Carona Wants Sex Allegation Probed

Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona said Wednesday he would ask the state attorney general to investigate a woman’s accusations that he sexually assaulted her four times during his first term in office -- a charge he said he “absolutely and categorically” denies.

Carona, who appeared on KCBS-TV Channel 2 and other news programs Wednesday evening but did not speak with The Times, said he was “flabbergasted” by the accusations made Tuesday by Erica Hill. She is the sister-in-law of indicted former Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo. The sheriff also said he was “struggling with why this would come out now.”

“It came out of the blue for me, because there is simply no factual basis for this at all,” Carona told television reporters during an interview at sheriff’s headquarters in Santa Ana.

Hill said Wednesday she welcomed an investigation, that it was what she had hoped for when she mailed a letter to county supervisors, sending copies to the state attorney general and two members of Congress, accusing the sheriff of sexual assault.

The accusations, she said, are an elaboration of testimony she gave to the Orange County Grand Jury this summer. She told jurors that she’d had sex with Carona during his first term in office, according to recently unsealed testimony.

“I’m confused. I asked for an investigation yesterday. So what is he asking to be investigated? Me?” Hill said. “I welcome an investigation.”

In her letter to county supervisors, Hill said she “was the victim of Mike Carona’s relentless pursuit, and constant sexual harassment, assaults and battery. And, with his position and his influence over the lives of those most important to me, I felt powerless to protect myself and to expose him.”

In an interview about her allegations and grand jury testimony, Hill told The Times she had had sex with Carona four times between 1999 and 2001, and that she gave into his advances after Carona said he would not hire her husband if she didn’t have sex with the sheriff.

Hill went on to say that her first sexual encounter with Carona was in a hotel suite during the sheriff’s first inaugural party in 1999.

Later, she said, they had three encounters: in his truck, at his house and at the campaign office. Each time, Hill said, the sheriff promised he would hire her husband, a warehouse worker, to be a deputy.

The allegations mark the latest turn in the criminal case against Jaramillo.

The former assistant sheriff was fired and charged with corruption last year. He was accused of misusing county resources to help stage demonstrations for a Newport Beach company, CHG Safety Technologies, which was seeking to win law enforcement support for a laser device designed to stop fleeing cars. Jaramillo, who was paid as a consultant for the firm, was later indicted by the grand jury on bribery and conflict-of-interest charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

Hill, who was a CHG employee, was originally charged with Jaramillo. But the case against her was dropped when prosecutors decided to present the case to the grand jury.

Bill Campbell, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, said Wednesday that he had received a copy of Hill’s letter but that the allegations she made did not fall under the purview of supervisors.

He referred the letter to county counsel. Attorney General spokesman Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, also confirmed receipt of Hill’s letter but could not say how the office would respond.