O.C. Sheriff: Those badges better be lost
The Sheriff's Department vows to arrest reserve deputies caught falsifying reports of lost badges and ID cards.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department promised today that any special reserve deputies caught using their badges and ID cards after reporting that the credentials had been lost or stolen will be arrested and charged with filing false police reports and being in possession of stolen property.
The warning came after The Times reported that 42 business executives and other professionals appointed as Professional Service Responders by ex-sheriff Michael S. Carona had reported missing and lost badges, and as newly appointed Sheriff Sandra Hutchens follows through on her decision to recall all PSR shields.
Hutchens has summoned the more than 400 members of the program, which is filled with some of the county's richest and most powerful residents, to a mandatory meeting Saturday to discuss her efforts to cleanse the program of cronyism and ensure that volunteers are purely interested in public service.
Sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino urged PSRs who have already reported or plan to report their badges missing or stolen "tear up their homes" looking for the credentials, stressing that the department will not hesitate to file criminal charges against anyone who is later found to be lying.
To that end, Amormino said, the names of individuals who do file lost or stolen property reports will be entered into a database along with their badge number. Then, if those badges are ever used by those individuals or anyone else, it can be flagged for follow-up investigation.
"We don't want badges ending up in the wrong hands," he said. "We're serious about this."
The list of Carona allies whose credentials have disappeared includes his chief political and legal advisor Michael Schroeder, a well-known Republican operative who reported losing two badges.
Schroeder reported his first badge missing in January 2002, saying it might have been taken from his coat while he was at a barber shop, sheriff's officials said. He was issued a second badge but after reporting in June 2007 that he had lost that one too, he was not issued a third badge.
Others on the list include developer Michael Harrah; father-son hotel developers Hadi and Paul Makarechian, who hosted a lavish fundraiser for Carona; Antonio Cagnolo, the owner of a popular Italian restaurant where Carona regularly held court; and Jeff Teller, the operator of the swap meet at the Orange County Fair and Event Center, where Carona's wife serves on the governing board.
Schroeder and the six other PSRs have not responded to calls from The Times.
Carona, who stepped down in January to focus on his upcoming federal corruption trial, has denied handing out badges as political favors. But former Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl has told federal agents that the PSR program was a fundraising tool and badges could be bought.
christine.hanley@latimes.com
