Under fire, sheriff won’t seek reelection
Sandra Hutchens’ decision comes amid informant scandal
After she was appointed to lead Orange County’s troubled Sheriff’s Department in 2008, Sandra Hutchens vowed to be a “change agent” and clean house.
Her predecessor, Michael S. Carona, had been indicted on federal corruption charges, and the agency was tainted by cronyism, sex scandals and allegations of rampant abuse in the county’s jails.
Nearly a decade later, as she faced mounting criticism over her department’s handling of jailhouse informants and a brazen escape by inmates last year, Hutchens said Tuesday that she would not seek reelection.
Her announcement came hours after the American Civil Liberties Union released a scathing report alleging inhumane treatment in the jails under her watch, and about a week before her long-awaited testimony on the use of a jailhouse informant in a convicted killer’s case.
In an interview, Hutchens said her decision after a four-decade career in law enforcement “has nothing to do with controversy.”
“Forty years is enough,” the sheriff said. “It is time to step aside.”
Hutchens insisted she had turned around the struggling department, despite cutbacks amid the recession. The timing of her departure was driven by the need for a succession plan, she said. She has endorsed Undersheriff Don Barnes to replace her and said he needs time to organize his campaign.
“There will always be some controversy that occurs in a law enforcement agency,” Hutchens said. “I have faced storms before, and you know I don’t back down from a challenge. I am not stepping down from office. I will be here for 18 months.”
The county’s Board of Supervisors appointed her sheriff in 2008 after Carona, the longtime sheriff, stepped down while facing federal corruption charges. He was convicted of witness tampering and sentenced to 66 months in federal prison.
For years, Hutchens was a popular figure in county politics. After spending her career rising through the ranks of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, she was viewed as an outsider positioned to reform the agency. Voters twice reelected her.
“When she came in, she was a solid choice,” said David Harrington, the mayor of Aliso Viejo who retired from the Sheriff’s Department after a 28-year career. “She brought in good people and steadied the ship immediately after Mike Carona.”
But Harrington, who has announced his bid to run for sheriff in 2018, said her department later demonstrated “failed leadership” and poor communication.
Last year, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into whether Orange County law enforcement routinely denied accused criminals fair trials by using jailhouse informants to secretly gather evidence.
The allegations of an informant network surfaced in the case of Scott Dekraai, convicted of killing eight people during a rampage at a Seal Beach salon. Dekraai’s attorney argued that an informant had been intentionally placed in proximity to his client to perhaps extract a confession.
An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled that key information about the informant was not turned over to the defense as required, and jailhouse logs revealed a scheme to place informants near suspects.
The scandal has caused convictions to be tossed out and led to negative publicity for the Sheriff ’s Department and the district attorney’s office. Hutchens is expected to testify about the jailhouse allegations in Dekraai’s case next week.
An internal investigation of deputies related to the jailhouse informants is three-quarters complete but on hold, she said, because of the pending criminal investigation by the attorney general’s office as well as the ongoing federal probe.
This week, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called on Hutchens to resign, citing her handling of the jailhouse informant scandal and what it called “inhumane” conditions in the lockups.
A breast cancer survivor, Hutchens emphasized that she was not stepping down for health reasons and took the long view about tempests during her tenure.
“I have always been one to lean forward into the wind,” she said.