A fine little scandal
Things are not what they seem in Orange County, CA and the
OC Weekly has the skivvy:
Internal Affairs
Orange County’s sheriff and his top deputy planned a dynasty but sex and money got in the way
This is a story about a famous LA porn star, a suspicious detective and a frustrated Orange County sheriff. It’s also a story about ex-Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, who is—by his own reckoning—a devoted family man, a hard-working immigrant, and a Mormon who doesn’t drink alcohol or smoke. He is, he says, a “genuinely nice guy who has never done anything wrong.” And sure enough, if you hang around Jaramillo, you’ll see an often polite, always confident man who appears benevolent.
Jaramillo’s self-proclaimed innocence prompts laughter among cops who worked with him before he was fired, arrested and indicted on six felony corruption charges last year. These officers say the former second in command at the $500-million-a-year sheriff’s department is driven by greed and lust, and is all the more dangerous because he can be disarmingly charming.
But if Jaramillo had severe character flaws, it was a minor one—tightfistedness—that may have begun his undoing.
The article then goes on to cover in some detail Jaramillo's Peccadilloes:
According to grand jury records reviewed by the Weekly, Jaramillo frequently gave Hood film to develop. The film contained nude pictures of dozens of women, including the assistant sheriff’s wife, sister-in-law, several secretaries and at least one county employee. Most of the shots were soft-porn, topless poses. Some were taken at police conventions or in Las Vegas. Hood and other sheriff’s department employees told investigators Jaramillo put the pictures in a thick photo album, shared his sex encyclopedia at the office and identified the women as his conquests.
The grand jury also heard that the assistant sheriff, whose salary topped $135,000 annually, was a legendary cheapskate. Not only was Jaramillo bold enough to openly celebrate his adultery, he allegedly stuck Hood with the costs of developing the film from his escapades. In 2001, several deputies refused Jaramillo’s request that they rent a San Diego hotel room so that he could have a three-way sex romp. The deputies were sure they’d never be repaid.
What bothered Hood most wasn’t the film costs, the adultery or the porn. He witnessed Jaramillo badmouth Carona behind his back, steal credit for the sheriff’s successes and brag about taking over the department. Hood, a 27-year-veteran cop, thought the assistant sheriff was destined to sabotage Carona.
And collecting evidence:
During conversations with Jaramillo, it’s easy to see his mind race from subject to subject. He’s funny and opinionated and loves challenges. He talks as if he’s invincible. But for four years he made a terrible error. He mistook Hood as either a fan or an imbecile.
Jaramillo was clueless that the man in whom he’d confided kept mental notes; that the man he’d asked to fix his home computer for free had installed a program to save all deleted files in case there was ever an investigation; and that the man he’d asked to establish a secret cell phone account had kept detailed records of calls and would someday give that log to inquiring FBI agents.
“You can’t trust anybody,” says Jaramillo.
Hood likely agrees. He got stuck paying the assistant sheriff’s film costs. And then, he says, Jaramillo stiffed him on more than $800 in cell phone bills.
And the story gets better and better involving a Porn Star, questionable finances, threats of violence and an ego that keeps going like the Energizer Bunny. Fascinating story -- there is no end to what people will do. The sad part is that if this guy had kept his nose clean, he would have been Chief of Police in a few years but he back-stabbed his Kingmaker. Very very stupid...
Posted by DaveH at May 27, 2005 8:35 PM