Gates Replies to Charges That He Willfully Broke Law : Jail overcrowding: The sheriff says a critical shortage of beds has forced him into choosing whether to violate state law or a federal court order by releasing inmates.

Sheriff Brad Gates, in a response to charges by Municipal Court judges that he has willfully broken the law by releasing prisoners to relieve jail overcrowding, said Monday that the critical shortage of jail beds has forced him into choosing whether to violate state law or a federal court order.

Gates’ response was filed in Central Municipal Court in advance of a hearing Friday on a contempt charge that was filed against him April 10 by local Municipal Court judges.

Seven judges charged that Gates’ inmate-release policies illegally undermine the county’s justice system, and they accused him of contempt because he has freed prisoners charged with violent crimes or other offenses for which they may not be released under state law.

But County Counsel James L. Turner wrote in the response filed on Gates’ behalf that the sheriff “has not willfully violated any order” from the Municipal Court judges and that “he has done everything within his power to ensure compliance.”

“Caught between the proverbial ‘rock and a hard place,’ he has taken all reasonable, logical and legal steps required to perform his duties of housing the maximum number of persons possible with the Orange County jail system within federal constitutional parameters,” Turner said.

Friday’s contempt hearing will be fraught with enormous political and legal consequences for Gates and the Orange County jails.

While on the one hand the Municipal Court judges want Gates to keep prisoners in jail, a federal court judge has ordered him to cap the population at the Central Men’s Jail.

The county facilities, which are designed to hold 3,203 inmates, typically hold more than 4,400.

Also, the hearing will come in the midst of the campaign over Measure J, the half-cent sales tax referendum that Gates has worked hard to support because he wants the revenues used for a new 6,700-bed jail facility in Gypsum Canyon near Anaheim Hills.

In their affidavits, the Municipal Court judges said Gates’ disobedience of state law “has been willful and with the intent to frustrate the processes of this court.”

Friday’s hearing could also subject the sheriff to his third contempt citation in five years, although many observers say they do not believe that Presiding Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr., who has been outspoken about the release program, will fine or imprison Gates if he is found guilty of contempt.

In fact, some opponents of Measure J have speculated that the timing of the hearing would do more to help Gates’ efforts to get voter approval of Measure J in the May 14 election.

Supervisor Don R. Roth, who has been in an increasingly adversarial position with Gates over the sheriff’s desire to build a jail in Gypsum Canyon, said he had not seen a copy of either the contempt order or the response from the county counsel.

“You can put this in the paper: County Supervisor Don Roth could not comment on something he has not seen or read,” he said.