Michael S Carona

A federal judge expressed growing frustration Wednesday at the plodding pace of defense lawyers in the corruption case against former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, saying he feared the criminal trial could continue past Christmas. As lawyers picked through secretly recorded conversations between Carona and a Newport Beach businessman who says he bribed the former sheriff, District Judge Andrew J.

A Newport Beach millionaire stepped delicately around questions Friday about whether he had illegally reimbursed political contributions to elected officials other than the donations he testified he had laundered during the first campaign of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona. Don Haidl was asked specifically about reimbursements to the campaigns of former Los Angeles Mayor and City Atty. James K.

A fiery political watchdog in Orange County testified Wednesday that she schooled former Sheriff Michael S. Carona on campaign finance laws during his first run for office and warned him to look out for laundered contributions aimed at circumventing the local donor limit of $1,000. Shirley Grindle, a former aeronautics engineer who has devoted her retirement to enforcing county campaign rules, said she sat down with Carona in her living room in Orange on Jan.

She sits every day at a defense table behind former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, occasionally twirling her short blond hair and looking bored. As Carona's longtime paramour, she emerged from the shadows of his life last year when she was indicted in the public corruption case against the former sheriff. Now, as they face trial together, days pass with hardly a mention of her name. And at times, even the judge seems to have forgotten she is in his courtroom.

On the witness stand, George Jaramillo has been described as everything from a pickpocket to Satan, a one-time cop with a law degree who appeared thoroughly corrupted by sex, money and power. The former assistant sheriff of Orange County also was expected to be a star government witness at the trial of his former boss Michael S. Carona, who was the county's three-term sheriff until his indictment last year.

As the prosecution drew to a close Wednesday in the federal corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, defense attorneys acknowledged they were scrambling to line up witnesses. The government's final witness, an FBI agent, took the stand minutes before court adjourned and will be back this morning as prosecutors wrap up nearly seven weeks of testimony. At day's end Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Atty.

A retired assistant sheriff testified Thursday that he did not recall the department releasing a drunk-driving defendant from jail at the request of Newport Beach millionaire Don Haidl, a key government witness who made the allegation in the corruption trial of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona. Kim Markuson was one of five witnesses called by attorneys Brian A.

For all its lurid tales and allegations of unchecked greed, the corruption trial of "America's sheriff" fizzled to a close Friday. Michael S. Carona, the highest-ranking law enforcement official to be prosecuted in Orange County, has steadfastly denied charges that he sold the powers of his office for cash and gifts, hawked badges for campaign donations and even took advantage of a deputy's widow by steering her to an attorney friend in a kickback scheme.

The state attorney general's office dropped its criminal investigation into two allegations of sexual harassment against Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, determining that one case had no merit and the other could not be substantiated, a state official said Wednesday.

A sheriff's lieutenant filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, alleging Carona retaliated against him for supporting a rival in last year's race to be the county's top lawman. In his 22 years in the department, Jeff Bardzik rose steadily, the lawsuit says, until he announced his support for sheriff's Lt. Bill Hunt's effort to unseat Carona.