Badges issued by former O.C. sheriff will be collected
Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said Wednesday that she plans to recall all the badges that her indicted predecessor handed out to a group of more than 400 civilian volunteers, many the county's most wealthy and influential residents.
Hutchens said she was uncomfortable with the volunteers carrying badges, even though they are not exact replicas of those issued to the department's 1,800 sworn deputies. She said she wants to ensure that the so-called professional service responders are volunteering for the right reason -- public service -- and that the program is no longer tainted by allegations that badges were issued as political favors.
"I will lose some who are in it for the badge," she said. "Hopefully, I will keep the ones who do a lot for us."
The new sheriff revealed her plans on the same day she took further steps to distance herself from indicted former Sheriff Michael S. Carona. She named people from outside the department to her executive staff and released a draft copy of a new policy governing the issuance of concealed weapons permits. Carona had issued the permits to about 1,100 people, several of them political supporters.
"This is a momentous day for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. This is another sign we are moving into the future of the Orange County Sheriff's Department and not looking back," she told reporters as she introduced her top management at a news conference in Santa Ana.
Hutchens named retired Los Angeles County sheriff's Division Chief John Scott as undersheriff and retired Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Mike Hillmann as one of her four assistant sheriffs.
Scott, 60, retired in 2005 after 36 years with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. He most recently served as division chief overseeing its jails, the largest local jail system in the nation.
That experience will be critical in Orange County, where the jail system was the focus of a scathing district attorney's report that found some deputies at Theo Lacy Jail -- the county's largest -- napped, watched television and exchanged text messages as an inmate was beaten to death by other inmates.
Hillmann, a 41-year veteran of the LAPD, most recently served as deputy chief. He oversaw security for the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Hutchens did retain one member of Carona's command team. Jack Anderson, who served as interim sheriff after Carona was indicted on corruption charges, will also be an assistant sheriff, in charge of administration.
