Unfit O.C. Sheriff’s Reservist Was Reinstated

A politically connected Irvine businessman, forced out of the Orange County sheriff’s reserve program after a past arrest came to light in 2000, was improperly reinstated a year later and carried a badge for almost three years, according to internal documents and interviews.

The only written record of the reinstatement shows that Sheriff Michael S. Carona and then-Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo both recommended bringing Gabriel Nassar, the reserve deputy, back into the program.

Carona put a document into Nassar’s file last year saying that he didn’t approve the reinstatement “on the date shown,” a statement the department would not clarify when asked whether Carona might have authorized it on another date. But former ranking department officials, including Jaramillo, said they believed the sheriff gave his approval.

“All hiring, promotions and terminations were done by, or at the direction of, the sheriff,” said Jaramillo, who was fired by Carona last year and now faces criminal corruption charges in an unrelated matter.

“Mike needs to stop blaming other people for his decisions and start taking responsibility for his actions.... It’s his department. He ran it. He’s responsible.”

The reinstatement was reversed last year when Nassar again was deemed to be an unfit reserve deputy and was asked to hand over his badge.

The case raises new questions about the department’s reserve program and whether it was used to dole out favors to political allies.

Dozens of reserve officers, many of them friends, relatives and political contributors of Carona and one of his top assistants, were removed in 2002 from the California’s peace officers database over concerns that they had not been fully trained or undergone background checks.

Still, many of the reserve deputies retained their badges, and some still have concealed-weapon permits.

Carona has denied any wrongdoing and that the reserve appointments were political favors. His office is challenging the state agency that certifies police training programs in an effort to have the reserve deputies reinstated.

Nassar resigned in October 2000 after it became public that he had failed to disclose his 1991 arrest in Riverside County for allegedly making threatening telephone calls, a charge that was later dismissed.

He also did not reveal that he was once the subject of a domestic violence restraining order.

When Nassar was brought back a year later, the lieutenant who handled the reinstatement said he was acting on orders from then-Assistant Sheriff Don Haidl. The lieutenant, who has since retired, said Haidl told him he was speaking for both Carona and Jaramillo.

“The bottom line of this whole thing is that I wouldn’t have put Nassar back in the program if I wasn’t ordered to do so,” said Stephen Fauchier, the retired lieutenant.

Jaramillo told officials conducting an internal review of problems in the reserve program that he didn’t authorize Nassar’s reinstatement, according to department memos obtained by The Times.

Carona’s response to the officials -- “Please be advised that I never approved reinstatement of this candidate on the date shown” -- was placed in Nassar’s file, according to a copy of the statement provided by the Sheriff’s Department.

Another memo from a captain investigating the case said that Jaramillo also had “no recollection” of reinstating Nassar.

Carona and Nassar declined to be interviewed for this story, and Haidl did not return calls seeking comment.

Nassar was a campaign fundraiser for Carona during his first campaign for sheriff in 1998 and gained notoriety by helping develop a plan to award “commissioner” badges to contributors to the 1998 campaign of Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas. That idea was abandoned because of the potential for abuse, but not before Nassar ordered himself a badge that he later returned at Rackauckas’ request.

After Carona took office, Nassar was recruited by Haidl to become one of the sheriff’s Professional Service Reserves.

Carona created the special unit within the department’s larger reserve force to attract business executives, doctors, lawyers, scientists and other professionals who could provide free expertise to the department.

Members of the professional reserves have no police powers, but get badges, identification cards and in many cases a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

Nassar, 61, was appointed to the program and issued a concealed-weapon permit in June 2000.

But several months later, department officials concluded that Nassar had made conflicting statements in applications for the concealed-weapon permit and the special reserve program.

Nassar resigned from the reserves in October 2000 and his gun permit was revoked. A year later, he was quietly reinstated.

A short note written by Fauchier on the jacket of Nassar’s file -- the only record of the reinstatement -- said it was done at the request of Carona and Jaramillo.

Fauchier said he didn’t remember speaking with Carona or Jaramillo about the case but that Haidl told him the sheriff and assistant sheriff “want it done, so let’s do it.”

When Nassar was later questioned by sheriff’s officials about what happened, he said his badge and gun were returned to him by Jaramillo when he was reinstated, according to a memo. Nassar said this was done during a meeting in Jaramillo’s office, and that Haidl was also present.

Nassar told investigators that Jaramillo said, “Since you never submitted a resignation, I’ll tell them you never left,” according to one memo.

Questions about the reinstatement didn’t surface until Nassar filed a new application for a concealed-weapon permit in late 2003 and began calling the sheriff and other officials to ask them to speed the process, according to department memos. Sheriff’s officials went to his business in January 2004 and took back his badge. They told him that neither Carona nor Jaramillo had authorized his reinstatement.

Jaramillo, who was Carona’s campaign manager and top confidante, was fired in March 2004 for reasons the sheriff has never disclosed. At the time, the Orange County Grand Jury was investigating various allegations of wrongdoing in the Sheriff’s Department. Jaramillo is now facing charges of misappropriation of public funds and conflict-of-interest charges for allegedly using department resources to stage demonstrations for a private company that paid him as a consultant.

Haidl, who runs a car auction business, resigned in September to focus his attention on the rape trial of his son.

Gregory Haidl, 20, and two friends were convicted this year of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl and are awaiting sentencing.