Sheriff Is Given Extension on $36,000 Personal Loan

Despite an earlier insistence that the money be repaid in full this summer, two longtime supporters of San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy have decided to extend the deadline for Duffy to make good on a $36,000 personal loan.

But William Cowling II, a former political campaign chairman to the sheriff and for years a leader in Duffy’s honorary deputy organization, insisted that the loan is not being written off.

Cowling, Charles Cono and the late Arthur Bloom loaned Duffy and sheriff’s Lt. John Tenwolde the $36,000 to pay attorneys’ fees and court costs after the two were successfully sued for improperly using deputies to campaign against then-state Supreme Court Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird.

County Refused to Pay

The loan was made in July, 1988, after the county refused to pay the legal fees ordered by the court when Duffy lost the lawsuit.

Once the loan was made, Cowling and Cono insisted that it was a one-year note, with one payment, plus 10% interest, to be made in July of this year.

But, on Tuesday, both Cowling and Cono said the July deadline passed without Duffy or Tenwolde making any payments--principal or interest--on the amount owed.

Instead, Cowling said, he met with Duffy last week and it was agreed that Duffy and Tenwolde would soon begin paying interest on the $36,000 but that the principal amount would not be repaid until after a lawsuit filed by Tenwolde is settled in San Diego County Superior Court.

In that lawsuit, filed in April, Tenwolde contends that the county is “legally required” to pay the $36,000. No trial date has been set.

Cono, acknowledging that the suit could drag on until next year, said his lawyers are “drawing up the papers now” that stipulate that Duffy will begin making the interest payments on the loan.

‘Everything Is Fine’

And Cowling insisted that, once the suit is settled, the full $36,000 will be repaid--either by Duffy and Tenwolde or the county, depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.

“Everything is fine,” Cowling said. “It’s not a frozen debt. Until the suit is resolved, we’re going to wait and see what happens and they’re going to make the interest payments.”

Cowling added that Duffy is “one of the best things in law enforcement in America. He knows his job. He’s awesome.”

Duffy could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But in an interview last month with The Times, he acknowledged that he planned to miss the July repayment deadline. He said he wanted to wait until the outcome of the Tenwolde suit before reimbursing Cowling and Cono.

And he reiterated his idea of staging a publicity event to raise money to satisfy the loan, rather than taking money from his own pocket.

Meanwhile, the state Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento is reviewing Duffy’s failure to include the loan on his Statement of Economic Interests report for 1988. Duffy later amended forms to include the loan.