COUNTYWIDE : HIGHS, LOWS OF SHERIFF GATES’ LAST 4 YEARS
1986--Gates is reelected with an overwhelming 64% of the vote.
Dec. 15, 1986--Gates forms the Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, a joint task force of state, local and federal authorities, which to date has made 134 drug arrests and seized 11,000 pounds of cocaine and $47.7 million.
April 2, 1987--The county agrees to pay $375,000 in an out-of-court settlement to three political rivals of the sheriff who allege that department investigators harassed and spied on them. Gates admits no wrongdoing.
October, 1988--”Laser Village,” a half-million-dollar training center funded through private donations, opens.
Nov. 20, 1988--Five inmates escape by prying a hole in a chain-link fence and rappelling four stories. It is one of the most publicized escapes in the jail’s history. Six jail personnel are disciplined.
March 15, 1989--A federal civil court jury awards $189,894 to Preston Guillory, a political rival of Gates who alleges that he was harassed by the Sheriff’s Department. The case is related to the earlier $375,000 settlement.
Jan. 1, 1990--A former jail trusty allegedly uses metal snippers to cut his way through the walls of a shed at the Sheriff’s Training Facility in Orange, where 42 handguns are found missing.
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