Dispute Creates Splinter Support Group for Police : Law enforcement: After clashing with Sheriff Roache, some in the Honorary Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. form a new organization.

For nearly 20 years, scores of well-heeled businessmen have directed their philanthropy toward law enforcement, delivering training equipment, weaponry and scholarships in mass quantities to police agencies.

In return, members of the Honorary Deputy Sheriff’s Assn. have collected tiny sheriff’s badges and ID cards to prove they were helping serve the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and then-Sheriff John Duffy.

But Duffy decided not to run for reelection in 1990 after two decades at the top. Four months after Jim Roache--Duffy’s bitter enemy--was elected, some board members of the honorary organization sought controversial changes in the by-laws and Roache threatened to dissolve the group.

In January, several members defected and formed the Law Enforcement Foundation, with a board of directors composed of the former directors of the sheriff’s organization. The new organization, which held its first general meeting a month ago, now has 250 dues-paying members.

The president of the new organization, Joe Payson, says there are no hard feelings toward his old group.

“We just felt that, in a county with 2.5 million people, there was a need for an organization that wasn’t just linked with one department or jurisdiction,” said Payson, a member of the other organization for the past 24 years. “We wanted to build an organization that provides support for all law enforcement.”

But Roache and many members of the honorary organization feel otherwise, suspecting that Duffy pieced the group together as a slap at the new sheriff.

At the general membership meeting held last month at the San Diego Hilton Beach and Tennis Resort, Duffy introduced Duane Lowe, chief of the California State Police, as the guest speaker. Duffy had tried unsuccessfully to get state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren.

Duffy said Monday that he has no other connection with the Law Enforcement Foundation.

“I am not a member of that group and not affiliated with it any way other than they bought my dinner and my wife’s dinner,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be a member, but I would expect people in the Roache administration to say that I’m behind it.”

Nevertheless, the county now has two organizations that will collect money for essentially the same purpose.

Although members of the new organization say it is different because it will donate to all law enforcement agencies, those in the honorary group say they have done the same thing for 20 years with great success.

“I can show you documentation that says we’ve been funding scholarships for officers from Escondido, El Cajon, National City, you name it,” said Jimmy Wilkens, a special assistant to Roache who helped form the honorary organization. “It’s a lie that we’ve only helped the Sheriff’s Department.”

Wilkens estimated that the HDSA, now down 500 members to 415, has raised $2 million to $3 million since it was formed. That includes $500,000 for the establishment of Duffytown, the training center for all of county law enforcement near the Miramar Naval Air Station.

Last year, board members voted to strip the center of Duffy’s name. It is now called the Honorary Deputy Sheriff’s Technical Training Center.

The incoming president of the HDSA said those who become members first must undergo a security check. Their ID cards are signed by the sheriff, who can confiscate them at any time.

“Some people want to flash their badge around in a restaurant or want special attention,” said Tom Prendergast, the owner of Gallery Florist who is to be installed Wednesday as the new president. “Those are abuses, and if they occur, we can take the badge away.”

Those in the Law Enforcement Foundation get an identification card signed by its executive director, former Chula Vista Police Chief William Winters. They also receive a badge.

Payson, the president of the group, says it has three goals: to promote education among law officers; to provide funds for family members of peace officers killed in the line of duty and to help train disabled officers who want to get back into the work force.

Payson acknowledged that some board members had a fierce disagreement in a dispute over changing by-laws last year. Under existing law, the sheriff has the right to decide who becomes a member. A minority of the membership wanted Roache to have no part in the decision. Roache threatened to disband the organization. The minority eventually resigned.

The matter has since been forgotten, Payson said, and, despite the bad feelings, about 20% of the new group still belong to the HDSA.

Roache said he knows little about the new organization other than that he understood Duffy was somehow connected with its formation. He acknowledged asking one of its board members, who belonged to both groups, to decide which he wanted to abandon, saying that membership in both would amount to a conflict of interest.