The Arrogance of Power : San Diego Sheriff diverts $300,000 to secret bank account

Each time San Diego County Sheriff John Duffy thumbs his nose anew at standards of ethical conduct, we come away worried about what the man is going to do next.

This is an elected official whose past includes illegally using deputies to distribute post cards opposing former Chief Justice Rose Bird; who lost a civil suit (and was ordered to pay damages) for maliciously firing a deputy from a teaching job; who accepted campaign contributions from members of his department in violation of policy--then changed the policy to allow his protege to do the same--and who did not report income from private consulting contracts.

But Duffy may have surpassed his own benchmark for arrogance with the revelation this week that he diverted more than $300,000 seized in drug raids to a secret bank account--and used more than $70,000 in other seized drug money to pay a private attorney in a civil suit filed by a deputy. This despite a specific prohibition from county supervisors that Duffy spend no more of the seized money.

District Atty. Edwin Miller concluded Friday that there is no reason to investigate. But we believe that the latest Duffy affair should be reviewed by the state attorney general’s office.

Miller should stay out of the matter because his office received a share of the seized drug funds from Duffy, and on Friday Miller endorsed Duffy protege Jack Drown in Tuesday’s election to succeed the retiring sheriff.

Federal guidelines governing expenditure of the funds are very vague; they mandate only that they be used for “law enforcement” purposes, with little elaboration. Orange County supervisors and Sheriff Brad Gates have wrangled over his expenditures of forfeited drug money.

Unlike grant money, the expenditure of forfeited drug assets is not monitored by the federal government. It remains an open question who is ultimately responsible for decisions about the money.

As for the swaggering Sheriff Duffy, he will leave in January after 20 years in office, tarnished by the bizarre behavior of his last years there. What remains to be seen is whether the latest episode harms Drown at the polls Tuesday.