Duffy Videotape Directive Spurs Threat of Suit

All members of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department are being asked to view videotapes of a television interview in which Sheriff John Duffy discusses his upcoming campaign for reelection, and one local attorney believes the arrangement is a violation of the law.

The attorney, Everett Bobbitt, said that Duffy’s request in a weekly newsletter that his staff view the videotape from KNSD Channel 39’s “Headliners” program is similar to a previous incident in which the sheriff improperly used deputies to pass out post cards calling for the ouster of Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird from the state Supreme Court.

“It’s strictly a repeat of the Rose Bird infraction as far as a legal issue,” Bobbitt said Tuesday. “Only this is worse because now he’s doing it for his own political benefit.”

In the television interview, which aired Oct. 29, Duffy criticized The Times for reporting that he has been working for years as a private consultant and not disclosing any of his outside income. In another segment of the 30-minute program, he discussed the upcoming campaign, in which he is seeking a sixth, four-year term as sheriff.

Duffy could not be reached for comment Tuesday. In his department’s weekly newsletter, called The Informant, the staff was told that VHS copies of the interview “will be distributed this week to all sheriff’s stations and facilities.”

“The unedited interview was a rare opportunity for Sheriff Duffy to respond to adversaries in a news media setting,” the newsletter said. “All personnel are encouraged to view the tape.”

Bobbitt, in a letter this week to Duffy, said he was outraged that rank-and-file deputies were being required to view the videotape, which the lawyer said was purely political and had nothing to do with law enforcement.

He also told Duffy that, if the Sheriff’s Department does not stop distributing the tape, he will file a lawsuit “to force you and your staff to cease political activities.”

Bobbitt, who performs legal services for the Deputy Sheriffs Assn., emphasized that he would file the lawsuit as a private citizen and not on behalf of the DSA. He said he is concerned that county video equipment was used to make the copies of the tape, and that government employees were used to produce it and distribute it to the staff. He also said it is improper for deputies to review the tapes on county time.

“It is illegal for a public official to use public funds or equipment to further a political cause,” he said.

In the Rose Bird case, Duffy in 1985 had his on-duty deputies distribute post cards as part of the campaign to remove the chief justice from the state Supreme Court. Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union successfully sued Duffy over that matter on behalf of the citizens lobbying group California Common Cause, and the sheriff and one of his subordinates were later personally loaned $36,000 to pay the ACLU attorneys’ fees in the case.