Sheriff Candidates See a Target in Carona’s Record and Integrity

Despite fierce attacks on his character and repeated calls for his resignation, Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona appears to be stumbling to a third term, hoping to win outright in next month’s crowded primary.

It hasn’t been pretty.

When Los Angeles County sheriff’s Cmdr. Ralph Martin held his first press conference this month in the race to unseat Carona, he demanded the sheriff’s resignation for consorting with alleged mob associates.

Eight months earlier, in launching his own campaign for sheriff, Orange County sheriff’s Lt. William Hunt called on his boss to resign for a series of departmental scandals, including the indictment of Carona’s former assistant sheriff for allegedly misusing county resources.

A third candidate in the June 6 election, former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy Robert Alcaraz, pledged to improve response times and service.

The three rivals represent the toughest test yet for Carona, who ran against a single opponent to win the job in 1998 and was unopposed for reelection four years later.

His incumbency and clear money advantage give him the odds, but the first hurdle for the sheriff is to win a majority of the vote in June or face a November runoff. Even his campaign team says winning outright could be tough.

“When you have four people running, there’s always a good chance” of a runoff, said Carona campaign strategist Michael Schroeder, a former state GOP chairman. However, he added, “when you have high positives for an incumbent and zero name-ID and resources for the challengers, you have a chance to close it out in the first round.”

Those “positives” include the county’s low crime rate and Carona’s popularity, especially after the high-profile capture of a Stanton girl’s killer. But the challengers list plenty of Carona faults. They accuse him of management and ethical lapses -- and worse -- that have seriously undercut departmental integrity and morale, including issuing badges and concealed-weapons permits to campaign contributors without proper training or background checks.

They say departmental deterioration could lead to higher employee turnover, rising crime rates and less safety.

“When you have police corruption, it undermines the whole judicial system,” said Los Angeles political consultant John Shallman, Martin’s campaign strategist.

Carona and department officials do not comment to The Times except about arrests and other breaking news.

Carona’s department has faced a stream of problems since he catapulted to national prominence with his department’s swift capture in 2002 of the killer of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, who was abducted in front of her mother’s Stanton condominium.

Among them, former Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, the sheriff’s campaign manager and confidant, was indicted for alleged bribery, a case stemming from Jaramillo’s relationship with a Carona campaign donor. Carona has said he was unaware of any impropriety. Jaramillo will be tried this year.

The son of another assistant sheriff, Donald Haidl, was twice tried in a group sex assault. Haidl, one of Carona’s political allies, quit before his son’s conviction and sentencing to six years in prison.

Hunt had been drawn into that controversy after he allowed Haidl’s son, Gregory, to be driven home by a deputy after being detained in San Clemente for possible marijuana possession. Gregory Haidl was free on bail in the sexual-assault case at the time.

Meanwhile, the state attorney general’s office is investigating allegations that Carona sexually harassed two women and that he improperly billed his election committee for $130,000 in expenses -- allegations he has denied.

The challenge for his election rivals is to convince voters that Carona’s tenure has harmed the county. So far, they’ve pressed their case before limited audiences at candidate forums, and none come near to having the kind of money Carona’s campaign has to defend his record.

Through mid-March, the latest period for which figures are available, Carona reported having about $620,000 in the bank, compared with $80,000 for Martin, $77,000 for Alcaraz and just $6,600 for Hunt. As for loans to themselves, Alcaraz reported $100,000 and Hunt $30,000.

Hunt has been trying to build support for more than a year. He’s amassed a dedicated group of campaign volunteers, many fellow sheriff’s employees who say they’re fed up with Carona. Overall, he’s raised about $80,000.

“Our sheriff’s badge has been tarnished by the current sheriff’s bureaucracy, above-the-law politicking, wasteful spending and scandals,” said Hunt, who oversees operations in San Clemente. “This county deserves integrity in the Sheriff’s Department. We need a change at the top.”

Hunt got a boost in March when he edged out his boss, 683 votes to 625, to win the support of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, which represents 1,800 sworn deputies, investigators and sergeants, as well as investigators from the district attorney’s office.

The vote means Hunt can argue that Carona has lost support of the rank and file, and union can organize an independent campaign to back Hunt. So far, however, the union hasn’t sent any pro-Hunt mailers to voters.

Hunt has said all along that once his message of reform takes hold, the money will start pouring in. It hasn’t. Meanwhile, Hunt’s campaign has been busy trying to unwind an endorsement for Carona by the Orange County Republican Party, which followed an earlier vote that Carona narrowly lost.

Martin, who lives in Coto de Caza, has stayed away from the politics and focused almost exclusively in the past six months on raising money. Of the three challengers, he has had the most financial success, raising about $130,000. He’s supported by several law enforcement leaders in Los Angeles, including Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, though Sheriff Lee Baca has endorsed Carona.

Taking on an incumbent from outside the department has been tough, Shallman said, particularly since Martin knew he wouldn’t be the union favorite.

“The difference between Mike Carona and Ralph Martin is that Ralph Martin has been a cop for 30 years,” he said. “There’s value in having a guy who’s managed a division of 2,000.”

What prompted Martin to finally call a press conference were photos published in the OC Weekly, one showing Carona in uniform with his arm around Rick Rizzolo, the owner of a Las Vegas strip club that federal authorities have referred to as a racketeering enterprise.

In another photo, Carona was shown, again in uniform, at the Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach apparently swearing in Ritz owner Fred Glusman as a reserve deputy. Glusman later resigned and turned in his badge after a run-in with the owner of a Balboa self-service laundry.

Martin asked, “How does Orange County benefit from” that activity? “We lose officers to the corruption these very people push.”

Alcaraz, who lives in Newport Beach, has trailed in fundraising, collecting about $10,000.

He didn’t return calls seeking comment about the race. But during an interview broadcast on KUCI-FM (88.9), Alcaraz told “OC Variety Hour” host Cameron Jackson that he was running because he was “pretty much disgusted” with how the Sheriff’s Department had been run.

“My whole life has been wrapped around this fabric of law enforcement: integrity, morality, ethics,” Alcaraz said. “It means too much to have an agency that belongs to all of us being mismanaged with poor leadership.”

At a sheriff candidates’ debate Sunday at UC Irvine, which the incumbent declined to attend, the three challengers also criticized Carona’s proposal to cross-train deputies for enforcing federal immigration laws. They called his plan ill-conceived and unnecessary, since officials can already check the immigration status of those booked in jail.

“Not one chief of police in this county is behind it,” said Hunt, who argued that immigration status should be checked for those subject to criminal investigation “with a phone call.”

“It’s a federal issue,” Martin said.

“Ralph Martin is not going to go out and sweep illegal immigrants off the street.”