America’s Sheriff?
“Whoever coined ‘crime does not pay’ obviously did not know Carona” (Coker).
Michael S. "Mike" Carona is a convicted felon and former Sheriff-Coroner of Orange County, California. According to the OC Register, as a convicted felon, Mike Carona is currently collecting $195,120 annually from his pension. For Mike Carona crime did pay. But how is this possible? Authors Saavedra, Schwebke, and Tillman stated a new state law that only became effective in 2006 denies a public pension to any public official convicted of wrongdoing in office. Due to this law, if Carona is convicted, he would be denied benefits accumulated from January 2006 through his leaving office, which is just one year. This means Carona will still collect the majority of his pension.
The thought of anyone convicted of crimes receiving a public pension has not gone unseen. Chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors at the time, John Moorlach confirmed that Carona would indeed still receive his pension when asked about it. Moorlach sarcastically stated "I think working for the county is wonderful. If you're indicted, you still get your pension" (OC Register). Moorlach led county supervisors to file suit to repeal the pension. The suit was rejected and is now pending appeal. Furthermore, there was a petition to put Carona’s pension back into OC schools, however nothing was been done yet and Carona is still collecting.
In a matter of time Carona went from “America’s Sherriff” to convicted felon. How did this happen? It all started when Mike Carona was appointed as the Marshal of Orange County. Carona had been a likable and popular sheriff, elected to the office three times by large margins as the head of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Carona’s rise to fame was on his hunt for the killer of Samantha Runnion. Samantha Runnion was abducted from her front yard on July 15, 2002 (“Timeline of the Mike Carona Years”). She was playing with her friend, when a man came up to her and told her he had lost his dog and needed help finding it. Samantha talked to the man for a minute and he grabbed her. Her friend, Sarah Ahn, immediately told Samantha's mother Erin what happened and the search for Samantha began. Sadly, a day later, her body was found. She was sexually assaulted and strangled to death.
In 2002, Carona was proclaimed “America’s Sheriff” after he went on Larry King’s national television show and warned a soon-to-be-captured child killer, “Don’t eat. Don’t sleep. Because we’re coming after you” (Saavedra, Schwebke, and Tillman). Carona vowed to catch the killer. Carona’s relentless efforts to find the child killer and with the help of multiple people, the killer was arrested within a week. Carona instantly rose to fame and Larry King referred to Carona as “America’s Sheriff” for catching the murderer of “America’s Little Girl” (Saavedra, Schwebke, and Tillman).
Carona was on top of the world. Everything was going good for him. However in 2007, things took a turn for the worst for “America’s Sheriff.” In the article, “Timeline of the Mike Carona Years,” it is reported on October 30, 2007, Carona was indicted on federal corruption charges, alleging that he used his office for personal financial gain and urged a former associate, former Assistant Sheriff Donald Haidl, to testify falsely before a grand jury. In 2008, Corona announced his resignation from the sheriff's post so as to better concentrate on his defense.
On January 16, 2009 Carona was convicted on a single count of witness tampering. He was sentenced to 66 months in a minimum-security facility and paid $125,000 in fines. He allegedly has received illegal campaign contributions, boat, suits, booze, private jet rides, just to name a few. He has had on-duty adulterous affairs, partied with members of the mafia and gave badges to those with money (“Timeline of Mike Carona Years”). For example, Don Haidl, a self-made millionaire and friend of Carona, paid $100,000 for a badge and uniform and became Assistant Sheriff. According to the authors Saavedra, Schwebke, and Tillman, Haidl ended up becoming a key informant and witness in the prosecution of Carona. He helped investigators to avoid any charges on himself. Don Haidl was wired when he met with Carona. Carona tried to get him to falsely testify in court. This ultimately led to the conviction of Carona.
Mike Carona served 52 out of the 66 months he was sentenced to and released early from prison for good behavior. On November 8, 2015 he was released under home confinement and is now a free man. As mentioned earlier, he is eligible to receive nearly $195,120 annually by way of state pension. (“Timeline of Mike Carona Years”).
So how was a man like Corona able to get away with all this? He was a charismatic, persuasive and intelligent leader. He played it right. “He hugged when others shook hands. He glad-handed powerbrokers and choked up in front of cameras” (Saavedra, Schwebke, and Tillman). As the head of the entire department, he had the combination immense power, a lot of money, unbelievable intelligence, charm and the ability to persuade things to go his way. For example, he was able to convince the Orange County Board of Supervisors to remove the position of Assistant Sheriff to appoint his friend, Don Haidl. Mike Carona was good at living his double life.
No one saw this coming. The Sheriff, himself, was had to answer directly to the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Because of his leadership qualities, he was able to deceitfully preserve an image in front of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. As mentioned earlier he was able to convince them to appoint his own friend, Don Haidl. Chairman of the OC Board of Supervisors at the time John Moorlach, called for his resignation in 2007 and appointed the new OC Sheriff, Sandra Hutchens.
In order to avoid this type of from happening again new sheriff, Sandra Hutchens came in and made changes. She cleaned house and fired three of Carona’s top guys. Furthermore, for 28 years employees of the OC Sheriff’s Department were able to see any evidence staked against them before being interrogated, so they had the opportunity to change their stories (Saavedra). Hutchens came in and changed this. Her goal is to restore accountability.
In conclusion, if citizens are to hold their government accountable, they must be able to find out what the government is doing. At the local level, ways to improve this are local radio stations, local newspapers, and public meetings to address local issues. The citizen can then express their opinions and make accusations and the public officials can defend their actions. Ultimately, more transparency in local governance should mean less scope for corruption, in that dishonest behavior would become more easily detectable, punished and discouraged in future. Accountability should increase the pressure for more transparent local governance, in which corruption will be easier to bring to light. However no matter what we do there will always be those bad apples, such as Carona. If Carona was held accountable, and more transparency was prevalent, maybe his corruption could have been avoided.
Work Cited
" Timeline of Mike Carona Years." The Orange County Register. 15 May 2015. 3 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ocregister.com/articles/carona-661828-sheriff-federal.html>.
Coker, Matt. "Orange County's Dirty, Philandering, Christian Ex-Sheriff Mike Carona Is Home from Prison." Navel Gazing. OC Weekly, 15 May 2015. 3 Nov. 2015. <http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2015/05/mike_carona_freed_from_prison.php>.
Saavedra, Tony. "O.C. Sheriff Sandra Hutchens: Poor Organization, Training Led to Mistakes with Jailhouse Informants." The Orange County Register. 8 Dec. 2014. 7 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ocregister.com/articles/informants-644455-hutchens-sanders.html>.
Saavedra, Tony, Scott Schwebke, and Jodie Tillman. "Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona Freed from Prison Early." The Orange County Register. 14 May 2015.
The Orange County Register. 16 June 2008. 4 Nov. 2015. <http://www.ocregister.com/news/carona-173698-office-law.html>.
