You can credit indicted ex-Sheriff Mike Carona (pictured in his old chick magnet outfit) for turning federal Judge Andrew Guilford’s stately 10th-floor Santa Ana courtroom into a bloody, limb-strewn morgue for the once-touted character of “America’s Sheriff.”
So what do Frank Mickadeit and Jeffrey Rawitz find so amusing? They wink, smile and nod at each other so often a stranger might believe he’d witnessed the blossoming of a torrid affair. Their communications are the kind of sneaky
"I'm sure it's memorable."
--Sassy defense lawyer Jeffrey Rawitz on a Newport Beach cop's recollections today about Orange County Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo wearing a "Hawaiian shirt" over his uniform while trying to block a 2002 police investigation into the videotaped gang rape of an unconscious minor during a high school party at the home of Don Haidl, another of Mike Carona's assistant sheriff's. Carona, who is close to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, is on trial for a s
"The reason Mike Carona says he sleeps real well at night up to then is because he's lied and he's cheated and he's gotten away with it. No consequences."--Federal prosecutor Ken Julian in closing argument today remarking on a secret 2007 FBI recording that captured then-Sheriff Carona gloating because he believed his chief co-conspirator, businessman Don Haidl, would keep mum about crimes they'd committed to take control of the Orange County Sheriff's Department in 1999. Haidl recorded the con
"He worked hard for you. He was a tireless worker. He worked all the time. He did great things. He helped at-risk kids and he did so much for the vulnerable people in our community."
--Exasperated, red-faced lawyer Jeffrey Rawitz (pictured) wrapping up an eight hour closing argument today in his defense of Mike Carona, who faces a series of public corruption charges including bribery and witness tampering after an extensive IRS and FBI investigation into the indicted ex-Orange County sheri
"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, 53-year-old Carona faces a sentence of zero to 10 years in prison on that count after a yet-to-be scheduled sentencing hearing.First elected sheriff in 1998, Carona is the highest ranking law enforce
CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED . . . "Inexperienced" criminal defense attorney Rawitz (left) and Carona in January.Once dubbed "America's Sheriff," Mike Carona was sentenced this afternoon to 66 months--or 5 1/2 years--behind bars, two years probation after he serves the prison time and a $125,000 fine for attempting to
sabotage a grand jury investigation into abuse of power and bribery at
the Orange County Sheriff's Department.U.S. District Court Judge Andrew J. Guilford said during his sentencing that h
Rawitz (L) saved Sheriff Carona's sorry assSadly, Jeffrey M. Rawitz--one of Jones Day's feisty defense lawyers who represented ex-Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona in his federal corruption trial earlier this year--is hospitalized in Los Angeles at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.During Carona's three-month trial in Santa Ana, Rawitz participated in almost all hearings despite significant spinal cord pain following a pre-trial accident. He often limped in and out of U.S. District Judge Andrew Gui
