Baca recall bid fails to gain traction
An effort to collect signatures that could lead to a recall of Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has so far failed to gather momentum.
More than two months after announcing the recall effort, the former county employee leading the drive said he had gathered just 40 of the nearly 400,000 signatures needed by December to get a recall measure on the ballot.
Andrew Ahlering, who appeared on national television amid the public firestorm that arose after Baca granted early jail release to celebrity Paris Hilton, also said he had raised less than $100 for the campaign.
The recall petition accuses Baca of favorably treating celebrities and of “gross mismanagement of the largest jail system in the United States.”
Ahlering said he was not ready to give up yet, however.
He said new publicity about the 82 minutes that actress Nicole Richie spent in jail for driving under the influence could add fuel to the recall effort.
A Baca spokesman said the foundering campaign is evidence that the public believes the sheriff is performing well.
Baca ordered Hilton’s transfer from jail to home detention in June because of unspecified concerns about her health. A judge ordered the sheriff to return her to jail -- and she completed a 23-day sentence for violating probation on a drunken driving charge.
“The sheriff has said when the hysteria dies down about the Hilton incarceration people will come to see he made the right decision, and his interest is in the safety of the people of Los Angeles County,” said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore. “Ideally, he would like to put everyone behind bars. But until that can occur, he wants to put those who need to be there -- violent offenders.”
Ahlering is familiar with Baca’s jails. He served 23 days in County Jail last year after he was accused of disrupting a Board of Supervisors meeting. Ahlering later pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge. He was placed on probation and ordered to stay away from board meetings and was fired from his county job.
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