The Orange County Register reported in its Online news about the good police work by the Department's Court Operations Judicial Protection Unit and the Bomb Squad.

Ronald Gary Turner, 44, was arrested July 2 after Orange County sheriff's deputies found handcuffs, pepper spray, throwing knives and a stolen 9 mm gun inside his vehicle during a traffic stop. The gun was loaded with hollow-point rounds and had the serial numbers removed.

During a search of his Costa Mesa home, authorities discovered a cache of explosives, including two homemade bombs with timers, two homemade guns, other bomb-making materials, tactical equipment, a bulletproof vest, and listening devices. Two children lived in the room next to where the bombs were kept, according to county prosecutors.

To read the whole story click here.

On July 3, 2008, The Harbor Justice Center, Laguna Niguel will close its doors after serving south county residents for the last several decades.   The closure will be temporary while a new fourteen courtroom facility is built adjacent to the old building.  The old building will be renovated and combined to provide an eighteen courtroom campus.   A completion date is projected for sometime in 2011. 

Sheriff's Special Officer Randy Miller secures the American Flag that flies over the courthouse.  

Criminal cases have been moved to the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.  The Harbor Justice Center, Laguna Hills Facility (Annex) at 23141 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills will continue to operate for Traffic, Limited Civil and Small Claims cases.

The Exchange Club of Corona del Mar, which has been supporting community causes in Orange County for 21-years, honored five members of the Department on Thursday.

The five received plaques and kudos from the Club’s Crime Prevention Program.  The club also donated to the Department three large sacks of teddy bears.  They purchased the bears with the proceeds of their recycling program.  The bears are used by deputies when there is a need to comfort a child they encounter when duty takes them to a family crisis.

Sheriff Sandra Hutchens attended the Awards Presentation. Club members, who have given the awards for several years, said it was the clubs first presentation attended by the county sheriff.

“I want to thank your club for honoring our personnel,” Sheriff Hutchens told the group.  “I think you know how much it means to them. As you see, they have brought family members and friends. It means so much, with all the negative press sometimes that we get, it really does my heart good that you are honoring these folks who absolutely everyday do a wonderful job. We appreciate your recognizing what they have done and I know they do. “

“I’m so happy to be Sheriff of Orange County,” she added.  “I’m here to serve you.  My message to you is simple; this is your sheriff’s department.  We’re going to take our direction from you. I’m going to work with these great men and women of this Department and we’re going to make it even better. “

The first presentation was to Deputy Holly Fisher of Harbor Patrol.

Harbor Patrol’s Captain Deana Bergquist said Deputy Fisher was well deserving of the award.  She has been with the Department nearly 19 years and has worked in Harbor for 5 years, serving in all three stations. She is licensed by the Coast Guard to captain a vessel of 100 tons. The license is recognition of her boat handling and navigation competence. It entitles her to wear a pin on her uniform noting the Coast Guard license. Only 16 members of the Department hold the Coast Guard license.

Captain Bergquist noted that the weather on Thursday was  near perfect but when winter comes, the day sky often darkens with storm clouds, gale force winds and waves that break over the jetties and inside the harbor.  When weather conditions turn ugly, some mariners, Captain Bergquist said kindly, “exceed their skill level.”

“Holly has been involved in a number of dangerous situations,” Captain Bergquist said. She told a story that occurred in January. More...

A news story in the Los Angeles Times four weeks ago regarding Department overtime issues has triggered a county audit and an internal change on how overtime is tracked by Division Commanders.  

Meanwhile another news organization in the county continues the examination of Department overtime that they began in February.  Overtime expenses were recently reviewed by the Orange County Grand Jury.

The grand jury report was made public last week and on the issue of overtime, there was no adverse finding or recommendation and the Department was not required to respond.  The grand jury conclusion was this:  

Deputy Overtime in the OCSD Jail System

The Grand Jury examined the Sheriff-Coroner Department overtime costs for the last five fiscal years. Although overtime costs have increased during this timeframe, the increases have been proportionate to salary increases averaging 9% of salary and employee benefit costs. The Sherriff-Coroner Department has been under total budget for each of the last five fiscal years.

Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson recognized the need for Deputies to work overtime in order to fulfill our obligations. He thanked staff members who volunteer to work it in accordance with Department regulations. During the Santiago Fire and the subsequent flooding, over 1,300 individuals from the Sheriff’s Department worked overtime to protect the public. More...

Sergeant Mike Wallace:

I would like to once again take the opportunity to offer continued praise and recognition for the outstanding job that Deputy [Kimberly] Stansfield performs in my courtroom.  Deputy Stansfield has worked with me in my courtroom for the last three plus years.  During that time, our assignments have varied.

During the past year, we worked in Department N-13 for six months handling the Felony trial calendar of Judge Prickett.  In that assignment, she exhibited professionalism with life sentence inmates, victims and victim’s families, defendant’s family/friends, jurors, attorneys, as well as all the many other tasks required to perform in felony trials.  She not only assisted in making sure things went timely, but more importantly dealt with the increased security concerns and potentially volatile situations that arise in this type of assignment.  Our next assignment was Department N-6 as an open trial courtroom and included Misdemeanor trials, Preliminary Hearings, Civil Harassments/Civil Trials, Felony and Misdemeanor sentencing’s and miscellaneous matters.  Our current assignment is Department N-9 where we handle private attorney pre-trials and back-up preliminary hearings.

Deputy Stansfield is always on time and has consistently demonstrated a very high level of professionalism and courtesy when dealing with me, court staff, attorneys, fellow deputies, prisoners, jurors and the public in the audience.  I find her to be an excellent deputy sheriff and courtroom bailiff and she is a true asset to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me if I can provide you with any further information.

Sincerely,

Lance P. Jensen
Superior Court Judge

Guilty on all counts.

Count 1: We find you guilty of having a dynamic personality and the professionalism that's second to none...

Click the image to read all five counts:

Deputy Mark Lange received a letter of commendation from the grandmother of a defendant.  The defendant appeared in his courtroom for a drug charge case that lasted nearly three years.  The grandmother was always present.  She wrote:

“You probably think we forgot about you and you probably think we were ungrateful….
 
Please accept this as a very small token of our appreciation.  We have thought of you often. 

You were the one that remained strong and kept control of the courtroom and did it in a very professional manner.

You were the one that when things seemed a bit tuff on us that you were sensitive and compassionate.

We will forever be grateful for your kind and compassionate words to our family and the young man in custody.

You have been a great example of what a Law Enforcement Officer should be and I know there were others but

You stood out the most because of the constant contact in the courtroom.

Once again Thank You so very much for being a decent human being… …God Bless,”

The Orange County Board of Supervisors authorized the Department to join COPLINK, an multi-jurisdictional information sharing consortium first planned four years ago with a grant from the Department of Homeland Security. 

The Sheriff’s Department joining the consortium comes after several years of wrangling over legal and technical issues, said Capt. Mike James.   

“We’ve put those issues to rest and now we are a full voting member of the Integrated Law & Justice Agency for Orange County,” Capt. James said.

COPLINK is essentially a computer interpretation tool  which accepts information from all law enforcement agencies in the county, along with the Superior Court, the District Attorney and the Probation Department. Those agencies use a myriad of computer formats but COPLINK accepts all of the data and allows it to be accessed by agencies with otherwise non-compatible computer formats.  

Sheriff’s deputies and investigators will soon have access to information on individuals, crimes and events gathered by court and law enforcement sources throughout the county.  Bob McDonell, executive director of Integrated Law & Justice Agency for Orange County said the system is currently undergoing an upgrade that will enhance the service provided to law enforcement. 

Department personnel using the system will be able to access information from the Los Angeles Police Department, San Diego County, and a growing number of agencies around the state and the nation. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is expected to join the system soon, said McDonell, who retired as the Newport Beach Police Chief before joining the agency as Executive Director.  It vastly expands the number of data bases available to deputies on patrol, investigators and those classifying inmates in the jails.  “Now when there is a traffic stop a suspicious vehicle, you can find out not more than the driver’s traffic and criminal record,” Capt. James said. “You can find out if the person was a witness to a crime, a victim of a crime and who they hang out with.”  

The system also allows investigators to feed information about a crime and learn about similar elements in crimes committed elsewhere.  In March 2004, Orange County agencies secured a DHS grant through the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) program. The UASI Grant recipients in the County - Santa Ana and Anaheim - applied for the grant to en­hance the goals of improved homeland security efforts in the region, which included information sharing among County law enforcement and justice agencies as one of its primary goals for the purpose of thwarting crime and terrorism.

A multi-jurisdictional consortium known as the Integrated Law and Justice (ILJ) Project was already in place, and under the guidance of Deloitte Consulting, had just completed developing a “requirements defini­tion” for an information sharing project in preparation for a formal bid process to identify a solution. To learn more about COPLINK, check this out: 042408 Orange County CA Case Study.pdf (1.60 mb)

The Board of Supervisors also ratified the Memorandum of Understanding between the Naval Criminal Investigative Service for the Sheriff's Department to participate in the Southern California Law Enforcement Information Exchange (SoCal LInX). 

To see the Board of Supervisors staff reports on both agenda items click here: More...

About 75 people turned out early Friday morning at Doheny State Beach for a “paddleout” in memory of retired Lt. Darrell “Guy”  Poncy, known as a mentor to many in the Department.

About 30 of those at the memorial paddled offshore on surfboards and other floatables. Flowers were cast off the stern of a fishing boat that carried several members of Lt. Poncy’s family.  His brother was in a second boat.

Duke flew overhead and a Harbor Patrol fireboat gave a salute with water spray.  Retired Assistant Sheriffs Kim Markuson and Pete Gannon were among those attending the memorial.

Lt. Poncy died on April 15 while training for the Baker 2 Vegas Run. The Department’s  Womens Running Team placed first in their category in the competition and they dedicated their victory to his memory.

Pictures were taken by Harbor Patrol's Sgt. John Hollenbeck and Deputy William Nelson.

This coming weekend there will be a “Poncy Memorial Run & Walk.” It will take place on Saturday, May 17, starting at 0800 hours at Peters Canyon Regional Park, 8548 E. Canyon View Ave., Orange.

To see the flyer click on Poncy Run Revised.pdf (142.81 kb)

Part 1 from the Orange County Register is available today. Register reporter Andrew Galvin spent several days with our deputies for his story:

"Over the next three days we'll tell the story from several points of view, through the eyes of a deputy sheriff who carries out evictions, a landlord struggling to overcome the loss of $10,000 in unpaid rent, and Diaz, a woman about to lose her tenuous grip on pride and self-sufficiency.

As we begin, Diaz has five days before the sheriff will come back to evict her...

The story is complete with pictures and video. Read it all right here.

They were smaller teams than they were 10 weeks ago, smaller by 722 pounds.

The Battle of the Badges pitted 10 sworn members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department against an equal number of Santa Ana Police Officers.

Of the 20 participants, every one met their goal of losing at least 10 percent of their body weight. Sheriff’s Department members lost 310 pounds between them while the Santa Ana team lost 412 pounds.

The competition, sponsored by the Lean for Life Foundation and managed by Lindora Health Clinics, drew regional press attention and is scheduled to be the subject of a segment on The CBS Early Show, between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Friday.

A need for weight control was pitched at the final Weigh-In by Lindora CEO Cynthia Stamper Graff. She gave out a set of startling statistics. For every law enforcement officer killed by a criminal, 25 die due to weight related cardiovascular diseases.

Assistant Sheriff J.B. Davis spoke to the group and mentioned that he has had a lifelong battle against gaining weight and he has had some success and some failure.

“I look at the people here and I know what they’ve done wasn’t easy,” he said. More...

You never know where praise will be offered for the work of the members of the Orange County Sheriff's Department. Here are some kudos recently for the extraordinary work. 

Lt. Mike Betzler, Chief of Police Services for the City of San Juan Capistrano was praised by Senior Deputy Orange County District Attorney Tracy Rinauro for his assistance with the San Juan Capistrano gang injunction. Senior D.A. Rinauro wrote, "I have had the pleasure of working with Lt. Betzler for the past year and a half. He is an amazing asset to the Sheriff's Department, the Orange County District Attorney's Office and the San Juan Capistrano community. Lt. Betzler was instrumental to the success of the gang injunction. He has an amazingly positive attitude and excellent communication skills. I have recently had the opportunity to work with Lt. Betzler on gang prevention programs in San Juan Capistrano. He has built a professional relationship with several different community organizations throughout Orange County. Lt. Betzler has connected me to many of these community leaders to work with them on gang prevention
projects in San Juan Capistrano. Lt. Betzler genuinely cares about the San Juan Capistrano community and he is dedicated to making it a safe place to live and work. He has an incredible amount of energy and has on many occasions gone above and beyond the call of duty to assist me with establishing a gang prevention project in San Juan Capistrano. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to work with Lt. Mike Betzler. His professional demeanor, enthusiastic, positive attitude and dedication to his career inspire me."

Sgt. Mike Gavin was recently featured in the OCTA newsletter for his hard work. He has been with OCTA/Transit Police Services since September, 2006.  Sgt. Gavin supervises the Right-of-Way Team that patrols the OCTA right of way, and conducts special operations for Transit/Bus Operations.  He is currently working with OCTA staff on the implementation of the video live-feed capability for Transit Police Services. More...

On Wednesday, April 2, Gold Star Awards were given to 25 individuals for some of the best work and production in the Department last year. The ceremony honored Gold Star Award winners for both the Third and Fourth Quarters of 2007.

We are working on a reconfiguration of the blog that should allow us in the near future to give a full account of why each of these individuals was given the award. For now, here are the names of the winners. They deserve our praise. More...

This video was featured at the Medal of Valor luncheon last Friday. The Register covered the ceremony here.

Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler ruled today that information on jail security and deputy personnel files will remain sealed but transcripts and non-confidential evidence in the Chamberlain grand jury probe will be made public.

The Department went to court to block the release of information that would endanger the lives of staff and inmates and personnel information that is protected by law.

Acting Sheriff Jack Anderson’s statement on the decision:

Superior Court Judge James A. Stotler should be commended on today’s ruling. The court spent several days carefully examining the numerous legal issues involved in this proceeding. Today the court recognized that if certain limited information is released to the public it could cost human life and that security and confidentiality of certain jail records is critical to the safety and security of inmates in the jail.

Although we have been the subject of unwarranted criticism by members of the media for acting to protect these limited records, today’s decision reaffirms our responsibility to legally protect information regarding the safety and security of our inmates as well as personnel records.

It has always been our expectation and desire that these transcripts would be released promptly. I welcome the disclosure of these transcripts and look forward to a full public review of John Chamberlain’s death and the investigation that followed.

The Orange County Register has a story online about the decision. To read it click here.

A federal jury took just 20 minutes to reach a verdict in favor of Deputies Mark Kent and Adam Moore in a case in which they were accused of using excessive force on an jail inmate on February 28, 2001.  The case was on trial for more than three weeks before U.S. District Court Judge Alicemarie Stotler.

For the Orange County Register's story on the verdict click here.

For the Register's story on the beginning of the trial click here.

Jaimee Lynn Fletcher writes:

The North County Justice Center on Tuesday celebrated giving its 12,000th student a reality check.

More than 30 students from El Camino Real High School in Placentia toured the court to learn about adult responsibility and the consequences of straying from the straight and narrow.

The students met with Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett and representatives from the Sheriff's Department. The boys and girls sat in on traffic cases and felony trials and visited the jail.

Read it all here.