Michael S Carona

Attorneys for former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona implored a federal judge Friday to dismiss most of the charges he is facing, contending that prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office overstepped their authority in targeting him. Carona attorney John D. Cline said the federal government is obligated to allow states to set and enforce their own political corruption laws.

Attorneys for former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona told a judge Friday that they want the corruption case moved outside Southern California, and possibly farther, because two radio shock jocks are trying to taint the jury pool. In arguing for a change of venue, Brian A. Sun cited segments of KFI-AM (640) radio's "John and Ken Show," during which the hosts encouraged potential jurors to lie their way onto the panel and convict Carona.

In a small, square room with a view of the Hollywood Hills, KFI's John and Ken spend hours needling public officials and tossing out satirical and sometimes sophomoric lines that reach an estimated 1 million listeners per month. Now, the radio provocateurs may have a surprisingly significant impact on the prosecution of a man who was once Orange County's most powerful law enforcement officer. This week, attorneys for former Orange County Sheriff Michael S.

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's request to file a secret motion to move his corruption trial out of Southern California violates the 1st Amendment's free-press protection, a media attorney argued Thursday. Carona's attorneys have asked U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford to keep their motion to move the trial sealed because releasing it would create additional inflammatory publicity about the case.

Noting that even high-profile cases like Watergate were not relocated, federal prosecutors argued Wednesday that a fair and impartial Orange County jury could be found for the trial of former Sheriff Michael S. Carona, despite pretrial publicity including antics by a pair of Los Angeles radio hosts.

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona talked to a former top assistant about "cleansing" the department's reserve-deputy files of information he did not want federal prosecutors to find, the government alleges in a court filing Thursday. The filing came in response to U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford's request that prosecutors provide more specific details about one of the witness-tampering charges in Carona's upcoming corruption trial.

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona instructed an employee to lie to investigators about a sexual relationship she had with him, federal prosecutors alleged in a motion filed Friday. Prosecutors asked U.S. Dist. Judge Andrew J. Guilford to allow them to call the woman as a witness at Carona's upcoming corruption trial because, they say, she could corroborate a charge that he encouraged another witness to lie to a grand jury.

Attorneys for former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona asked a judge Friday to instruct jurors in his upcoming corruption trial that federal prosecutors violated state ethical guidelines when they instructed a former assistant sheriff to secretly record conversations with Carona last year. U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford has already denied a defense request to exclude the recordings as evidence in Carona's trial, now scheduled to begin Aug. 26.

I'll make every effort not to stretch the point here, but just like Bill Clinton, former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona knows how to work a room. He's personable, well-spoken and has that innate speaker's gift of knowing how to go from serious to funny and back to serious with seeming ease. And as Carona's trial nears -- still scheduled to start next month -- it's hard to picture how he'll clear himself without testifying.

Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's onetime mistress Friday asked the federal judge presiding over their upcoming trial on corruption and conspiracy charges to exclude the nature of their relationship from the case when it goes to a jury trial this year.