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National anti-crime expert backs Carona
April 22nd, 2009, 6:00 am · 53 Comments · posted by Rachanee Srisavasdi
John Walsh, a nationally-known child-victim advocate and host of “America’s Most Wanted,” has written a letter to a federal judge in support of ex-sheriff Mike Carona:
“Mike served on the Board of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and worked with us extensively to advance the National Center’s mission to protect kids. He was truly the “gold standard” for how a sheriff ought to address missing children issues,” Walsh wrote.
Walsh is one of several Carona supporters who have written to U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford about the ex-lawman — who will be sentenced Monday on a felony witness tampering conviction.
The letters were filed under seal as part of the defense’s sentencing brief Tuesday, but some excerpts were made public. Guilford may unseal the letters — including one written by Carona — later this week.
Read a story about Carona’s motion, which asks for a sentence of probation, here.
About the case
- Complete coverage
- Live notes from the trial
- Frank Mickadeit’s column on Carona
- Interactive of Mike Carona’s career
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DENA BUNIS, Washington bureau chief, 202-628-6381 or dbunis@ocregister.com
BRIAN JOSEPH, Sacramento correspondent, 916-449-6046 or bjoseph@ocregister.com
JENNIFER MUIR, County government reporter, 714-796-7813 or jmuir@ocregister.com
JOEL WALSH, Washington bureau intern, 202-628-6381 or jwalsh@ocregister.com
MARTIN WISCKOL, Politics reporter, 714-285-2867 or mwisckol@ocregister.com twitter.com/MartinWisckol
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Doesn’t matter what Boards he served on. He broke the law, is a convicted felon and now will be sentenced. Period, end of story.
I just lost faith in john walsh
So am I. J. W. is no moral compass
He broke the law PERIOD. END OF STORY…
Corona is just another corrupt politician (he held an elected position, he’s not a lawman). Maybe he did some good somewhere, but he got caught dirty on tape. Whatever punishment he gets, he deserves.
His story is demonstrative of the arrogance that permeates Orange County politics (attention: Board of Supervisors). The prevailing attitude is “We/I can do whatever the F we want to, who’s going to tell us different?”
This only changes when they get sued. Be prepared for a lot more “settlements” like Jaramillo is getting, there are so many flagrant violations of various civil and employment codes I can hardly believe they haven’t been sued left and right prior to this.
Where are the County Lawyers who wrote at will contract??? They not Taxpayers should pay the settlement.
He broke the law, so what? Good for him…
END OF STORY…
I’m sure the only reason Corona was on the Board was to help in his relections not because he was truly wanting to help children. John Walsh should face it Corona is the lowest of the low, a corrupt Cop!
You dont get positive brownie points to negate what you have done illegally.
He must now serve his time.
When he is released, go ahead and allow him back on the board of missing children and he can continue his good works.
Supposedly much of the case against Corona was lost because the statute of limitations has run.
If our legislators REALLY were doing their jobs [and not handing out bonuses to their staff] the would introduce legislation that suspends the running of the statute of limitations for crimes committed while one held elective office until such time as that person no longer held the office.
Carona doesn’t deserve any jail time.
Hello!!!
He was found guilty and you said he doesn’t deserve any jail time.
Then who go to jail? For the poor and unfortunate ones?
I heard he helped an old lady cross the street once.
Something tells me he won’t be fighting for missing/exploited children while in prison - more like fighting to avoid getting exploited by Bubba.
“felony witness tampering conviction”
Sounds like a speeding ticket. The case is nonsense and if this is all they can find against him it sure sounds like a fishing trip.
He will likely get probation and told to stay 50 feet away from jurors and witnesses. If he gets anything else it will not be in the interest of justice as this entire case is a media showcase just like Paris Hilton.
Carona’s only interest in the National Center, missing chidren, or John Walsh was the publicity he could get from the association. John Walsh on the other hand is interested only in showing appreciation for whatever help he can get for his most worthy cause. God bless John Walsh, he tried to say something nice. Too bad Carona does’nt deserve it. Read the statement again, very non-committal about Carona himself, just says he sounded good when he spoke about missing children.
While Carona’s stand on protecting kids is admirable, he unfortunately had other sinister diminsions to his character that were not, and for those he’s now a convicted felon.
John Walsh…are you just plain blind and stupid..You should really do some deep research before you throw your name out there in support of this criminal…dont be fooled by guys like Carona..John..do some research for yourself..check out Caronas associates in Vegas…surprise….
I have done a few good deeds in my time as well. But if I broke the law, I would not be pardoned because of them. I agree with almost everyone else here - he did the crime, he should do the time. There is NO excuse.
But something tells me he’s going to walk. He has far too many friends in high places for this to end up any other way.
Why would Carona’s legal team ask that the letters be kept secret? What are they trying to hide this time? Can we all send in a letter asking that Carona get the maximum sentence?
I can see that John Walsh has no regard for our legal system. Yep, he broke the law. PERIOD. END OF STORY…
Go directly to jail, do not pass go…
.
So by Mr. Walsh’s logic, if one occasionally does something good it can be used to negate a career of corruption and crime? I’m sure some of the bad guys he chases on his show once helped a little old lady cross the street so I guess he should stop pursuing them….sheesh
Hey John, all the good Corona may have done doesn’t erase the laws he has broken. He’s been convicted by a jury. Now he must pay the price for breaking the law.
I’m sorry. I lost my head.
John Walsh is a unique individual. It takes a very brave person to do what he does, regarding his “Most Wanted” shows. He operates without fear, so the average person really can’t understand the reasoning behind his actions.
I heard he was especially good at comforting the mothers of the missing kids.
It is so that John Walsh is a “nationally-known child-victim advocate and host of “America’s Most Wanted.” I don’t see how this makes him a “NATIONAL ANTI-CRIME EXPERT?” All Mr. Walsh can speak to is his personal experience with our little sherrif - and, of course, little sheriff was committed to Mr. Walsh’s cause. He rode to fame on poor little Samantha Runyon and Mr. Walsh continued to give him a national platform for attention. Mr.Walsh should be more savvy by this time about being used by people like little sheriff AND he MIGHT show some respect to the citizens of Orange County who are outraged at little sherrif’s disrespect to the postion he held, using it only for his own glorification and gain. I always respected Mr.Walsh but think ihe’s out of line this time - as are all the other “national” figures who are supporting Mikey who fiddled not caring if Rose bunred.
Oooh, what a typo! Did I really do that?? Shame! Of course I mean “not caring if Rome burned.” So sorry.
Are we forgetting that the juries comments were that they felt he was guilty of all charges. Just not able to legally convict him. What a crying shame. Then Carona has the nerve to gloat about it. He should be facing way more years in prison. If he is not sentenced appropiately, it will feel once more like it’s us (honest citizens) against them (corrupt-and now more arrogant-electeds).
I agree with most of the comments. I applaud Corona for all of his lawfighting efforts, and the great strides he made to hunt down criminals.
But all the of good he did doesn’t change the fact that he was found guilty of a crime, and he needs to pay the price for that.
And his support is relevant?
I totally agree…..he broke the law, was found guilty and abused his power. End of story. Bye, bye….
It does not matter how much good he did he still broke the law. John’s heart is in the right place with his cause but if someone helped him with his cause then ended up on Americas Most Wanted for doing something bad when he defend them.
I dont care if carona supplied food to all the malnourished children on the planet, or if he ran around helping deliver babies in the backseat of taxis. you break the law and you must serve your time. PERIOD. mike is shakin in his boots so bad that he is going to crazy lengths to try not to do jailtime. he knows whats gunna happen to him once he gets there. i wanna see picture of his 1st week in prison. i wanna see a tear roll down his face while he is sitting on an inflatable donut due to an unfortunate incident with another prison guest.
Carona was only a figure head that stood off in the wings as his deputies & Sgts. did all the work. It was deputies from Riverside that actually found Samantha Runions body…Carona wasn’t out looking for anyone. He was good to show up & make his speaches about the situation.
I don’t care about the boards or anything else he was on, he participated in criminal activity!
You can’t forget the good he has done.
Very Very sad and dissapointing when Walsh supports a corrupt power abuser like Corona, he needs JAILTIME so he can think about his abuses, and it sits in his brain.
I used to think highly of Mr Walsh. Not any more.
I love how all these people who say “he broke the law, end of story” conveniently ignore our new sheriff’s numerous accounts of breaking the law.
Mr. Walsh, let me see if I understand. If a person contributes toward your objectives, it doesn’t make any difference what other illegal activities the individual may be involved in? Correct?
PAY OFF ?
MR WALSH NEEDS TO RETIRE TOTALLY OUT OF TOUCH
Thanks for your input Mr. Walsh but Skippy is a convicted felon and as such will be spending some time away from those Boards & in prison where he has worked very hard to earn the right to be there.
So what Walsh is saying is that it doesn’t matter what kind of a criminal you are, as long as you support his cause for missing children? That doesn’t square with his image as mr. law and order.
It seems that to be a Politician is to be a Crook. If not when Elected shortly therafter. Also tehy are immune from Taxes if Obama likes them for a higher Office.
Now Feinstein has a cushy Contract for Husband on of Calif’s wealthiest behind the scenes operators with his Chinese Partners.
Barbara Boxer was the head of the Bad Check floaters when the closed the Congressional Post Office for abuse.
Orange County Politicians run between Sacramento and Santa Ana instead of retiring under Term Limits. Just to add to retirement and if not elected get appointed to a high paying no attendance required Board somewhere.
In my book, there are two types of crimes: (1) Crimes against people where the victim is killed, injured , robbed of property or defrauded.
(2) Victimless crimes, where a person breaks a law but no body is impacted in a negative way. Like if you roll through a stop sign in a rural town with nobody around for miles.
John Walsh is very outspoken against criminals who have hurt a victim, but probably doesn’t get too worked up over the victimless crimes. After all, who are the victims in the Corona case?
The tax payers that paid his wages.
Did John Walsh get a gun permit from Carona too?? What a hypricrite Mr. Walsh is…..
This whole trial is a joke. We have a war going on at the border Washington just sent a special offical to over see the war. We have 100,000 of Gang meembers many connected with the Group at war with the Mexican Government. The fact is the Mexican Government did nothing let these Gangs get so powerful they can not win the fight. We are try help them we have done the same thing here we let the gangs get so powerful if the war spread up here we do not have the resources to stop them. The government has taken a kid glove approach to gangs. In law of the jungle which the gangs live by. Going after Sheriff Corona shows weakeness in the jungle they are all laughing. We should have been spending are resources to stop the gangs. They have become less violent to protect their million dollar business. you look at the dollars Corona might of took look at the billions of dollars the gang are stealing you have to wonder who is in charge.
John Walsh has made a living off of the death of his son…Granted ALOT of good has come from this…but he is emotional and was charmed by the car salesman Sheriff Mike Carona, now a convicted Felon….That is his title from now, a convicted Felon!
You can not be serious thinking that John Walshs’ actions were self serving at the loss of his son. His pain was so tramatic he didn’t want others to suffer the same fate as his son and his family. I admire John Walsh and being a parent I am so grateful that he took his tragedy and created such a powerful way to get the bad guys. I also admired Mike Carona when he became highly visible over the Samantha Runnion case. He was shady and that is unfortunate and, he was suppose to be a pilar of the community and hold the position of Truth & Justice. Instead he used his position and the power it brought to benefit himself. He does deserve what punishment he was given. Maybe he will be able to look back and see that he wouldn’t have been better off serving the people who believed in him. Unless he has no conscious.
Corona is a scum bag!!
Walsh is an anti-crime advocate, not an expert. The author need to learn the difference. As for Carona, he will be out of circulation for a long time.
Shame on you John for coming to the assistance of a criminal and convicted felon! Your integrity with me just went into negative numbers for good!
The judge should hand out the sentence recommended by the prosecutor of 9 years.Carona has earned every minute of it.