Newest Disclosures May Tarnish Sheriff’s Legacy : Politics: After 20 years in top post, John Duffy draws headlines that also threaten to harm his handpicked successor, Jack Drown.

Without prompting, John Duffy eagerly pinpoints the exact number of days, hours and minutes until he retires as San Diego County’s sheriff, a job he’s held for 20 years.

He talks fondly of slipping into obscurity at noon Jan. 7, when his replacement steps in and he can permanently move out of the public eye. When that happens, he won’t have to worry about grand juries or county supervisors or news reporters.

But for now, he is back in the limelight. In a flurry in recent weeks, Duffy has generated headlines that threaten to harm his handpicked successor in Tuesday’s election and embarrass him at the end of his 38-year law enforcement career.

All within three weeks, Duffy admitted that he had reneged on a promise to fire or demote sheriff’s deputies who were part of the so-called “Rambo Squad” at the El Cajon jail, reopened an investigation into jail brutality aimed at a sheriff’s captain who had challenged him during a civil service hearing, and was discovered to have spent nearly $70,000 in drug funds for an attorney to defend him in the “Rambo Squad” case.

And this week, Duffy stunned county officials by announcing with bravado that he had placed $300,000 worth of drug funds into a secret account to keep the Board of Supervisors from controlling it, even though a county ordinance requires it to be placed in the county treasury.

Duffy said he was assured by a deputy attorney general in Washington that opening such an account was consistent with federal guidelines. The deputy attorney general, Barry Stern, is no longer with the department.

On Thursday, Duffy announced that he was hiring an auditor to scrutinize the secret account and would pay the auditor out of drug proceeds, on the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Justice. A Duffy spokesman said he assumed Duffy will make the audit public.

County auditors asked for an investigation by either the district attorney’s office or the state attorney general’s office. Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller said Friday he saw no evidence that would warrant a criminal investigation.

County attorneys, meanwhile, are busily researching state and federal laws to determine what gave Duffy the authority to set up his own account, described as a “slush fund” by County Supervisor Brian Bilbray.

“For a man who has years of public service as an elected official, this is one hell of a terrible way to depart the scene,” Bilbray said.

“John Duffy was an effective sheriff,” said Supervisor John MacDonald. “I think he stayed too long. I would have hoped that he would have retired before he had to start going through what’s happened now.”

But Duffy has never been one to listen to advice, say those who have worked for him.

“He’s been supportive, and he works hard, but has a tendency not to listen to people under him in the chain of command,” said Randy Dibb, president of the Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., which has refused to endorse Duffy in the past two elections.

Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown, whom Duffy has endorsed in next week’s election, said the events of the past three weeks are typical of John Duffy.

“I don’t think John Duffy can change his style,” Drown said. “He really likes the battles. More than that, he thrives on them. He can’t turn them off.”

For two decades, Duffy has run the Sheriff’s Department with a confrontational swagger and outspoken arrogance. He built a powerful political base, insisting that he was accountable to the people who elected him to five four-year terms and to no one else. Twice, he ran unopposed. Twice more, he gathered 62% of the vote, virtually without campaigning.

Duffy repeatedly took on the County Board of Supervisors and battled for years over a series of controversies: in 1975, when supervisors threatened to take control of the jails but relented; in 1981, when supervisors accused Duffy of encouraging an eight-day strike by deputies; and nearly every year when Duffy fought for more money in his budget.

“Of all the issues we’ve had to deal with regarding Sheriff Duffy,” his creating a separate account contrary to county ordinance “is the most serious,” said William J. Kelly, assistant county auditor and controller.

Duffy announced last December that he was through with public office and would not seek a sixth term. He said he was weary of media scrutiny, particularly by The Times, which had inquired about the financing of his home security system and the frequency with which he traveled out of the county.

In an interview last month, Duffy said he couldn’t wait to leave office, so he could become a private citizen again.

“I don’t want to work for the government. I don’t want to work full-time. And I don’t want to work with the news media,” he said.

Duffy said he might write a book about his 38 years in law enforcement, conduct seminars throughout the country for the National Sheriff’s Assn. and help establish a recreational center for law enforcement officials in San Diego county.

Some believe that Duffy does not yet realize that, once he’s left office, many who have valued his opinion for years will turn elsewhere.

“I don’t think he understands that, come Jan. 7, he won’t have influence on law enforcement matters in San Diego,” said Everett Bobbitt, an attorney who represents sheriff’s deputies and has sparred with Duffy often throughout the years.

The sheriff did not return telephone calls this week regarding the latest series of events.

Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Roache says the recent negative publicity about Duffy will lead the public to believe that Drown was part of a problematic administration.

“He was part of that mismanagement team,” Roache said. “Drown was a key player, a key policy-maker on that team.”

Drown, whom Roache linked to some of Duffy’s actions in the past few weeks, has been trying to distance himself from Duffy.

“If I had my choice, I would have preferred that he ride quietly into the sunset,” he said. “But this gives me the opportunity to show that I’m different. John Duffy’s management style is not my management style.”

Drown said Duffy is cut from the same cloth as a number of sheriffs who took over departments in the 1960s and 1970s and decided that they needed no help in office.

“I think they all tended to run power-oriented departments and played power politics and were seen as isolationists,” he said. “But departments have grown so much that sheriffs now are part of a complex business and shouldn’t see themselves as political brokers.”

He said Duffy is part of that old regime.

“What’s happening now goes back to John Duffy’s feeling of independence and his feeling that, regardless of whether he has nine months left in office or six months left, he will not tolerate encroachment into his domain,” Drown said. “He’s being protective up until the very end.”

Duffy’s problems, which may well stain his legacy, are now spreading to the rest of the department, Bilbray said.

“I feel embarrassed for the Sheriff’s Department,” he said. “We’ve got good people there who have been trying to avoid this sort of stuff for years, and they’re being painted with the same broad brush as Duffy.”

Perhaps the final gauge on Duffy will come in Tuesday’s election. Duffy said in an interview last month that the Duffy name will have a definite influence.

“I think it will help with some people and hurt with others,” Duffy said. “The people who hate John Duffy will transfer that hate to Jack Drown. The people who love John Duffy will transfer that love to Jack Drown.”