wasn’t enough, Carona appointed a department crony and local Republican party official as his interim successor, a move that may or may not be a violation of state law.
The Orange County Board of Sups are not thrilled, says the OC Register.
You can read Carona’s released statement about leaving, firing and demoting on the OCSD blog here.
AND HERE’S THE REAL KICKER: Contrary to his statement about his reasons for leaving on Monday (“….my staff and my lawyers all believe that this is the right time to take my retirement. This action will permit me to focus on vindicating my name and refuting the false charges which have been made against me and my wife…”), the truth of the matter, according to the OC Reg, is that Carona decided to retire after a well-known OC citizen watchdog contacted California Attorney General Jerry Brown and pointed out that as a public official Sheriff Mike could not accept the FREEBEE LEGAL SERVICES offered to him by high priced Los Angeles attorneys at the Jones Day law firm, because state law bars public officials from accepting anything worth more than $390, and Browns office launched an investigation.
Bottom line, this meant, had Carona not retired, he would have had to go with less-than-superstar attorneys or a (gasp!) public defender.
Oh, the irony–— since it is Michael Carona’s gargantuan sense of entitlement that has caused this whole mess to begin with.
“He shot the Sheriff but he swears it was in self defense.Oh, no! (Ooh, ooh, oo-oh) “
**************************************************************************
By the way just for the hell of it, while you’re on the OCSD blog, be sure to read Corona’s weirdly character-revealing explanation as to why the OCSD blog doesn’t allow public comments on the blog (the LAPD’s blog, wisely does, making it dynamic and, well, bloggy, as opposed to Carona’s control freak press-release mechanism.)
Also worth reading: the OC Weekly’s chief Carona Watch reporter Scott Moxley’s end of the year challenge to the former sheriff to play the audio tapes that he claims will prove his innocence.
********************************************************************
Carona photo by Bruce Chambers, the OC Register
What no Britney Spears news, our local L.A. news is covering everything Britney 24-7. There are hundreds of international reporters and even helicopters following Britney’s every move, it must be very important news. I was prepared to provide a 10,000 word commentary about Britney, but now I’ll try to focus some attention on Sheriff Carona.
Let’s see, we have a Sheriff who is facing a multiple count corruption indictment and finally decides to “retire†to receive free legal representation (I smell something fishy?). And upon “retiringâ€Â, he fires a deputy sheriff without cause. Carona proudly displays his wife and younger mistress to all.
Too bad Sheriff Carona is not a Democrat because then he would “really†be a slime-ball and most corrupt government official in recent times.
No where did Celeste mention that the Sheriff was a Republican, and she only alluded to that when discussing his successor. Actually the political party shouldn’t have anything to do with this, but you guys get upset when a Republican acts like a Democrat and may “get away with it,” if there is an “it.”
In light of Carona’s predicament, I don’t blame him for taking the steps to get the best representation. And, there is good reason to appoint the Assistant Sheriff as his successor, for which his position and experience qualify him and for which his political party should not be the focus. There may have been good reasons for the demotion, and no one knows the answer to that for sure as that might turn out to be masked in privacy requirements about someone’s personnel file.
Celeste did an indirect smear by saying that his action ” may or may not be a violation of state law.” Duh. It “may or may not” be anything. Why even use those words except to put a bad idea into the heads of readers?
Here we have a situation that smells funny but for which there is no evidence to absolute conclude that it is wrong. Carona may have done the right thing for all parties concerned.
I suspect that certain people would not be alarmed if he was a Democrat, and I’m not so sure that the attacks against him, such as the attention by Jerry Brown, aren’t politically motivated–or, should I say, “may or may not be politically motivated.”
Hey Woodster, saying “I’m not so sure that the attacks against him… aren’t political motivated” and saying, “may or may not be politically motivated,” are exactly the same. Is this an intentional bit of parody or do you just need to stick to shorter posts?
Woody, the (mostly Republican) Board of Supervisors in (mostly Republican) Orange County are the ones who have questioned the legality of Carona’s replacement appointment.
And would you feel okay about a Democratic public official accepting free legal help in the amount of approximately a million dollars (the law firm’s estimated price tag to defend Carona) in order to defend him or herself against charges of abusing the public trust in the form of conspiracy to accept bribes in exchange for political favors, mail fraud and witness tampering?
Mavis, I added that last phrase intentionally to conform to Celeste’s format.
Welcome back, C. I thought you would need a little more time to thaw out.
I don’t know if the Board questioned the replacement because they want that power or because they think it’s wrong. My uninformed opinion is that the Sheriff did the prudent thing to maintain the office in light of his immediate resignation.
I don’t know the strength of the charges against the Sheriff, and this is the first that I knew what the actual charges are–which are pretty serious. If I were in his shoes, I would take the best counsel that I could afford, and free is what I could afford.
If a Democrat were in his shoes, then I know that the Democrat would be guilty, because it takes ten times the evidence just to get the press to notice and for a grand jury to indict one.
Yes the liberal press would never notice or write about the sex-capades of a Democratic president, or report low brow stories about a stained dress.
The press didn’t investigate the Clinton-Lewinsky romance. In fact, they attacked the prosecutor who did. In the end, the press had to report what couldn’t be ignored, but they clearly delayed and took sides.
So you don’t think that the attacks, and certainly not those by Jerry Brown, are politically motivated and would accuse anyone who made such remarks of perpetrating smears?
p.s. at the bottom of the page there’s a bunch of text that looks a good deal like links to pornography. Let’s not make Woody’s job that easy.
Mavis, at the bottom of which page?
It’s gone. Must be the pornography elves.
While Woody luxuriates in la la land back here in the real world – and behind the Orange Curtin where I live – let me tell you that the sound you hear is the sigh of relief from the county’s GOP establishment that their one-time great hope for higher office but now totally disgraced sheriff has thrown in the towel.
He is as welcome these days in Republican circles here as Larry Craig would be at a Boise Lincoln Day dinner!
I knew it. Carona was a Democrat all along.
“He is as welcome these days in Republican circles here as Larry Craig would be at a Boise Lincoln Day dinner!”
So, when is the ACLU going to take up the case for Carona?
Sex in restroom stalls is private, ACLU says
Civil liberties group goes to bat for Sen. Craig
Gee I thought you said they only defended liberals!
The Supes approved Carona’s self-appointed replacement –
How does that WHO song go? “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”
The establishment here in OC – they don’t give up an inch.
(back to class)
What Sen. Craig did, he thought he was doing in privacy, since it made him look like a liberal.
Rebel Girl, is this some breaking news? Can I assume that it means that the California Supreme Court backed Carona?
huh? I’ve been in class all day. Maybe I am out of the loop. All I heard was that the board approved Anderson.
Time article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-carona16jan16,1,7500990.story?coll=la-headlines-california&ctrack=1&cset=true
Circling wagons.
Misinterpretation. Supes = County Supervisors, not State Supreme Court. I thought that there was some evergency filing and forgot that you call supervisors what we call commissioners.
I just caught on that the demoted Undersheriff is a woman! No wonder Celeste blew her gasket. She probably wasn’t qualified, anyway.
Good-looking site. Congratulations.