Former Official Loses a Ruling

A key prosecution witness in the corruption case against a former Orange County assistant sheriff can testify from his sick bed before the trial begins, a judge ruled Thursday.

Charles Gabbard, 68, will be allowed to testify early in the case involving George Jaramillo and his sister-in-law Erica Hill because he has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema. He is on oxygen almost constantly and often bedridden, raising the court’s “apprehension” that he may be unable to testify during the trial, Orange County Superior Court Judge Daniel McNerney said.

“The bar is set relatively low” in justifying such special considerations, he said. “The [prosecutors] are not required to show that the witness is on his deathbed.”

Defense attorneys had argued that the judge should rely on direct testimony from a physician rather than third-person affidavits in making his decision and that their insufficient preparation for an early cross-examination of Gabbard constituted a violation of their clients’ right to due process.

Jaramillo, who was fired last March by Sheriff Michael S. Carona, and Hill are accused of misusing sheriff’s squad cars and on-duty deputies to stage sales demonstrations for Gabbard’s Mission Viejo company, CHG Safety Technologies, which invented an electronic device to disable a vehicle pursued by police. Jaramillo was a paid consultant to CHG during part of the time that he was second-in-command at the Sheriff’s Department and Hill was the company’s office manager.

As CHG’s owner, Gabbard is a “material witness” whose testimony is essential to the prosecutors’ case, they said.

McNerney scheduled Gabbard’s testimony for April 8, 10 days before the preliminary hearing in the case. The judge and lawyers agreed to meet March 25 about the logistics.