Gates Seeks $200,000 in Damages With Suit Against Wisely’s Wife

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates has filed suit seeking $200,000 in damages from the wife of convicted murderer Willie Ray Wisely, officials said Saturday.

Target of the suit, filed Friday in Superior Court, is Gail Marie Harrington, a 25-year-old law clerk from Newport Beach, County Counsel Adrian Kuyper said. Harrington and Wisely were married by a minister in a room at the Orange County Jail last Christmas Eve, but the marriage remained a secret until recently.

Gates reportedly is seeking damages from Harrington because she was arrested Aug. 12 on suspicion of smuggling narcotics into the jail, officials said.

To Be Arraigned

Harrington, a third-year law student and law clerk for attorney Richard Herman, who had been retained by the American Civil Liberties Union to handle prisoner rights cases, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Central Orange County Municipal Court on the smuggling charge. She is free on $25,000 bail.

As part of the suit, Superior Court Commissioner Ronald L. Bauer granted Gates a temporary restraining order preventing Harrington from visiting Wisely or any other inmate in the jail or Santa Ana Courthouse. Since February, 1986, Harrington has been helping Wisely fight a 1981 murder conviction.

Gates referred all comment on the suit against Harrington to Deputy County Counsel Edward N. Duran, who was not available for comment Saturday. Kuyper, reached at home, said he was not familiar enough with the case to comment.

Although Harrington is the named defendant, Wisely said Saturday in a phone interview from jail that the suit “is just another attempt at harassing me.”

Recent Inheritance

The 34-year-old inmate said Gates has a “vendetta against me” because of his well-publicized 6 1/2-year defense fight and because of legal advice he has provided other Orange County inmates. His sentencing is scheduled Oct. 12.

Wisely recently inherited more than $200,000 in real estate and other property from the estate of his mother, Hazel Bray, who died in 1983. Wisely said Saturday that it is no coincidence that the dollar amount of his inheritance is the same amount of damages Gates is seeking from Harrington.

Harrington’s inability to visit him in jail, Wisely said, “immeasurably” hurts his efforts to overturn his conviction.