Free Republic

His departure from public life was nasty, dramatic and well-documented. But former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona got out of prison this week in a far different manner: Quietly, and somewhat mysteriously. Carona, 59, has left a federal prison medical center in Lexington, Ky., said Kenny Coleman, the center’s camp administrator, on Thursday. Carona served 52 months of a 66-month sentence for felony witness tampering.

Disgraced former Sheriff Mike Carona completed his downward spiral from the peak of power in Orange County law enforcement on Tuesday when he surrendered at 8:30 a.m. PST to a federal prison in Colorado to begin serving a 5½-year term for witness tampering. Carona, 55, was Orange County's top cop for nine years before he was indicted, tried and convicted of a single count of trying to convince a former top aide to lie for him during a spreading federal investigation of corruption in the Sheriff's Department.

Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona is headed to prison, after a federal appeals court on Thursday upheld his witness-tampering conviction.

So last week it was Attorney General/Candidate for Governor Jerry Brown weighing in on the county’s lawsuit trying to rescind generous pensions for deputies (county suit, bad). This week, it’s the ring-the-bells-for-freedom Pacific Legal Foundation and friends weighing in on same (county suit, good). You may have heard that the County of Orange sued the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs in 2008, trying to yank back the so-called “three percent at 50″ benefit, which allows deputies who have served for 30 years to retire at age 50 with 90 percent of their salaries. (Said benefit was magnanimously granted by...

Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona was sentenced today to 5 ½ years in federal prison by a judge who said his crime had brought shame to the county and victimized the people he was sworn to serve. U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford also ordered Carona to pay a $125,000 fine within one year. “Lying will not be tolerated in this courtroom,” Guilford told Carona moments before reading his sentence. “Especially by this county’s leading law-enforcement officer.” The sentencing comes more than three months after a jury convicted Carona of witness tampering, for trying to convince one of his former...

Twitter coverage. The judge is listening to arguments before sentencing former OC Sheriff Mike Carona.

Several major GOP power brokers with ties to convicted former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona are about to lose their concealed weapons permits under an order by the new sheriff. Those who have received notices of revocation from Sheriff Sandra Hutchens include Michael Schroeder, chief political and legal advisor to Carona and a former chairman of the state Republican Party; Adam Probolsky, a GOP pollster; and Stephen Mensinger, a political ally of Carona and business executive for major GOP benefactor and developer George Argyros, public records show.

Just announced. Verdict to be read at 11:45 AM Pacific Time

Lots of current stories. Wow. What a jerk. Click on the link and read.

Sheriff Mike Carona announced his resignation today “with a heavy heart,” saying it would be best for the department and the county if he was not distracted while defending himself against federal public corruption charges...

Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona has resigned from a prominent federal Homeland Security task force and lost his security clearance after a federal indictment against him was unsealed, Homeland Security officials said Thursday...

Sheriff Mike Carona ... gave five-minute interviews to two dozen print, radio and television reporters today. ... Here are their statements and the answers to the questions the attorneys allowed: Mike Carona: Last week, my department and I spent long hours working with our colleagues in law enforcement and the fire service, battling the fires that devastated Orange County. Today, I find myself in a firestorm of a different type. This is not a complex matter. Simply put, I have NEVER misused the office of the sheriff of Orange County for personal gain. Any fair review of the evidence can...

Sheriff Mike Carona and his wife Debbie, both in handcuffs, were ordered to pay $20,000 bail and will be released later today from federal lockup...

Sheriff Mike Carona, his wife and a woman identified as his "longtime mistress" have been indicted on charges of public corruption by a federal grand jury, The Orange County Register has learned. Orange County's top lawman has been charged with seven felony counts that he illegally accepted money, high-priced gifts and tickets to exclusive sporting events, and made loans to his girlfriend in exchange for favors, according to an indictment expected to be unsealed today. Carona's former top aide, George Jaramillo, in a separate agreement, pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion and corruption charges in March and assisted the FBI...

Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona has been indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from a lengthy investigation into allegations that he misused his office for financial gain, law enforcement officials said Monday. The indictment, filed under seal, is expected to be made public soon, perhaps as early as Tuesday, officials said. Carona's longtime political advisor and attorney, Michael Schroeder, said federal authorities had not questioned the sheriff, nor officially informed him that he was the target of a federal investigation. Schroeder, who was in Amsterdam on business, also said that rumors of the investigation had not distracted Carona from...

Ten percent of people arrested and sent to the Orange County Jail from Jan. 19 to Feb. 25 were flagged for possible immigration violations, according to statistics the Orange County Sheriff's Department released Wednesday. Jail deputies booked a total of 6,160 people through the Intake Release Center during that time. Of those, deputies interviewed 956 foreign nationals and detained 639 of them for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Of those detained for ICE, 56 were held for aggravated felonies, 425 for felonies and 214 for misdemeanors. The numbers are for the first month of a program that certified deputies to perform...

Orange County is poised to become the first local jurisdiction in the nation to have a hybrid, large-scale plan that calls for its law-enforcement officers to assume federal immigration powers over criminal foreign nationals. Sheriff Mike Carona's department, the county's principal police agency, has a draft contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that is expected to be approved by the Orange County Board of Supervisors this month. Although one city, Costa Mesa, has jumped in behind the Sheriff's Department and is working with federal authorities, most Orange County cities are reluctant to change decades-long policies that leave citizenship checks...

Scandals and controversies have clouded Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's public and private lives, dimming the prospects of a man whose political future once seemed unlimited.

SANTA ANA – An Orange County sheriff's reserve deputy has been suspended from duty after he was arrested for allegedly flashing his badge, pulling a gun and threatening to kill a group of golfers at a Chino Hills course. Raymond Yi, a reserve deputy since 2002 and Sheriff Michael Carona's martial arts instructor, turned in his badge and his department-issued gun Tuesday. Prosecutors in San Bernardino County said Thursday that the charges against Yi will now include two counts each of assault with a firearm and making criminal threats. He had been initially charged with brandishing a firearm, a misdemeanor....

Friends, relatives were also among the 86 who received badges, even though some lacked training. Carona says there was no public risk. Shortly after he took office, Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona and one of his top assistants deputized 86 friends, relatives, political contributors and others, giving them badges, powers of arrest and in some cases guns — despite the fact that none had background investigations and some had not been fully trained. Three years later, the state's Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training removed all 86 of the reserve deputies from California's peace officer database, which meant...