For Sheriff Who Would Be Sun King, It’s All Too Shady

When Brad Gates announced in January that he was running for a fifth term, he said, “I’m built to be a sheriff. That was my destiny in life.”

All hail the Sun King.

The tall, lanky sheriff has said John Wayne was his hero, but surely he meant Louis XIV.

For it was Louis, the original Sun King, who ruled France for 72 years and whose vision of the extent of his power impelled him to proclaim: “I am the state.”

Given Gates’ regal view of his own destiny, only a burst of modesty must have prevented him from using “I Am the County” as his campaign slogan this year.

On Friday, a federal jury in Pasadena--perhaps unfamiliar with the concept of the divine right of kings--found that Gates acted with “reckless disregard” for the Constitution in denying gun permits to two private investigators. The private eyes contended that Gates dispensed gun permits like political favors, often saying yes to those who had contributed to his campaign, even after underlings had denied their original request.

Even before the jury returned its verdict, you might reasonably ask why the sheriff of a county this size involved himself in something as piddling as gun permits.

But when you were made to be sheriff, you can do whatever you want.

In the current federal case, the jury awarded $246,000 to brothers Frank and Ty Ritter. In lawsuit terms, the dollar amount is a pittance, and Gates no doubt will take solace in that.

But this is no isolated indiscretion.

In 1989, a jury awarded Preston Guillory, a former Gates political opponent, $190,000 in damages after Guillory alleged that Gates improperly investigated him in 1984 as retaliation.

In a second case--the same case which the Ritters won Friday--the county settled out of court with Guillory. The package deal for the two Guillory cases cost the county $475,000.

In 1987, the board paid out $375,000 to a former Municipal judge and two others who alleged that Gates had abused the power of his office.

Added to Friday’s verdict, the unhappy tote board totals so far: Gates has cost the county more than $1 million during his last term.

You’d think that would set off a public excoriation of Gates by the Board of Supervisors, to whom he must come for money for his department. Instead, because of Gates’ political power in this county, you’ll be stunned by the silence that follows this verdict.

How the once-obscure lieutenant, now 51, got to this position is an object lesson in power politics.

Let’s be grown-ups here: This isn’t necessarily a popular sheriff. This is a politician who has built a network of influential businessmen and private citizen power brokers and then relied on the power of the incumbency, voter apathy and non-opposition to build an empire.

He’s built it to a point where no candidate in Orange County could possibly muster enough money to seriously challenge him. That’s why his margins of victory have all been in the landslide category. In June, Gates won election to another four-year term when his opponent couldn’t get enough votes to force a November runoff.

Gates would delude himself into thinking he wins big because the public believes he’s doing a great job. It’s much more likely that the public doesn’t know much about the job he’s doing.

It’s an office that doesn’t generate voter interest. How many of us knows what the sheriff does from day to day?

Much of the news that comes out of it can be orchestrated by the sheriff himself, such as Gates’ much-publicized efforts as an anti-drug crusader--the safest political image there is.

A Times Orange County poll in February indicated that 35% of the respondents had a “favorable” opinion of Gates, while only 19% had an unfavorable view. But the telling figure was that 39% said they had “not heard enough” about Gates to form an opinion--a sobering reflection on voter awareness of a man who has been sheriff since 1974.

Give Gates his due. The sheriff’s office is an elective one, and the name of the game is to get reelected.

But if only people paid closer attention.

Such as to the abuse-of-power allegations. How many more will it take?

Such as the six-month newspaper investigation in 1989 that disclosed that Gates bought and sold at least 18 real estate holdings worth about $8 million since his election in 1974. The review of Gates’ business dealings revealed he has formed partnerships with wealthy private citizens who have contributed heavily to his reelection campaigns. At the time of publication, the newspaper’s reviews of Gates’ holdings showed $1.6 million in real estate either owned by him or companies he controls.

For a man who was “built to be a sheriff,” Gates has shown an inordinate interest in the business world.

Gates says there has been no quid pro quo in any of his dealings with private citizens, and who amongst us can challenge a man whose destiny it is to be sheriff?

Gates has said he wants to leave a legacy of a sheriff who fought drugs and modernized his department.

Instead, he’s giving off the faint odor of a man in office too long, a cynical pol who’s got the whole thing wired inside and out.

Louis XIV couldn’t have done it any better.