It wasn't too many years ago when Joseph G. Cavallo was one of Orange County's most well-connected criminal defense lawyers. Cavallo's close, power-hungry pals included Sheriff Mike Carona as well as assistant sheriff George Jaramillo and Don Haidl.But that dream team began to collapse after Cavallo ... More >>
Earlier this month, George Jaramillo faced off against U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford over the former Orange County assistant sheriff turned convicted felon's failure to pay $42,000 in fines.Jaramillo, who has served both state and federal prison sentences for public corruption, insist ... More >>
Wearing his traditional natty dark suit but minus the once dominant cat-who-swallowed-the-canary glare, Assistant Sheriff turned convicted felon George Jaramillo marched into the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse today to explain why he's still not, well, a sneaky bastard.Of course, I am taking sligh ... More >>
Disgraced Santa Ana councilman is the latest OC GOP Latino golden boy gone pendejo
George and Mike: Partners in crimeIt's safe to say that Orange County wasn't the same once George Jaramillo became second in command at the sheriff's department in 1999 and it certainly became more boring after Jaramillo was sent to federal prison a decade later for public corruption.The 51-year- ... More >>
The past haunts SpitzerOrange County supervisor candidate Todd Spitzer--who apparently returns the phone calls of reporters who'll toss him softballs--got more evidence today that he won't easily sail to victory.The folks at the Friends For Fullerton's Future blog slammed Spitzer for his past ser ... More >>
Teflon Mikey loses his magicOrange County's long, disgusting law enforcement nightmare is finally over.Disgraced ex-Sheriff Mike Carona, once absurdly hailed as "America's sheriff" by CNN's Larry King, is going to federal prison.This morning an all Republican panel of federal judges at the Ninth ... More >>
Two Top OC Cops Turn Convicted FelonsHe once dreamed of becoming California's first Latino governor. He finagled an improbable transition from Garden Grove police sergeant to the powerful No. 2 post at the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD). He even managed to create a fan club within the ... More >>
Galisky says anti-gay bigots knocked her out of OCSDCan a onetime lesbian assistant sheriff who rose in rank above potentially hundreds of more qualified deputies solely because of her unswerving personal loyalty to a corrupt sheriff claim that her career was sabotaged by anti-gay bigots?Well, if yo ... More >>
Thanks to ex-Sheriff Mike Carona, our infamous two-faced Master of Disasters, local taxpayers may have to give convicted felon George Jaramillo $750,000 to settle his lawsuit alleging that Carona, also a convicted felon, illegally fired him as assistant sheriff in 2004.Read all the details in a note ... More >>
Orange County Register: A hushed county awaits the jury verdict in Steve Rocco's trial for alleged ketchup theft. . . . County officials are talking settlement with ex-Sheriff, current-felon Mike Carona's former right-hand man George Jaramillo. . . . Orange County may be among the first in ... More >>
Spotted Michael J. Schroeder--the black Hummer driving dark lord of Orange County Republican politics--in public lately? Legal process servers certainly haven't and they're a bit frustrated. They've been repeatedly foiled at Schroeder's Xerox Centre offices in Santa Ana and at the hillside Corona de ... More >>
Give Mike Carona, our convicted-felon ex-sheriff, credit for one thing: He has supernatural powers that philandering men around the world must admire. He's repeatedly cheated on his wife, his mistress, another mistress, another mistress, another mistress--well, you get the picture. And yet his two t ... More >>
"America's Sheriff" is a convicted felon.Ex-Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona was found not guilty of multiple conspiracy counts and one witness tampering count in Santa Ana federal court today, but he was still found guilty of another witness tampering count. According to federal prosecutors, ... More >>
Just got a call from the Weekly's R. Scott Moxley at the courthouse with this item: Word is that George Jaramillo is not likely to be called to testify by the prosecution in the Mike Carona corruption trial. Scott calls this a "tactical" decision by the feds, speculating that they must feel that Don ... More >>
Thursday's Mike Carona corruption trial pitted government witness Joe Cavallo, a lawyer who became infamous for his energetic defense of three gang rapists, and Brian A. Sun, a Jones Day lawyer representing indicted ex-Sheriff Mike Carona, a long-time Cavallo pal. How effective was Sun, who has a ... More >>
"Your honor, he should stop right there." --Brian A. Sun, a Jones Day defense lawyer for indicted ex-Sheriff Mike Carona, barked in today's federal court trial after Assistant United States Attorney Brett Sagel called Sun's boneheaded bluff about an alleged sexual relationship between ex-Assistant ... More >>
"He would be the fucking sheriff of Orange County. They'd be, uh, he'd be riding fat. All he had to do was be a white guy about it." --Then-Sheriff Mike Carona speaking to a confidante without knowing he's being recorded during an August 2007 meeting and bitching that George Jaramillo, his onetime ... More >>
Don Haidl: Is somebody paying that goofy bastard [Jon Fleischman]? Mike Carona: Big bucks. Big bucks. You and I had a difference of opinion on him. I just think he was a moron on his best day, but . . . Well, apparently . . . (Laughs) They're willing to pay morons a lot of money because I was probab ... More >>
"In plain terms, you have to do a little dance with politicians to get them to do what you want later. These two guys came in with 'For Sale' signs on them." --Don Haidl, a used car business owner and eventual assistant sheriff who admits to a long history of trying to buy influence from politician ... More >>
"A 'hubcap deal' was in regards to [then Sheriff Mike Carona's appointed assistant sheriff and best friend] George Jaramillo. A standing joke going way, way back [to 1998] while I was trying to control Jaramillo and Carona. George could be told that he would get a new car tomorrow and he'd steal it' ... More >>
If ever a man looked like a sheriff, it’s Jack Anderson. The mustachioed man is tall and husky and, if he wore a cowboy hat, would cast an impressive shadow sitting on a horse. Of course, the wild—ridiculously wild—west days at the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) should be over. E ... More >>
The Associated Press reports that the Feds filed a partial transcript in court today with snippets of a wiretapped conversation between former OC Sheriff Mike Carona former assistant sheriff Don Haidl: In the partial transcript, Haidl and Carona discuss cash and gifts Carona received from Haidl and ... More >>
Well, ask and you shall receive. . .looks like we're starting a Carona lyric-swap library. Yesterday, Roy Rivenburg and Lisa O'Neill Hill took on The Knack's "My Sharona." Today, our very own Jack Grimshaw shot us his lovely bastardization of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues." P.S. If anyone els ... More >>
Your Tax Dollars Wasted: The Daily Pilot says that Costa Mesa officials admit they’ve spent at least $127,000 in public funds to prosecute Benito Acosta, an Orange Coast College student who had the audacity last year to demand the right to address the city council for the same three-minute period ... More >>
OC Sheriff Michael S. Carona’s reign has been equal parts tragedy and comedy. With his indictment, it enters its final act.
This morning, the Weekly stood with folks from the LAT, ABC7, NBC4 and other media outlets outside the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, waiting with bated breath and loaded cameras for the man of the hour—Sheriff Michael S. Carona (R-Indicted)—to make his walk of shame. Alas, ... More >>
Despite scandals, Sheriff Carona still seducing voters
Happy New Year: now youll pay for the sheriffs alleged sex romps
Sheriff Carona working overtime to stop reports he's a serial adulterer
Erica Hill says OCs conservative Christian sheriff traded sex for favors
And some we regret
Aug. 10 - Aug. 16
Ex-assistant sheriff says DA out to "destroy" him
Ex-Orange County assistant sheriff George Jaramillo pleaded no contest Monday to two felonies and agreed to a year in jail. Here is a story from our archives about how Sheriff Mike Carona and his top deputy planned a dynasty
Sealed records show sheriff's complicity in scandal
Of slimy politicos, rude comics and birthday blow-outs
Carona lied about his complicity in pot-bust scandal
With Jaramillo case, Rackauckas able to shift conflict of interest allegations away from himself for a change
Orange Countys 31 scariest cops!
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