Keep Bailing

The Orange County Register Tuesday reported that the County Board of Supervisors has approved a plan to add 512 beds to the James A. Musick jail. This decision, the OCR said, paves the way for Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens to apply for a $100 million state grant. The county will not know whether they will receive the grant funding until early 2013.  Construction, if approved, would not reach completion until 2018.

Although a number of residents have voiced opposition to the plan Sheriff’s officials maintain that the facility will “continue to house minimum security inmates” only.   The expansion is needed, they said, due to the state’s prison realignment program.  Proponents of the plan have pointed out that Orange County jails received close to 300 new inmates during the first month of implementation alone.

Eventually, plans for the facility would include expanding the 1,250-bed facility to 7,500 beds.  The cost to operate the expanded facility would be approximately $28 million per year.  Sources within the Sheriff’s Department said that funding sources Read more »

Five Orange County jail inmates have been convicted of second-degree murder after being found guilty of beating a fellow inmate to death at the Theo Lacy Jail.

The 2006 beating reportedly occurred because the defendants believed the inmate to be a child molester. Jurors found Garret Eugene Aguilar, Stephen Paul Carlstrom, Jared Louis Petrovich, Miguel Angel Guillen, and Raul Villafana,  guilty of the crime.  They all face 15 years to life.

“A grand jury probe concluded that the beating death grew out of an institutional culture that allowed inmates to run the jails while deputies watched television and slept at times,” wrote OC City News Service reporter Paul Anderson. “[Former OC Sheriff's deputy Kevin Taylor] has been accused of watching ‘Cops’ and text-messaging during the beating, just about 68-feet away from the blind spot at the jail.” Prosecutors issued a scathing report on Read more »

Our California Jails Series Continues… with Orange County’s James Musick Jail

When you think of Orange County Jail perhaps you think of recent headlines about inmate beatings and overcrowding or perhaps you’ve seen explosive television where the OC Sheriff’s Department is working hard to rebuild it’s image only to have the worst happen. In either case, my guess is you don’t think about song and joy.

Greg Rynerson Bail Bonds continues with the fifth in our series on California jails: Inside Orange County James Musick Jail. Musick, Orange County’s Irvine detention facility, gets “rocked” by “Bobby Cash” (aka Read more »

Last week, 43 teens graduated from the Santa Ana College Criminal Justice Youth Academy, which is operated by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Fifteen-year old Braeden Weekes said that the program helped him see the importance of police officers and boost the respect he has for them.

“Police officers get a bad rap all the time,” said Weekes. “But I’ve come to realize that all they are trying to do is keep the community safe.”

This is the third graduating class from the six-week program which was held on Saturdays. Students get a chance to tackle obstacle courses, utilize problem-solving skills in hypothetical scenarios, and find out the amount of force that should be used against suspects.

According to the head of the program, Sgt. Dave Dattola, the goal of the program is to teach young people “about ethics, decision-making and consequences.”

A lot of the students in this special program have Read more »

Will Serve 5 ½ Year Jail Sentence

Tuesday morning, former Orange County Sheriff, Michael S. Carona, surrendered himself to authorities located in Littleton, Colorado.

Carona is facing a 5 ½ year sentence due to a 2007 felony charge of corruption dealing with witness tampering while he was serving on the Orange County Sheriff Department. Carona’s trial took place over a two month span back in 2009 in Santa Ana, where prosecutors argued that Carona had been accepting cash payments, participated in illicit sexual affairs and gave badges to campaign contributors as well as allowed them to carry concealed-weapon licenses.

Carona, however, was acquitted from five of the six charges but was still found guilty of encouraging Deputy Don Haidl to lie to the grand jury. Furthermore, both Carona’s wife, Deborah Carona and his mistress, Debra Hoffman, faced similar charges but were dropped after the acquittal of Michael Carona.

Carona had been set free on bail after Read more »

Matthew Fleuret received a $750,000 settlement from Orange County after allegedly being tasered 11 times at the Orange County Jail.  The incident was caught on video showing him being held to the floor while deputies repeatedly shock him for about 13 minutes.

Since that incident, Assistant Sheriff Tim Board indicated that a lot has changed within the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the manner in which they use force.  This is being attributed to the newly appointed Sheriff Sandra Hutchens as the motivator reform with the OC Sheriff Department.

Board says Hutchens has already done a lot for the department.  She understands processes of accountability and risk management.  He went on to say that they are a completely different department since the 2006 Fleuret incident.

Orange County has had other Read more »

In an opinion published in the Orange County Register Thursday, Bill Hunt discusses the controversial decision by Sheriff Sandra Hutchens to offer criminals early release from jail.

The decision to “cite and release” inmates from Orange County jails has led to over 400 criminals being put back onto the streets without having to post bail or provide any further court guarantees. Many of the inmates who are released this way flee. This ‘unsafe practice’ has been put into action and instituted by the court in an effort to relieve jail overcrowding. However, it is said that the overcrowding issue no longer exists, as there are 1,400 open jail beds.

As a function of the criminal justice system, Read more »

Santa Ana — In continued controversy over early release of inmates, an Orange County Superior Court judge has decided against Sheriff deputy union members, denying their request Thursday to halt the early release of Orange County inmates.

Reportedly, Judge Steven Perk wants the final decision left in the hands of Sheriff Sandra Hutchens stating, “How do I issue an order to the board of supervisors telling the sheriff how to run the jail… if I don’t have jurisdiction over that person, then I don’t have the authority.”

The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs wanted to put a stop Read more »

Everything you always wanted to know about Orange County’s Police

Television’s “The O.C.” and “Real Housewives” may have put Orange County California on the media map, but Orange County Police Departments have an interesting history that dates back to the Wild West.  The county can trace its beginnings back to 1887, when silver was discovered in the Santa Ana Mountains, attracting settlers. As people came to California in droves, seeking their fortunes or just to settle and build a new life, the California Legislator was overwhelmed by the influx of these new arrivals. 

And so, they decided to divide Los Angeles County into two back in 1899, creating Orange County as a separate political entity. The county is supposedly named after –what else — oranges, but since they already had a town named Orange here, the county may have been named for this city.  Like many other places in the west, law enforcement was conducted by sheriffs and marshals until the needs of these settlements grew too big for just a few good men to handle.  And so, OC law enforcement also expanded and grew into more sophisticated, full fledged Police Departments.

Orange County also happens to be the smallest county in Southern California. But despite its size, it has many police departments and they Read more »

At 2:05 on Sunday morning, a man who was allegedly drunk, drove his late model Mercedes through the front gate of an Irvine jail and then fought with a Sheriff’s Department sergeant who was on duty there, according to the Orange County Register.

Matthew Van McDaniel plowed into the James A. Musick Jail and got out of his car, which he left in gear, still running.  The car then hit a tree on the jail campus.

McDaniel, who makes his living as a dancer, managed to successfully pirouette away from the sergeant he attacked, but other deputies soon arrested him on the spot.

“It’s the first time Read more »