Secretly recorded conversations unveiled Friday in the federal corruption case against former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona show him plotting to cover up illicit cash payments and gifts he received while in office, prosecutors allege.
In one section of the transcripts, according to prosecutors, Carona and his one-time confidant Don Haidl discuss money Haidl had paid the sheriff. Carona didn't know that Haidl, a former assistant sheriff, was by then cooperating with the FBI and was wearing a wire.
"On my end, nothing's traceable. It's hidden," Haidl tells Carona, explaining that money he had given Carona had come from a private safe.
"Well, on my end of it, completely untraceable, completely untraceable," Carona responds.
"So we're going to be . . . facing these guys at some point, I believe," Haidl says, referring to federal authorities.
"Oh, I guarantee it," Carona responds. "Guaran-damn-tee it."
The obscenity-laden transcripts were contained in a motion by federal prosecutors opposing defense efforts to exclude the Haidl tapes as evidence against Carona, who is scheduled to go to trial June 10 on charges he sold access to his office for tens of thousands of dollars and tampered with a witness by trying to get Haidl to lie to a federal grand jury.
Carona, who resigned last month, has denied the charges. His lawyers declined to comment Friday. "We believe it's most appropriate to present our arguments in court," attorney Jeffrey Rawitz said.
Carona's attorneys have maintained that it was improper and unethical for the government to send a representative to meet with Carona because Carona was represented by a lawyer when the conversations were recorded. They cite ethical guidelines that prohibit California lawyers from contacting parties who have attorneys, even through third parties.
In their motion, federal prosecutors argued that many appellate courts have held that such contact is appropriate and that because Carona was engaged in an attempt to obstruct justice, he cannot claim to be represented by counsel. Carona's lawyer, "as an officer of the court, could not have known about the ongoing obstruction of justice," according to the motion.
A hearing on the motion to suppress the conversations is scheduled for Feb. 29.
The transcripts cover about 20 minutes of conversation between Carona and Haidl during an Aug. 13 lunch meeting at the Bayside Restaurant in Newport Beach, one of three meetings between the two men recorded last year.
