Wieder Wants O.C. Jail Officials Fired Over Escape

Calling “inexcusable” disclosures that jail authorities failed to heed a warning of an escape plan, Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said Saturday that officials involved in the incident should be fired, and said she will ask the county’s chief administrative officer to investigate.

Wieder declined to comment on whether Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates should be held responsible for the incident, but said events “bring into question the manner in which the (jail) administration is managed. How much oversight is there? What kind of monitoring is there to see if directives are carried out? It’s very disturbing, and there’s got to be some answers,” she said.

Wieder was responding to disclosures Friday that the Sheriff’s Department received a warning that robbery suspect Michael Taylor was planning a jail escape almost 2 months before he and four other inmates broke out last November.

The disclosures indicated that despite the warning, Taylor was not placed under maximum security and that no extra precautions were taken.

Gates could not be reached Saturday to comment on the disclosures or Wieder’s call for an investigation.

The information was revealed by the Assn. of Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies, a deputies’ union, on behalf of five officers who were disciplined after the escape.

One of the deputies was fired Thursday, and four other officers received suspensions or reprimands.

Union officials said the revelations show that Sheriff’s Department administrators and not the deputies should be held accountable for the escape.

Wieder said Saturday that she agrees.

“The disciplining of the deputies doesn’t address the problem of why nothing was done to prevent this,” she said. “There seems to be a need for tightening up operations. I think the sheriff is going to be doing a lot of head-rolling. The people responsible should be fired.”

Wieder said she wants to know who knew about the warning and whether any follow-up actions were taken.

Warning in Memo

The warning came in an internal memo to Capt. Albert R. Massucci, who is in charge of the men’s jail, from a Sheriff’s Department lieutenant.

The lieutenant had been contacted by the Huntington Beach police, who relayed information about the escape plan from an informant that Taylor had contacted.

In a second memo written to Massucci after the escape, the ranking officer on duty on the night of the breakout said he had been unaware of the warning.

Wieder said she would not call for an independent investigation by the district attorney’s office or the grand jury until Gates has had a chance to respond to the disclosures.

A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, Lt. Robert Rivas, said any comment from the Sheriff’s Department would come at a later date.

Among others surveyed, Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said the board’s input into jail operations is limited.

‘His Decision’

“The board from time to time asks the sheriff to come in and report to us, but ultimately it is his decision,” he said.

He added: To have somebody tell you how to do it would not be in anybody’s interest. On the other hand, if it’s falling through the cracks, somebody’s not doing their job.”

Supervisor Don R. Roth said he would check to see if the county can legally appoint committees to oversee certain aspects of the jail’s operation. Supervisor Roger R. Stanton said he did not know enough about the issues to comment, and Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez could not be reached for comment.

The disclosures come at a time when the county has proposed several projects to increase critically needed jail space--all of which have garnered public opposition.

Wieder said news of the disclosures may make it even more difficult to proceed with jail expansion plans.

“Something like this does not help the situation,” she said.

Robert McLeod, general manager of the deputies’ union, said the deputies who were disciplined are appealing the actions to an outside arbitrator. Deputy Michael Elliott, 30, a 2-year veteran, was fired, and Deputy Daniel Walsh, 24, was given a 30-day unpaid suspension.

Neither Elliott nor Walsh could be reached for comment Saturday.

Failed to Follow Procedure

Sheriff’s officials said in a statement Friday that the deputies failed to follow procedures by not conducting a search of the inmates and by not “keeping them under constant observation on the recreation roof” of the jail, where the escape occurred.

The inmates pried apart a chain-link fence that surrounds the roof of the four-story building in Santa Ana and used bed sheets to scramble down the side.

Three of the escapees were captured, and another turned himself in. However, Taylor, who authorities say was the mastermind, remains at large and has been implicated in an armed jewelry robbery that occurred near Chicago 2 weeks ago.

McLeod said Saturday that Sheriff’s Department personnel have rallied around the deputies blamed for the escape and believe they are being made scapegoats for departmental inaction.

“They believe that no matter who had been working the roof that day, the same thing would have happened,” McLeod said. “There has been a very adverse reaction to the discipline that was meted out. I’ve been working with this department for 13 years, and the action against these deputies regarding the escapes has led to the lowest morale I have ever seen.”

Times staff writer Maria Newman contributed to this story.