Orange County Sheriff S Department

Costs are quickly mounting in Orange County's effort to invalidate its pension agreement with sheriff's deputies, public records show. The county has already paid a total of more than half a million dollars to four law firms in the last year to research and develop a strategy for a legal challenge -- and that's before supervisors have even decided to take the case to court.

The state attorney general is reviewing whether interim Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson broke the law by appearing in uniform while trying to dissuade the San Clemente City Council from endorsing a former sheriff's lieutenant as a replacement for indicted Sheriff Michael S. Carona, who later resigned. During a council meeting in November, shortly after Carona was indicted on corruption charges, Anderson, then an assistant sheriff, told the council members that Lt.

Talked out of lobbying for a former sheriff's lieutenant to replace indicted and now retired Sheriff Michael S. Carona last year, the San Clemente City Council had second thoughts late Tuesday. The council agreed Tuesday night to write a letter to Orange County supervisors asking them to appoint former Lt. Bill Hunt as a permanent replacement for Carona, who is facing federal corruption charges.

Orange County's acting Sheriff Jack Anderson on Thursday proposed pulling hundreds of deputies from the state's second-largest jail system and replacing them with career correctional officers. The move, which would dramatically change the way Orange County jails are operated, would create a new career path in the Sheriff's Department: employees who are permanently assigned to the county jails.

The acting sheriff of Orange County has gotten off to a rocky start in his relationship with the union that represents the county's sheriff's deputies. Three weeks after the union disclosed that its members didn't support Jack Anderson's effort to become sheriff, it has challenged his proposal to pull deputies from county jails and replace them with lower-paid correctional officers. The Assn.

A Lake Forest woman was killed during an early morning jog Sunday when a car driven by a security guard on his way to work swerved and struck her, authorities said. Marcia Soto, 48, was pronounced dead at the scene on Bake Parkway between North Pointe Drive and Crescent Drive shortly after 6 a.m. Orange County Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino said alcohol was not involved but investigators were examining whether the driver, whose name was not released, may have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Seeking to spread the workload after the abrupt departure of two top assistants, acting Orange County Sheriff Jack Anderson on Tuesday temporarily elevated a captain and a civilian to his command staff. Capt. John B. Davis, who was overseeing the department's Central Jail Complex, will be in charge of investigations, filling the vacancy left when Assistant Sheriff Steve Bishop retired last week.

Could a lawsuit seeking to cut pensions for Orange County sheriff's deputies be tried fairly in one of the county's own courtrooms? That question is at the heart of a motion filed recently by the board of the county retirement system, which has been sued by Orange County in a closely watched battle over $187 million in benefits.

A nine-month grand jury investigation into the beating death of an Orange County jail inmate found that no crimes were committed by sheriff's deputies accused of instigating the assault and ignoring the victim's cries for help, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas said Friday. But Rackauckas said the 2006 slaying of John Chamberlain could have been avoided and admonished the Sheriff's Department for not following its own procedures to ensure inmate safety, although he wouldn't elaborate.

A special grand jury that reviewed the fatal beating of a Theo Lacy Jail inmate scolded the Orange County Sheriff's Department for investigating the death itself rather than turning the case over to the district attorney, violating a 20-year-old policy "through conscious choice or negligent action." In a letter made public Wednesday, the panel pointed out that the policy adopted in 1985 had been honored in 129 out of 130 custodial death investigations.