Brian Sun, the Los Angles-based lawyer representing indicted ex-Orange County sheriff Mike Carona, emerged from U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Guilford's Santa Ana courtroom this afternoon all smiles. Minutes before, Sun and federal prosecutor Ken Julian had selected a panel of 12 citizens to hear USA vs. Carona.
"It's ironic . . . ," Sun began to say enthusiastically to gathered Jones Day lemmings. But he spied me nearby, holding a pen on notepad. He hushed his voice and continued his asses
In March 2004, what caused then-Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona to finally reveal his secret, three-year-old personal financial interest in a company tied to one of his wealthy Newport Beach contributors?
Answer: Days before Carona had fired Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, who knew the secret about the sheriff's Entrade, Inc. holdings. Carona feared that Jaramillo might share the information with the FBI. He did. The revelation came during federal prosecutor Ken J
"I like his values system."--Defense witness Thomas Banks, a volunteer pilot in the Orange County Sheriff's Aero Squadron, on why he'd contributed to Sheriff Mike Carona's campaign and offered him a paid board position at his company, Aperture Health of Mission Viejo. Last year, FBI agents arrested OC's top cop--a foul-mouthed, voracious adulterer who surrounded himself with three convicted felons, reneged on all 10 of his original campaign promises, aided a murderer/businessman in a product sch
"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
For more than a year, Mike Carona's legal defense team and its sycophants aimed a portion of their wrath at Brett Sagel, the assistant United States attorney and driving force behind the prosecution of the indicted, ex-Orange County sheriff. They've impugned his motives, belittled his experience and mocked his skills. When he examined witnesses, they'd groan or snort. They even fired off personal shots you'd hear in a high school locker room.
But here's the irony of today's long
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 top women, longtime wife Debbie and mistress Debbie, get along famously in public. They've even hugged!Who needs Dr. Phil?Today, of course, the Debbies were summoned one last time to the Ronald Reagan
Home Sweet Home?Ex-Sheriff Mike Carona should serve 108 months or nine years in prison for attempting to sabotage a grand jury investigation into abuse of power and bribery at the Orange County Sheriff's Department, according to a brief filed today by the U.S. Department of Justice.The recommendation, which comes from prosecutors Brett Sagel and Ken Julian, is 30 months more than what a federal probation officer recently recommended based on sentencing guidelines. Some will see this as ironical
Carona's new executive suiteMike Carona's lawyers came to federal court this morning, claimed that federal prosecutors in the ex-sheriff's case are more of a threat to society and pleaded with a judge to give the top cop turned convicted felon a break: allow him to remain free pending an appeal of his conviction.But federal prosecutor Ken Julian said it would send the wrong message to society if "a guilty, corrupt public official" wasn't sent to prison in a timely manner. U.S. District Court Ju