The nasty stench of the sheriff-turned-convicted-felon Mike Carona era continues to odorize Southern California.
Today, a state court of appeal based in Santa Ana rejected arguments by Raymond Kiu Jin Yi, one of the many dubious characters Carona handed real Orange County Sheriff's badges before his 2007 FBI arrest. Yi parlayed his newfound importance into pathetic bullying acts during a 2005 round of golf at the Los Serranos Golf N Country Club in Chino Hills.
He whipped out his OCSD badge and asked, “Do you know who I am?” to four men playing golf ahead of his group, demanded to see their driver's licenses, pushed one of them and pointed a cocked semi-automatic handgun at them.
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According to court records, Yi also said, “Freeze, freeze . . . I could
kill you” and “Get the fuck out of my way or I'll kill you, you son of
a bitch,” plus “He's ignoring me . . . I'll kick your ass, you fucking
gorilla.”
Yi–Carona's onetime personal trainer who had a
history of possessing an illegal weapon–was arrested after the San
Bernardino County incident, convicted of making criminal threats and
sentenced to serve 180 days in jail. He appealed, claiming there was
“insufficient evidence” that he threatened anyone because–how's this
for logic?–he didn't shoot or physically harm anyone.
And, if that didn't work, he argued that he pulled his gun and sheriff's badge in self-defense.
But the justices weren't gullible today. They concluded, “It was entirely reasonable for the jury to infer [that golfer Gustavo Resendiz] actually sustained fear for his life or safety.”
Carona
remains free, pending appeal, from serving his 66-month federal prison sentence for
sabotaging a federal grand jury investigating corruption at the top of
the Orange County Sheriff's Department. George Jaramillo, Carona's longtime best friend and second in command at the OCSD got 27 months in prison. Don Haidl,
the used car salesman who illegally funded Carona's initial campaign
for sheriff and was named a Carona assistant sheriff with full police
powers in return, faces sentencing next month.
–R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.