Trial to Offer Public a Look at the Sheriff : Gun-Permit Suit Can Shed Light on Gates’ Actions

Despite a well-earned reputation for success in waging Orange County’s war on drugs, Sheriff Brad Gates long has been battling serious accusations that his office is heavily politicized and has played favorites. Whatever the truth of the matter, it’s all been very expensive for Orange County taxpayers.

Twice the county has had to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars in out-of-court settlements with plaintiffs who charged that Gates’ deputies spied on and harassed them. But as we’ve noted, it’s highly unlikely the county would have gone to its deep pockets if it didn’t think there was at least some merit to the lawsuits.

Now another case is actually going to trial, beginning with jury selection this week, after a federal appellate court reinstated a lawsuit dismissed earlier by a lower court judge. It involves accusations that the sheriff showered favors on his friends through the dispensation of gun permits.

The sheriff maintains that there is nothing to this lawsuit. Last spring, when he ran for reelection, he suggested that it was easier for the county to pay its way out in two out-of-court settlements than get bogged down in costly litigation. But now here’s a case that will be aired in court.

While the sheriff won’t discuss the allegations, he has said in court and in case documents that the issuance of gun permits by his department is based on objective standards that comply with state law. Those standards require applicants to be of good moral character and provide evidence that their lives are in danger.

The professional bodyguards who have brought the lawsuit say they were turned down six times for concealed-weapon permits, having never donated to any of the sheriff’s campaigns. They allege that, for many years, campaign contributors to the sheriff just about always got permits. Now, they have gathered the sheriff’s own records in an effort to show that Gates gave permits to hundreds of political supporters, business associates and other professionals he wanted to cultivate as supporters, even to the point of granting permits to people who did not live in the county.

To date, the county has had to settle out of court with one Gates critic for $475,000 and another for $375,000. Ty Ritter and his brother, Frank, who have brought the current gun-permit lawsuit, seek $10 million in damages.

Unfortunately, the Board of Supervisors, which has had some testy relations with the sheriff over the use of drug-asset money, has virtually no power to compel a full accounting from Gates of all these accusations. They simply have had to pay the bills that have come in.

But the public has a right to a more complete picture. That’s one argument in favor of having the gun-permit case go to trial, without being settled out of court, leaving the public to wonder. It will provide a fuller portrait of these allegations for the residents of Orange County than they have had, and to some degree, it is likely to clarify some questions about how the sheriff has run his office. For that at least, the public will come away with much-needed understanding.