County Supervisors tomorrow get to vote on hiring the first chief of Orange County’s newly-formed Office of Indepdent Review.
The post - created in the wake of the jail beating death of John Derek Chamberlain and the cover-ups over the brutal stomping - may be the final stamp on that sad chapter in the history of the Orange County Sheriff’s Dept.
Tuesday, Stephen Connolly - who now works for the LA County independent review shop - is expected to be at the Supervisors meeting, where they’ll get to vote on his $210,000 annual contract.
Connolly will be expected to flesh out any major issues and problems with in-custody deaths or beatings. Under his contract, he’s entitled to a few staff attorneys and administrative staffers and has a $750K annual budget, similar to the county’s newly-formed Performance Auditor.
I asked Mario Mainero - chief of staff to Supervisors’ Chairman John Moorlach - about the irony of a conservative growing government so much with such oversight bureacracies and he was quick on the trigger:
“A conservative has concerns about the power of government. And the greatest manifestation of that power is in law enforcement. After all, they have guns,” he said.
“It’s actually a conservative position to want civilian control and oversight.”
One interesting snipet in Connolly’s contract that caught my eye was the provision stating that he’s essentially got an attorney-client relationship with BOTH the Sheriff and the Board of Supervisors.
That made me wonder…what does this guy do in another Chamberlain-type situation where the Sheriff and the board ain’t exactly on the same page?
“It’s a unique attorney-client relationship,” Connolly said. “Both have agreed to hire an attorney who will protect their interests by maintaining independence.”
Mainero, who is also a law professor, said Connolly would have to withdraw if there’s ever a true conflict. But just having a hypothetical conflict isn’t the same. The most important thing, both agree on, is that any potential situation would be reported out.
Related stories:
- The Register’s Tony Saavedra and Rachanee Srisavasdi’s investigation into Chamberlain’s death
- Supervisors OK independent panel to monitor jails
Wasn’t Michael Gennaco already appointed as an executive on the OIR? I thought he was looking into the more recent death of the inmate who was tazed and according to the autopsy had his head crushed with the heel of a boot? That was about 6 months ago. Has the country ruled that death as a homicide yet? Why are they dragging their feet? I thought we were supposed to have a new transperancy in the sheriff’s office? Aren’t the citizens allowed to know whether the inmate died by getting his head kicked in? Apparently that’s what the docs at Western Med in SA concluded. But the last story on it was so long ago all of our memories are fuzzy. I guess that’s what the system counts on. Looks like business as usual to me.
Is this another Los Angeles crony of your Female Sheriff? Guess she is setting in to become the Queen of Orange County. All those assistants she brought with her and now this! Guess Orange County cannot produce anything but dupes! You don’t even have your own Major League Baseball team!!!!!!!!!!
WASTE OF $$$$
210K a year could be better spent elsewhere, seriously!
If the county has attorney client privilege and can envoke that privilege whenver they choose, then where is the transparency of an independant review. If he answers to the board and the Sheriff then who’s interests are being served? Sounds like a lot of political BS. Doesn’t the county already have “County Counsel” to do that job?
while I’m nit picking, I notice this posting refers to the ” cover-ups over the brutal stomping”. When did somebody cover up the stomping death? If that were truly the case wouldn’t the DA have charged somebody? As I recall, the “cover up” was related to who would take the lead in the investigation. shoddy wordsmithing if you ask me.
Just what we need more lawyers overseeing and imposing their will on government. People wonder where all their tax dollars are going. It’s going to the never ending legal bureaucracy. Before governments could be sued (which didn’t start until the liberal supreme court of the 1960’s) we built roads, schools, universities, bridges, and dams. We built miles of aqueducts and made an oasis out of this desert. Now we pay lawyers and give money away to whoever files a claim against the government because the government is afraid it will lose its shirt to a liberal jury. Moorlach complains the taxpayers are getting hosed by government pensions, it pails in comparison to all the lawyers, risk management, and other CYA policies that are created by our lawsuit happy society. Until we stop punishing the taxpayers who had absolutely nothing to do with the cause of action of these lawsuits we will continue to piss away $$$.
Ms. Gallego:
The last story I read on the inmate’s death after the family conducted an independent autopsy, their report indicated the man’s skull was crushed and that was the cause of death. Michael Gennaco said that he was in the process of participating in the oversight of the investigation. This was 6 months ago? My question is ‘what has changed?’ Where is the reform? The citizens have no right to updated information? Surely, the county autopsy has been completed and the report is available by this time. Are they going to use the ‘litigation’ excuse again to withhold information from us? So if we are spending all this money for ‘reform’ what has really changed?
Can I say that no one has heard anything…not even the family regarding Jason..autopsy…nada. May he rest in peace and is not living in this hell.