“If it was for a lot of these people who've been following these scandals for decades, people like the ACLU, you have of course public defender Scott Sanders, who was the main person who exposed this jailhouse snitch scandal, and they said, ‘Look, we're the ones who are screaming to the people of Orange County, you have a problem at your Sheriff's Department, do something about it when you go to the ballot box.’ And they never do. What do police reform advocates and civil rights groups say? And Barnes went ahead of the press and said, ‘Hey, look, I'm announcing this is what my own audit had discovered.’ And I think especially when it comes to law enforcement, you need 100% transparency.” Barnes at least saying, ‘Okay, we've had some issues.’īut at the same time, the only reason some of these even came to light was, again, we need the press, the press was pressing him on these issues. But again, to his credit, his predecessors, they would refuse to acknowledge any wrong in their department. So Barnes is … humble bragging when he does that. “Well, that's what they say, and then they get in front of a microphone, and then they start talking. He doesn't hold press conferences very often, and doesn't really seek the spotlight. It’s going to be brand new.’ And yet, you have the same problems.”īarnes says he’s getting stuff done behind the scenes, he's not the guy who likes to stand in front of the cameras and the microphones. The only thing that changes is a person at the top, and they say, ‘Oh, it's not going to be like it used to be like my bad predecessor. So this is something that's never changed. You had of course Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, Barnes’ former boss, who was embroiled in the so-called jailhouse snitch scandal, where deputies were illegally using jailhouse witnesses to be getting illegal confessions out of inmates. You had before him Brad Gates, who was accused of using his office to spy on political rivals.Īnd there was definitely a jailhouse beating scandal in the 1990s. I mean, you talked about Mike Corona, who went to federal prison. On the other hand, this is a department that's synonymous with corruption. That's on one hand, so he's owning up to this. To his credit, it was his department that discovered these alleged crimes, and he's the one who told them to the press, but only after the Orange County Register found out about it. He's very concerned by these allegations. “That's what Sheriff Don Barnes, the current sheriff, is saying. Is this a pattern of corruption at the department or a few “bad apples?” The Sheriff's Department has been engrossed by scandal for years, going back to Mike Corona, who went to prison for more than five years after a jury found him guilty of witness tampering. … It's embarrassing to the law enforcement, especially the Sheriff's Department in Orange County.” … And then there's just another one indicted by a grand jury for lying about the evidence that he had submitted. There's a couple of other deputies who are alleged to be falsifying their timesheets because they're military. There was another deputy who … allegedly stole the debit card of someone, gave it to her son, and the son used it. Gustavo Arellano: “There's the one who was arrested for breaking repeatedly into the house of a deceased man and taking stuff. What are the accusations at the Orange County Sheriff's Department? KCRW talks about all this with Gustavo Arellano, host of “Orange County Line.” In recent weeks, that list has grown with accusations of deputies lying, stealing, and breaking and entering. Over the years, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has seen scandal after scandal involving jail informants, escaped inmates, and improper handling of evidence.
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