Marshals Fade Into History

In a sometimes emotional ceremony, the county’s marshal and about 370 of his deputies raised their hands to be sworn in as sheriff’s deputies on Friday, ending a law enforcement era that began when Orange County was known as the Santa Ana Valley and horse thieving was still a major crime.

More than 500 people crowded into the Plaza of the Flags in Santa Ana’s Civic Center in a ceremony that included family members, state legislators and deputies from the merged sheriff’s and marshal’s departments. Toward the end of the ceremony, Sheriff Mike Carona exchanged Marshal John Fuller’s badge for a sheriff’s badge, and the assembled marshal’s deputies--dressed for the first time in the sheriff’s olive green uniforms--raised their right hands to take their oath.

With that, the chapter on the 111-year-old marshal’s office was essentially closed.

Carona put the merger in a personal context by referring to the recent death of Deputy Steve Parsons, who was killed in a traffic collision and buried Thursday.

“Yesterday, I laid to rest a member of my family. Today my law enforcement family gained 500,” Carona said. “I would not trade the one for the 500, but thank God I got the 500.”

Orange County Presiding Judge C. Robert Jameson compared the merger to a marriage, while pointing out the judges’ historically close relationship with the marshal’s office, which served as law enforcement personnel for the courts.

“As the parents of one of the parties, [the judges] don’t feel like we’re losing a marshal,” Jameson said. “We’re gaining a sheriff.”

The merger was 18 months in negotiations, but had been discussed for the better part of a decade. Local judges had historically opposed suggestions of a merger. The last serious effort occurred in 1995, but talks dissolved amid angry exchanges between then-Sheriff Brad Gates and the judges.

The Sheriff’s Department will now go from a staff of about 3,200 to more than 3,700. There will be no layoffs, said Susan Paul, the county’s chief of employee relations. However, about 20 administrative marshal positions that have become vacant will not be filled, Paul said. The merger should save taxpayers about $1.3 million, she said.

Most marshal employees will remain in roughly the same positions for at least a year, Paul said. However, some higher-ranking officials would see a change in duties. Capt. Paul Gushard, head of the Judicial Protection Unit for the marshal’s office, said his position would change, but he didn’t yet know how.

However, he said he supported the merger and said it was inevitable.

“If we had remained, we would have been the only marshal’s office of any size in the state,” Gushard said. “Clearly, it’s the trend for the marshals to merge.”

Fuller will become an assistant sheriff and will remain in charge of courtroom operations, Carona said.

The atmosphere was reminiscent of a high school graduation, as deputy marshals hurried to get dressed in their new uniforms. Virgilio Chavira, 64, said he was looking forward to his daughter Veronica becoming a sheriff’s deputy.

“She’ll get more opportunities, and she looks better in green,” he joked.

“I feel honored to be one of the last marshals,” Veronica Chavira said as her two boys played nearby. She said she was interested in becoming a patrol officer, which would require that she work for about seven years in the county’s jail system.

“I’ve taken a couple of tours of the jail. I think I can handle it,” she said.

Deputy Marshal Joseph Papac, 59, said the merger made him especially happy for younger marshal deputies, noting that he has already served 28 years with the Los Angeles Police Department and 10 with the marshal’s office.

“This is going to give the guys the opportunity to move around to different assignments,” Papac said. “I’ve done the full gamut of assignments--vice, robbery, burglary, some homicide and forgery. But this is especially good for the younger ones.”