Copter Use by Sheriff’s Aide Investigated : Inquiry: Taking of helicopter without permission to fly three inmates on a tour over their jail is under scrutiny.

A special assistant to San Diego County Sheriff Jim Roache is under investigation for allegedly ordering the use of a department helicopter to take inmates on a tour flight over their jail without authorization, Roache confirmed Thursday.

“It has been brought to my attention that there was an unauthorized use of helicopters” on Thursday, Roache said. “There was a brief ride of inmates. I have asked the undersheriff to request an internal-affairs investigation. Obviously there was poor judgment used.”

Department sources said Jimmy Wilkens, a special assistant to Roache, asked a pilot to fly three inmates of the County Jail at Las Colinas in Santee on a tour from Gillespie Field in El Cajon to the jail, sources said. The inmates, who are considered reliable enough to work at the sheriff’s headquarters in Kearny Mesa, mostly doing janitorial work, report to Wilkens.

The helicopters are used in crime fighting under the county’s Aerial Support to Regional Enforcement Agencies (Astrea) program.

Dan Greenblat, a spokesman for Roache, said he had no comment on the investigation. But he said the department’s policy for using helicopters “is for official purposes only. Only on the rarest of occasions is a ride-along authorized, and almost always it has to do with supporting a local charity, such as a Boys Club or American Cancer Society.”

Such approval must be obtained in writing from the sheriff, Greenblat said.

Department sources said Wilkens was also involved in a controversy involving a helicopter two months ago. In that instance, he allegedly ordered a helicopter pilot to take him, his girlfriend and the girlfriend’s hairdresser on a flight over the sheriff’s headquarters.

Wilkens had informed the pilot that the flight was official business because one of the women is an architect who was interested in getting aerial photographs of the building, Sheriff’s Department sources said.

Wilkens, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, was hired by Roache soon after Roache took office in January, 1991. Wilkens had been fired by then-Sheriff John Duffy for lying, Duffy has said.

Although he is a special assistant to Roache, Wilkens reports directly to Undersheriff Jay LaSuer, department officials said. Wilkens was placed in charge of the department’s move from downtown to Kearny Mesa and received a special citation during the opening of the headquarters earlier this year.

Wilkens also coordinated the planning of the National Sheriff’s Assn. conference this year in San Diego.