I Love the Smell of "Scandal" in the Morning

Today’s post begins with a fractal called Coronal. I picked it because the title is almost an anagram for Carona--the last name of our current Orange County Sherriff. I know the connection is tenuous at best but it’s the best I could do for this one.
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Mike Carona is a third-term Sherriff here in the OC, popular with the public and a master of public relations. He somehow managed to get himself tagged as “America’s Sherriff”--thanks to the high profile Samantha Runyon child-abduction, rape and murder case. He is also a big-time politician, well-connected in the county and state Republican party. Sadly, he is also not above using his office to punish anyone who dared oppose him in an election.
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By this I’m talking about the 2006 election in which Sherriff’s Deputy Lt. Mike Hunt had the temerity to run against Carona. Carona had the blessings of the Orange County (and maybe even the state-wide) Republican political machine but Hunt still challenged him. Carona considered this “disloyal” and fought all the harder to get re-elected (even though he had promised to limit himself to two terms). After “America’s Sherriff” handily won that election Carona promptly moved to demote Lt. Hunt and removed him from his cushy post within the Sherriff’s Department. (NOTE: what Sherriff Carona did was completely legal: he was within his rights to make the move. Ethically--that’s another story. His decision was widely questioned by many.)
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So--why am I dragging up something that was over-and-done two years ago? Simple--Mike Hunt accused Sherriff Carona of “peddling favors” to his major contributors--favors like giving his supporters concealed weapon permits (outside of standard legal channels), appointing cronies to political positions then giving them and their families special treatment when they had legal trouble. (The OC Sherriff’s Department severely botched the rape case against Greg Haidl and two others: Greg Haidl is the son of former OC Assistant Sherriff Don Haidl--a former "close friend" and political appointee of Carona’s.) Around the same time Assistant Sherriff George Jaramillo (another former friend of the Sherriff) was indicted on a number of charges, Both Haidl and Jaramillo were eventually charged and convicted. During his investigation, Jaramillo alleged the Sherrif's hands were none too clean either. Wednesday October 31, Sherriff Mike Carona, his wife Deborah and alleged "long-time mistress" Debra Hoffman were all indicted on Federal Corruption charges. (FUL LITTLE ASIDE: Debra Hoffman was the former law partner of George Jaramillo.)
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Sherriff Carona “vehemently denies” all charges (of course) and says that he is “looking forward” to defending himself in court where he expect to be “fully exonerated’ once he “explains” his side of the story. (Right now at least) his bigwig Republican allies are fully supporting him. (We‘ll see what happens as time goes on and more info comes out.) Is he guilty? I don’t know: I believe that he is an arrogant, vengeful man who has made a number of “questionable” ethical decisions in his career but that doesn't necessarily make him guilty. The Department of Justice conducted a long investigation and a Grand Jury believed there was enough evidence to charge him. I have to assume the Feds have something more than the word of a couple of convicted felons on which to base their case--but we’ll never know until trial, will we? Even if he isn’t found guilty the Sherriff’s reputation will be tainted for a very long time to come and I doubt Carona will be supported for higher political on the state or national level. I’ll be watching this one closely to see how it all plays out in the end. It should be--very interesting! God, I love the smell of “scandal” in the morning!