Flashback: Frederick J. Rizzolo, a Vegas titty bar owner, poses with Michael S. Carona, our self-proclaimed “Christian” sheriff, before Rizzolo was sent to federal prison this summer.
Carona first told reporters he didn't know Rizzolo, who–according to the FBI–has connections to legendary mobsters in Chicago. Then this photograph appeared on our pages and the sheriff's story switched. Rizzolo, he said, is an honest businessman. FBI didn't agree. As a high-ranking law enforcement officer said at the time that Carona is “dirty, stupid or both.”
In July, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit (LEIU, an international crime fighting organziation, has indefinitely blocked Carona and his department from reviewing “criminal intelligence information” because of the sheriff's documented relationships with Rizzolo and con artist Joseph Medawar, who is also now serving a federal prison sentence.
During his first term, Carona's campaign accepted $40,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Charles Gabbard, a convicted felon (murder, robbery etc) who wanted the sheriff to lobby on his behalf with state officials. After the money exchange, our sheriff wrote a supportive letter for Gabbard.
I guess Carona likes to surround himself with colorful people. His hand-picked second in command, George Jaramillo, is currently serving a jail sentence after a bribery investigation. Carona's long-time drinking pal, defense attorney Joe Cavallo of Haidl Gang Rape fame, faces felony charges in an upcoming trial for allegedly running a bail bonds scam inside Carona's jail.
Who's your next colorful partner, Mikey?
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.