Orange County parole hearing leads to nasty political fight

Paul A. Guardado, 46, will have a second parole hearing in two months to determine if he should be freed after serving 19 years of a 17-years-to-life sentence for aiding and abetting the 1979 killing of Steven A. Buus, 24, who was gunned down while walking at night through a Westminster park.

Guardado, who was 17 at the time, helped beat the victim before an accomplice shot him to death. Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas called the murder heinous and a "cruel thrill kill."

Despite Rackauckas' claim that Guardado has not expressed remorse, a federal judge found otherwise. Prison counselors also wrote that while in prison Guardado has "evolved into a rational, responsible and insightful person" who poses minimal threat to the community.

It is those two disparate views that have caused the dust-up between Rackauckas' office and Santa Cruz lawyer and Republican National Committee member Timothy J. Morgan, who is pushing for Guardado's release.

While in prison, Guardado has earned his high school equivalency degree, an associate in arts degree and a paralegal certificate, which U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken said will help him get a job if released. Guardado also has received the support of an Austrian cardinal and former GOP Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, as well as others, in his bid for parole.

In 2005, McPherson wrote a letter on his office's letterhead and Morgan used Republican National Committee letterhead to contact Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Guardado's behalf, calling him rehabilitated and a model prisoner. The letters are still part of Guardado's file.

Morgan's letter stirred the wrath of Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for Rackauckas and the wife of Michael Schroeder, former chairman of the California Republican Party. Both are well-connected with the local GOP.

Last week, she sent an e-mail to Morgan asking him to contact "the Board of Prison terms" and "withdraw your plea advocating for Guardado's parole and to pledge not to use your former California Republican Party and Republican National Committee titles to call for the release" of other convicted killers.