Orange County Sheriff S Department

County supervisors voted narrowly Tuesday to continue giving the Sheriff's Department the lion's share of millions raised each year from a special sales tax for law enforcement. The 3-2 vote made the policy permanent, despite objections from Supervisor Marian Bergeson who argued that future boards will not have the flexibility to use the funds where they are needed.

An Orange County Sheriff's deputy has been charged with workers' compensation fraud following an internal investigation into his back injury claims, according to county prosecutors. Deputy Jeffrey David Hollenbeck, 33, has pleaded innocent to three counts of making false or misleading statements in order to receive workers' compensation insurance benefits. Sheriff's Department spokesman Lt. Ron Wilkerson said he could not comment on the case because it involves a confidential personnel matter.

Two Orange County sheriff's deputies who happened on a possible gang confrontation exchanged gunfire with a 17-year-old before capturing him in an alley near the Civic Center, police said. The plainclothes deputies were driving westbound on Civic Center Drive near Bristol Street when they saw two teenagers, one holding a poorly concealed handgun, walking quickly toward a third, Police Lt. Robert Helton said. All three teenagers ran when the deputies announced themselves, Helton said.

The U.S. Justice Department declined to prosecute a former Orange County sheriff's deputy for the lethal shooting of his partner after concluding the slaying was accidental and not motivated by race, according to investigative files released Wednesday. "There is no evidence to indicate that this victim's death resulted from anything other than a tragic accidental shooting," the Justice Department concluded after reviewing the investigations of local law enforcement agencies.

After finding that two men were victims of police brutality, a jury awarded them $6,000. Then the judge ordered them to pay $241,000 for the officers' attorney fees. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a travesty," said Thomas Beck, attorney for plaintiffs Jose Bernal and Shawn Choate. "It was bad enough that they had to get beat up and hurt," Beck told the Los Angeles Daily Journal. "How do I explain to my clients what happened?" The case was filed in 1991 and came to trial last month.

A jury on Thursday awarded $480,000 to an Orange County correctional employee, finding the woman had been sexually harassed by three male co-workers at the Central Men's Jail. Ramona Barbour, 39, contended during a five-week trial in Orange County Superior Court that she had been subjected to constant and offensive verbal and physical harassment as well as unwanted sexual advances from May 1993 until January 1995. She eventually took a leave and was transferred to another jail in March 1995.

The Board of Supervisors will decide next week whether to grant Sheriff Brad Gates a 9.1% raise that would boost his base salary to $126,200 a year. Board Chairman Roger R. Stanton proposed the salary increase, which he described as long overdue, given the sheriff's "considerable contributions to the County of Orange and as a key member of the county's management team." Gates' salary is now $115,000--several thousand dollars less than the base pay earned by Dist. Atty. Michael R.

The Sheriff's Department is seeking a $93,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department to buy computer equipment and possibly redeploy deputies into community policing activities. Federal grants through a program called Cops More '96 pay as much as 75% of the costs of equipment and hiring civilian personnel. The Sheriff's Department would use the grant to buy a computerized database management system and hire one civilian employee for a limited time. The total would be $124,000.

Hoping to reduce the city's crime rate, the City Council this week approved spending $75,130 to pay for increased sheriff's patrols. The money, which came from a state grant, will be used to pay for 1,800 hours of overtime this year for deputies who patrol Stanton. The grant will also cover the increased cost of bookings that are likely to occur from more arrests. "The crime rate in the city is down, but why not make it go down more since the money has been made available to us?"

Government reform activists are raising concerns about a county policy quietly approved last month by the Board of Supervisors that permits Sheriff's Department employees to engage in fund-raising activities for a nonprofit organization while on duty.