Wanted: A fresh face as sheriff

Watching the Orange County Sheriff’s Department the last couple years has been like renting the entire series of “The Sopranos” on DVD. Every time you turn around, somebody’s getting whacked.

Maybe not in the permanent and gruesome fashion of a Jimmy Bones or a Joe Peeps, but let’s put it this way: The department apparently is a very fluid place to work if you’re in upper management.

Don’t hold me to this being a final list, but in the last three years I come up with this body count: a sheriff, an acting sheriff and eight assistant sheriffs, including one who was once an undersheriff. Plus, a lieutenant who’d been a police chief but suddenly found himself out of work after he’d challenged the sheriff in the 2006 election. He disappeared shortly thereafter.

That’s the kind of turnover that Paulie Walnuts could appreciate.

The latest flurry occurred in the last few days when the acting sheriff and two assistant sheriffs found their situations, uh, altered.

The state attorney general’s office reprimanded acting Sheriff Jack Anderson for political lobbying while in uniform. The AG’s office said Anderson broke the law last year when he urged the San Clemente City Council not to endorse the demoted lieutenant for sheriff, but confined its punishment to the public scolding.

That may sound like a small potatoes kind of “Sopranos” hit -- more like a little roughing up than a ball-peen hammer to the head -- but it just goes to show you. Nobody is safe in that department. At least Anderson lived to tell about it and remains on the job.

Not as lucky were assistant sheriffs Jo Ann Galisky and Steve Bishop. Galisky, a former undersheriff (the No. 2 position in the department) before being demoted earlier this year, was dismissed by Anderson. Bishop resigned.

Both departures Friday were connected to a grand jury investigation of an inmate’s death in the county jail, according to county Supervisor John Moorlach.

Although he wasn’t the first to go, you’d have to pin most of this on former top banana Mike Carona. Once appearing to be a prince of a guy, he now looks more and more like the head of a very dysfunctional family with an alarming tendency to get into legal trouble.

He got whacked when a federal grand jury indicted him on corruption charges last year, leading to his resignation in January.

Carona says he’s innocent and awaits trial.

But before that, his underlings already were falling by the wayside. His former No. 2 guy, George Jaramillo, went to jail on local charges and has since pleaded guilty to federal charges. Another top Carona aide, Donald Haidl, has pleaded guilty to federal charges and will be a key witness against Carona if his case goes to trial. Then came Galisky and Bishop, who found themselves under a cloud last week.

But you don’t even need to be a Carona insider to vanish. Former Lt. Bill Hunt all but dropped out of sight not long after the election when the victorious Carona busted him down in rank. Three other assistant sheriffs since 2005 avoided a potentially scary fate by resigning on their own.

All in all, quite a graveyard for law enforcement, eh?

Which makes it all the clearer that the next sheriff must -- let’s repeat for emphasis -- must come from outside the ranks of former Carona appointees. That means Anderson should be told by the Board of Supervisors that he won’t be the permanent sheriff.

Anderson may be undeserving of a “hit,” but never has guilt by association meant more than it does in this situation.

If “The Sopranos” taught us anything, it’s that sometimes people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. So it is for Anderson.

The supervisors may take months to find a new sheriff. When you think of attractive law enforcement jobs in the country, Orange County sheriff would be pretty high on the list. There can’t possibly be a shortage of high-caliber (oops, bad choice of words) candidates out there.

My plea to the supes: Put an end to this carnage. Find a fresh face and let him or her take over this department.

Tony Soprano knew how to make bloodletting entertaining.

Mike Carona did not.

--

Dana Parsons’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana.parsons@latimes.com.