Interference Is Found in Haidl Pot Incident

Top-ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department conspired last year to conceal a drug incident involving the son of an assistant sheriff -- but there is not enough evidence to bring criminal charges, the county grand jury concluded in a report issued Thursday.

Sheriff’s administrators pressured a deputy to leave out of his report incriminating evidence that tied Gregory Haidl, the then-18-year-old son of Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl, to a small amount of marijuana found in a vehicle in October, according to the report.

The Sheriff’s Department also chose not to record the incident in a log and took steps to hide it from reporters, the grand jury concluded. “Interference at the higher levels of the Sheriff’s Department gave the appearance of unethical behavior and a cover-up,” the grand jury said.

Sheriff Michael S. Carona, in a statement Thursday, vowed to ask -- as the grand jury recommended -- that an outside law enforcement agency conduct a disciplinary investigation. “Attempts to misrepresent facts have never been tolerated in our organization,” he said.

“The grand jury identified a number of errors, decisions and actions that should and will rightfully be a part of our internal investigation,” Carona wrote. “After an investigation is completed, we will take the appropriate corrective and disciplinary actions, if any, that are indicated.”

But a former top assistant to the sheriff said Carona knew about the Haidl incident soon after it happened and approved the department’s decision not to arrest the teenager or disclose the incident to the media.

“He was called by me on the night of the incident and briefed by me.... He was the ultimate decision maker that night,” said former Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo, whom Carona fired in March for undisclosed reasons. “He concurred with what I did.”

Carona, in a written response to questions from The Times, acknowledged that Jaramillo called about 11 the night of the incident and told him about it.

The sheriff would not say whether -- as Jaramillo says -- he approved of the cover-up. But, “as a result of what I learned that night and subsequently, I ordered an internal investigation of the matter,” Carona wrote.

The controversy that led to the grand jury report began Oct. 26, when a sheriff’s deputy saw Gregory Haidl and two friends skateboarding in a private parking lot in San Clemente. As is common with grand jury reports, the findings released Thursday do not identify Haidl or the officials by name; Jaramillo and others confirmed their identities.

While questioning the youths, the deputy found a small amount of marijuana among Haidl’s keys, cigarettes and wallet inside a vehicle belonging to one of the other young men, according to the grand jury report.

Soon after the deputy discovered Haidl’s identity, ranking officers in the Sheriff’s Department became involved. According to the report, a “high-ranking official” told a lieutenant that “the press would be all over this” and the two agreed the incident would remain “our little secret.”

What made the incident of particular concern to sheriff’s officials was that the younger Haidl and two other friends were free on bail at the time, charged with a high-profile, videotaped gang rape of a 16-year-old girl. That case resulted in a mistrial Monday when jurors were unable to agree on any of the 24 counts; prosecutors said Tuesday that they would refile charges.

Jaramillo said Thursday that he was the “high-ranking official” who elected to keep the incident from reporters. “I stand by that decision,” because the incident was not serious enough to warrant a news release, he said.

A deputy was ordered to drive Haidl home, and a sergeant took the marijuana to his office and locked it in a file cabinet. No report was written that night.

When the deputy was instructed to draft a report five days later, he mentioned that the marijuana was found among Haidl’s possessions. Midlevel managers later pressured the deputy to delete that information from his report, according to the grand jury.

In November, after the incident became public, Carona started an internal investigation, which he halted at the request of the district attorney’s office once the grand jury inquiry began, according to the report.

At some point, district attorney officials presented evidence about the case to the grand jury, but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to file charges against Jaramillo or anyone else involved in the incident.

“Even though there was no criminal culpability, there was evidence of interference by the higher levels of the Sheriff’s Department that gave the appearance of a cover-up,” the grand jury reported. “This behavior continued to snowball, resulting in several misleading reports and public pronouncements.”

Carona fired Jaramillo in March, amid publicity about the grand jury investigation, but did not disclose his reasons.

FBI agents raided Jaramillo’s office a few days later, but declined to say what was taken. The investigation -- previously described as a public-corruption probe -- continues, the bureau said.

Jaramillo said he was vindicated by the grand jury and district attorney’s conclusion that criminal charges should not be filed against him or others in the department, but he disagreed with the panel’s conclusion that there was a cover-up.

“They found what I said from Day One: There was no violation of law,” Jaramillo said. “There was no need to cover up. This was a routine stop with a very small amount of marijuana involved.

“Other than the fact that it involved the son of an employee, I would never have been woken up or briefed,” he said.