Sheriff Gates Answers Critics About Escapes

Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates--stung by criticism that lax administration led to a jail breakout last fall and by a jury’s ruling that a convicted murderer fled the jail because he was being beaten--defended his embattled department Tuesday.

The two disclosures last week caused “a bad impact on me and the department,” Gates acknowledged. But he denied that there are problems within his ranks, saying, “As far as the (department’s) people, procedures and facilities, it is all good and sound.”

Gates blamed the acquittal last week of convicted murderer Ivan Von Staich on escape charges on the legal system, which he said prevented prosecutors from giving jurors complete information about Von Staich’s violent behavior and his prior conviction. Gates denied that the inmate was beaten by deputies.

Von Staich, acting as his own attorney, applied a little-used law that makes a jail escape legal if the breakout was necessary to flee substantial jail violence.

Gates also blamed the November escape of five inmates on human errors committed mostly by two deputies who were assigned to the rooftop recreation area of the men’s jail in Santa Ana, where the escape occurred.

The inmates broke out of the jail Nov. 20 by prying a hole in a chain-link fence and rappelling down 4 stories. Only one remains at large. In all, there have been six jail personnel disciplined for the escape, including a deputy who was fired and a lieutenant who was reprimanded.

‘kids Make Mistakes’

“I’m sorry to say, as sheriff, that in our family, the kids make mistakes now and then,” Gates said of the deputies. “Because of our error, we have placed a risk back into the community.

“I am responsible,” he said. “The buck stops with me.”

The revelations last week prompted Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder to complain about the operation of the Sheriff’s Department and to predict that heads would roll. On Tuesday, Wieder said she asked the county administrative office to look into jail security and added that she met personally with Gates.

In a statement issued after her meeting, Wieder said, “The sheriff properly disciplined not only those deputies whose actions were inappropriate, but also the supervision and management members who did not follow the necessary and proper procedures and policies.”

Wieder said she was concerned that the jail escape could make it more difficult for the county to allay public fears about future jails, especially when the escape was blamed on mistakes by the Sheriff’s Department.

‘A Safe Jail System’

Responding to Wieder’s comments, Gates said: “I think we have a safe jail system. The one limit we have is the human element. I wish I could figure out a way to be sure human beings aren’t going to fail.”

The controversy began Friday when the Assn. of Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies released internal jail memos showing that authorities were warned that an escape attempt was being planned by robbery suspect Michael Taylor. The tip came 2 months before he and the four other inmates broke out of jail.

With the disclosure, the deputies union charged that the administration was more to blame for the escape than the two deputies.

“These escapes would have occurred no matter which deputies were working the roof,” Robert MacLeod, general manager of the deputies’ union, reiterated Tuesday.

In his comments during an interview Tuesday, Gates claimed that his department acted properly when it received the tip about Taylor’s escape plans.

Gates said the information was referred to the Orange County marshal’s office; it was included four times in daily briefings of deputies assigned to the jail, and it was considered by the jail classification office, which determines the security risk of all inmates.

Defends Classification

Gates said he agreed with the decision of classification officers who--despite the escape warning--maintained Taylor’s security classification as a “yellow-band,” the second-lowest of four security categories in the main men’s jail.

Gates also claimed that there are “hundreds” of inmates who are considered escape risks in the Santa Ana jail and that Taylor’s case did not stand out from the rest enough to warrant more attention, such as a “red-band” classification, which segregates an inmate from the general jail population.

“He’s no different from the other hundreds,” Gates said.

MacLeod, however, dismissed Gates’ claim.

“If there are hundreds of inmates (on which) the department has received reports about escapes being planned, I’ll eat those reports,” he said.

Gates also dismissed the union’s charges that the Sheriff’s Department failed to correct security flaws on the roof after problems were pointed up in previous escapes.

About the rooftop fence that was pried open, Gates said: “I don’t think the fence had anything to do with it. If the deputies had done their jobs, we wouldn’t even need a fence up there.”

Still, Gates said, the department will ask county officials for money to reinforce the fence and to add extra lighting on the roof.

Gates also said the deputies were watching television in the rooftop guard station, contrary to department policy, when the escape occurred. At one point, he said, one deputy left the rooftop post to go downstairs and show his vacation photographs to a jail sergeant.

Gates added that the deputies on duty did not search the inmates. He said policy requires that deputies conduct a hands-on “pat search,” which could have revealed 90 feet of braided bed sheets that the five inmates used to rappel from the roof, as well as a metal towel bar that was used to pry open the fence.

MacLeod, however, disputed Gates’ comments about search procedures, saying that as of Tuesday, the department still was not conducting a “pat search” of jail inmates, only a visual search in which the prisoners unzip their jail-issue jumpsuits.

Gates said Tuesday that he was most upset about the Von Staich verdict.

“It’s beyond me that a jury can sit there and listen to the facts, and they won’t convict him of escape.”

Gates complained that the jury wasn’t told that Von Staich had been convicted of murder in 1984.