Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's nonprofit charity has spent or pledged more than $5 million since its inception five years ago to help thousands of disadvantaged youths, buying bicycles and soccer balls, providing trips to summer camp, and helping pay for college.
Carona said he hopes those good deeds will overshadow and outlive the negative publicity about his Mike Carona Foundation, which he says is off-base and undeserved.
Reports surfaced this week that a federal grand jury ordered the foundation to turn over financial documents as part of a criminal investigation and that the foundation repeatedly put itself in jeopardy of losing its tax-exempt status by missing the state's tax filing deadline.
Carona, who created the foundation to help curb juvenile delinquency among California's underprivileged youths, has maintained that the group is not the target of an investigation, nor has it broken any laws.
"At the end of the day, the public should judge the foundation on its ability to help thousands of kids throughout Southern California," Carona said. "The truth of the matter is the kids who've gotten bikes and scholarships and day care ... know they've been helped."
The worst-case scenario, he said, would be if "we have no more money to give to kids."
Carona, who as co-author of a book described his tough childhood with a mother who drank herself to death, established the Newport Beach-based foundation shortly after he was elected in 1998.
The charity has relied on word of mouth for donations and has only four benefactors, Carona said. He declined to name them.
"We as a foundation have never asked a person for a penny," he said. "These have all been contributions by individuals without a solicitation -- ever."
Carona serves as the president and is in the process of selecting a new board.
The founding board included Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, who was fired from the department six months ago and is now facing corruption charges.
Other members were Don Haidl, who resigned as assistant sheriff last month because of the difficulties of dealing with gang-rape charges against his 19-year-old son; Haidl's sister, Peggy, vice president and secretary; Corey Schlossman, chief financial officer; Los Angeles attorney Richard Robins, vice president; and Stacia Nadelman, vice president.
These directors have stepped down or plan to because of business or family obligations, Carona said.
