2 Top Command Positions Filled by Sheriff-Elect : Law enforcement: Roache appoints Jay LaSuer to department’s No. 2 post and Maudie Bobbitt to direct activities of deputies in the field.

Sheriff-elect Jim Roache moved quickly Tuesday in naming two of the four top administrators who will help him lead the department for the next four years.

Roache selected Sheriff’s Capt. Jay LaSuer as his undersheriff, the No. 2 administrator in command of the 1,349-member Sheriff’s Department, and Capt. Maudie Bobbitt as his assistant sheriff in charge of law enforcement services. Bobbitt will replace Jack Drown, whom Roache defeated in the runoff election for sheriff three weeks ago.

Roache said he is going to conduct a nationwide search for an assistant sheriff to run the jails. And he has not yet named an assistant sheriff for administrative services, although he is believed to have offered the job to Melvin Nichols, 50, who has been with the department 27 years.

Nichols, the department’s commander for jail operations, was ill Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. Roache would not confirm that Nichols had been offered the job.

The four administrators report directly to Roache and serve at his discretion. All other employees in the Sheriff’s Department are protected by the Civil Service system.

Although he had hoped to make his appointments next month, Roache said he found he is too busy building his new administration and desperately needs help. Although those in the department he has selected still must do their jobs until Roache is sworn in Jan. 7, they will be expected to attend morning, lunch and evening meetings on Roache’s behalf, he said.

“There are so many things that need to be done, that it is physically impossible for me to gather all the data I need by myself,” he said. “I needed to identify people to assist me in these tasks.”

LaSuer, 50, who has been a captain at the Poway station for 4 1/2 years, preceded Bobbitt as captain in the El Cajon jail. A member of the Sheriff’s Department for 21 years, LaSuer spent about three years at the jail and was a lieutenant at the regional training academy operated by the Sheriff’s Department. He spent 4 1/2 years as a lieutenant and sergeant at a substation in Otay. He also worked in Lemon Grove and Santee.

Three weeks ago, LaSuer won a seat on the La Mesa City Council. LaSuer would not comment about the appointment, which is to be made officially at a Roache press conference today at the County Administration Building.

The undersheriff serves as the department’s chief of staff and runs the day-to-day operations of the agency.

Bobbitt, 43, has been with the department 21 years and is one of only two female captains in an agency that is 17% female. A year ago, she was suspended for 35 days for her connection with the so-called “Rambo Squad,” a group of deputies that the county grand jury concluded had harassed and abused inmates in 1987 and 1988.

Ten members of the department were disciplined. Bobbitt’s suspension was revoked last month by the county’s Civil Service Commission. But Sheriff John Duffy said he was reopening the investigation into Bobbitt’s role at the jail and would reinstate the suspension or worse if it was discovered that she or others violated the civil rights of inmates.

At the time, Duffy said he was reopening the probe after her Bobbitt’s husband, attorney Everett Bobbitt, filed legal papers raising allegations that Duffy and other top administrators “condoned or encouraged the mistreatment” of inmates.

Everett and Maudie Bobbitt were enthusiastic Roache supporters and served on a small transition team assembled after Roache’s election. Everett Bobbitt is representing Roache on the legal question of who controls money and property the Sheriff’s Department seizes in drug raids.

Maudie Bobbitt will become the department’s first female assistant sheriff. She is the captain at the department’s Santee station and was head of the El Cajon jail from 1986 to 1988. She was once a lieutenant in Santee and started the department’s juvenile services unit, which investigates child abuse and other juvenile problems.

As the head of law enforcement services, Bobbitt will be in charge of all patrol stations and the investigations, narcotics, homicide and vice divisions.

Whoever Roache chooses to run the jails will have to help establish a corrections division, which will use correctional officers rather than sworn deputies in the county’s six jails.

Having a corrections division will save the department money, Roache said, because correctional officers do not require the extensive training that deputies do.

Roache said he has asked county personnel administrators to help him conduct the nationwide search. He said that Sheriff’s Department employees also can apply for the job. Roache said he has offered an interim job to someone inside the department until a permanent replacement is hired. The offer is still being considered, Roache said.

The department has had repeated problems in the jails over the years, including allegations by inmates and jail visitors of abuse and harassment. The county has been forced to pay out large jury verdicts in some of those cases.

The administrative services job believed to have been offered to Nichols includes oversight of the department’s financial matters, payroll, purchasing, records, personnel and training.

Former San Diego Police Chief Ray Hoobler, who served on Roache’s transition team, said it was important for Roache to name his administrators quickly.

“I think he probably recognized that he had to get his team up and running, and that he would be getting no help” from Duffy, Hoobler said.

Roache has yet to name three special assistants who serve the sheriff: one in charge of legal affairs, one in charge of legislative affairs and one in charge of special affairs.

A reform candidate who campaigned on a pledge to clean out the Duffy administration, Roache is ousting four veteran officers when he is sworn in Jan. 7. Besides Drown, Undersheriff Richard Sandberg and assistant sheriffs Richard Reed and Charles Wigginton are being replaced.

Roache said his new team is being chosen on the basis of “diversity of background, diversity of assignment history, the proper education and some particular skills relative to the commands they will be responsible to.”