Grand Jury Urges Citizen Panel Over Sheriff : Law Enforcement: The call for an independent review board and the recent shooting death of a Vista man activate sheriff’s candidates.

The San Diego County Grand Jury on Friday urged the creation of a “strong and independent” citizens’ advisory review board to monitor the activities of the Sheriff’s Department and to investigate complaints of deputy misconduct and abuse.

In addition, the grand jury, acting on a unanimous request by the county Board of Supervisors, agreed to launch its own investigation into a May 18 incident in Vista in which a young man was shot to death after a deputy sheriff and reserve deputy mistook him for an auto thief.

The grand jury’s actions and the continuing public concern over the death of 21-year-old Jeffrey Bray also triggered a flurry of activity among candidates for sheriff.

One candidate, Vince Jimno, abruptly reversed his position Friday and agreed with the grand jury on the need for a review panel, while another candidate, Jim Roache, attended the grand jury’s press conference and passed out news releases reiterating his support for a review board.

They also stepped up their criticism of fellow candidate Jack Drown, chastising him for siding with Sheriff John Duffy in opposing a review board and for not exerting leadership by attempting to calm the public outcry after Bray’s death.

A grand jury spokesman said the timing of the announcement was not an attempt to influence the June 5 primary election for sheriff, or to cast aspersions on whether the deputy and reserve deputy erred when Bray was shot to death outside his apartment complex.

“We just felt it was timely right now,” said George T. Wise, who led the grand jury’s nine-month investigation into whether a review board for the Sheriff’s Department should be established.

“But we do want to put it in place before a new sheriff takes office, so I guess in that regard politics was in the back of our minds.”

In its report, the grand jury noted that it does not have the time or resources to adequately investigate citizen complaints of deputy misconduct. “The grand jury is burdened enough with all the duties it is mandated to do,” said J. Phil Franklin, grand jury foreman.

The report also noted that the sheriff’s internal affairs unit is not properly equipped to handle a large number of investigations. Using the recent flood of allegations of deputies assaulting jail inmates as an example, the grand jury report said the sheriff’s internal affairs unit had a difficult time keeping up with the multitude of complaints.

“This is an awesome task to undertake, even for a full complement of six internal affairs investigators, as that unit is now constituted,” the report said.

With those limitations in mind, Franklin said the grand jury was calling on the county Board of Supervisors to create a citizens’ advisory review board whose members would be chosen by the individual supervisors.

The grand jury did not recommend how the review board should be structured. However, Franklin and Wise said they did not believe state law and the county charter would allow the review board to have subpoena powers or hold public hearings, which would make the panel similar to the review board approved by San Diego voters last year to work with the San Diego Police Department.

The grand jury said the Board of Supervisors should not wait to hold an election on a sheriff’s review board, however, but should act immediately to create the panel.

“The Board of Supervisors is there to make decisions,” Franklin said. “They shouldn’t have to refer everything to a vote of the public.”

Reaction at the Board of Supervisors appeared favorable.

Supervisor Susan Golding, who has repeatedly called over the past year for the creation of a review board, was hopeful the board would move quickly to implement an independent panel.

Supervisor John MacDonald already has indicated to her, Golding said, that he backs the proposal and Leon Williams, the current board president, is a likely supporter. In addition, she said, Supervisor Brian Bilbray told her earlier this week that he would “take a careful look at it,” she said.

“I have great respect for good law enforcement officers,” Golding said. “I just think we all need reassurances that the right things are going on.”

Franklin and Wise said they studied review panels in other areas and heard conflicting opinions from staff members in the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. But the grand jury members said they did not discuss the concept with Duffy, who, as sheriff for the last 20 years, has been adamantly opposed to a review board.

In a statement his office released after the grand jury report, Duffy called instead for expansion of the grand jury as an alternative to a review panel. He also strongly objected to elected supervisors appointing review board members to monitor the elected sheriff.

“I feel that the grand jury’s report,” he said, “while well-intended, offers no viable solutions to a complex issue.”

Jimno, who had been opposed to a review board, announced Friday that he now agrees with the grand jury. If elected sheriff, he said, he would propose within six months a type of review panel he would favor.

Asked why he changed his mind, Jimno said: “I just feel it is going to be stuck down our throats either way, so we might as well become a part of it. And there were a number of people pushing me who said it was time. And they are strong supporters of mine.”

Roache, who seized on the grand jury’s announcement as an opportunity to restate his support of a review panel, said he favors a review board that would hold public hearings, but not have power to subpoena deputies.

Roache, Jimno and a third candidate, Jim Messenger, also chastised Drown for opposing a review board and criticized his handling of events following the shooting death in Vista.

They criticized Drown and the Sheriff’s Department for seizing a news photographer’s film of the Vista shooting and for being slow in releasing details of the killing. They also said Drown should have visited the scene of the incident to help calm the public outcry

Messenger said the Sheriff’s Department is already considered arrogant and that Drown’s “failure to assume a leadership role perpetuates the public’s perception.”

Drown responded that no matter what he did or did not do after the Bray shooting, the candidates would never be satisfied.

“If I had been out there, the other candidates would have then said I was grandstanding and taking advantage of a very tragic situation for political reasons, to get my name and photograph out front,” he said.

Drown also defended his opposition to a review panel and for agreeing with Duffy that the grand jury system should be expanded or a second grand jury impaneled.

He said he preferred a grand jury to monitor citizen complaints because its members are appointed by the Superior Court and not politicians, as would be the case if the supervisors named review board members.

“I think its important to keep politics out of it,” he said.

Defending Drown’s position was the Deputy Sheriffs Assn., which like Duffy is endorsing Drown’s candidacy.

“The Sheriff’s Department’s internal affairs unit currently has a little over 200 complaints a year,” said Randall Dibb, association president. “Of those, few if any require further investigation or review.”