Mike Carona Loses His Appeal on His Conviction

Mike Carona
Former Sheriff Mike Corona - Photo: Chris Prevatt/LiberalOC
Mike Carona
Former Sheriff Mike Corona - Photo: Chris Prevatt/LiberalOC

It is with great relief that I join in spreading the word that Mike Carona’s request for appeal on his conviction of witness tampering has been denied by a 3 judge-panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit  Court of Appeals. He has also been denied the opportunity for any further appeals. Carona began serving a 5 1/2 year sentence at a Federal Prison in Colorado in January.

I met Mike Carona several years ago at a book signing party in Costa Mesa at the home of the owner of a prominent alternate sentencing program in Orange County. I don’t want to mention the name of the home owner to protect her privacy, because I can tell you, at the time of the signing, who Mike Carona really was, and is, was unknown to most of the county at that time. I wouldn’t want to associate that person with him without her permission.

The book is called, “Save My Son” and is written by Maralys Wills and “co authored” by Mike Corona. It is the story of Wills struggle with her drug addicted son and frustration with the system in place to treat/deal with drug addicts. According to an anonymous reviewer on Barnes and Noble.com,

“A Mother and a Sheriff Unite…….

I believe this is a good book, although it does not tell the truth..I happen to be related, by marriage, to this co-writer. I believe truth should be written, but, I do give this a good rating for a fictional book.”  This review was dated 2006.

Admittedly I didn’t read the book, but I was there for the circus of a book signing.  Sadly, the author of the book was over shadowed at the party by Mike Carona’s enormous ego. He gave a long, and pathetically gratuitous speech about his horrible childhood at the hands of his alcoholic mother. While I have all the sympathy in world for the families of addicts, I was at the time working in the addiction field as a chemical dependency counselor, listening to Mike Carona drag his family through the mud at this she-she event was hard to stomach. There is a time a place for such things, and a party where the liquor flowed quite freely seemed beyond inappropriate to me. I turned to my friend, my former supervisor at the last drug treatment program I had worked, and said, “Can you believe this guy?  What an ego.” She commented something similar to that effect and we agreed to leave early.

It was my first glimpse into the ego that would become such a celebrity, in the worst possible way, in Orange County.  His promises to improve the treatment system for addicts, as well the many photo ops he took advantage of to bolster his good guy image  during his time as sheriff seem so empty now that not only Orange County, but the nation, know the real Mike Carona.  He became a bad joke with his handing out of “deputy badges” to unqualified supporters (including Costa Mesa’s own appointed city council member Steve Mensinger). The disgrace of not only his down fall but the down fall of so many of his closest associates is how he will be remembered.