John Derek Chamberlain

In yet another sign of tension between Orange County's most powerful law enforcement branches, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas has accused the Sheriff's Department of botching a child molestation investigation involving a sheriff's detective who ultimately killed himself before he could be arrested. Rackauckas wrote to sheriff's officials and suggested their investigators were "merely going through the motions" as they investigated a deputy suspected of molesting young boys earlier this year.

In a historic break from a male-dominated, deeply conservative past, Orange County supervisors on Tuesday named a woman and former Los Angeles County cop to lead its troubled Sheriff's Department and help bury the legacy of its indicted former sheriff. Sandra Hutchens, a 53-year-old retired Los Angeles County sheriff's division chief, becomes the 12th sheriff of Orange County and the first woman to hold the position.

Boosted by what some officials consider to be out-of-control overtime spending, two-thirds of Orange County sworn sheriff's deputies earned more than $100,000 last year, according to records obtained by The Times. Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson said he was so concerned by the figures that he has ordered monthly reports on overtime usage and vowed to launch disciplinary reviews of any deputies who exceeded the department's limit of 24 overtime hours per week.

They lied, they changed their stories and they compared notes even after being ordered not to by a special Orange County grand jury investigating a deadly beating at Theo Lacy Jail, the testimony shows. During 45 days of grand jury prodding, members of the Sheriff's Department repeatedly hindered the probe, according to thousands of pages of transcripts made public last week. Then-Sheriff Michael S.

A grand jury transcript released Monday describes an Orange County jail in disarray, with deputies watching television, playing video games and taking naps while inmates were allowed to use brutality and intimidation to keep order in the cellblocks. The conclusions are contained in 7,000 pages of transcripts from a special criminal grand jury impaneled by Dist. Atty.