May 15--Former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona -- who was sentenced to federal prison for witness tampering -- was moved this week from a federal prison medical center in Kentucky to a halfway house in Los Angeles County.
The 59-year-old former lawman once dubbed by CNN's Larry King as "America's sheriff" for his aggressive pursuit of a child killer was transferred on Wednesday from a federal prison medical center in Lexington, Ky., to a residential re-entry center in the South Bay, said Edmond Ross, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Halfway houses, as they are known, serve as common transitional facilities for inmates in the last months of their sentences, Ross said. Inmates remain under federal custody but are able to go out into the community, hold jobs and receive counseling while being "accounted for at all times," Ross said.
The Bureau of Prisons contracts with numerous halfway houses, and inmates' exact locations are not public record, Ross said, declining to provide details on Carona's specific whereabouts.
Carona began serving a 5 1/2-year prison sentence in January 2011 at Englewood Federal Correctional Institution in Littleton, Colo. -- a prison that has held notable inmates including former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey K. Skilling and disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. He has served about 80% of his sentence.
In 2009, a jury convicted Carona on a count of witness tampering after he was recorded as he tried to persuade his former assistant sheriff to lie to a grand jury investigating allegations of corruption. He was acquitted on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud and another count of witness tampering.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford sentenced him to 66 months behind bars, sternly lecturing him on honesty and telling him, "there will not be any coddling here."
A federal judge in 2013 denied a request that he be re-sentenced and essentially freed from behind bars.
Carona was viewed as a rising political star early in his career and drew national attention when he appeared on "Larry King Live" after the kidnapping and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion and vowed to track down the killer. The man eventually convicted in the girl's death was arrested just days later.
But his reputation eroded when investigators began looking into reports of secret cash payments, sexual affairs and political irregularities, such as providing badges and concealed weapon licenses to campaign contributors. He was indicted in 2007.
His fall from grace resulted in a makeover of the top rung of the sheriff's department and the appointment of retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's division chief Sandra Hutchens to serve as a reformer and restore the Orange County department's reputation. She was subsequently elected sheriff and continues to serve.
Ross, with the bureau of prisons, said Carona was transferred from the Colorado facility to the Kentucky medical facility in November. He said the reasons inmates are transferred to the medical facility are not public record.
Inmates, he said, can be placed in a halfway house for up to a year. Carona is projected to be released from custody on Nov. 8, according to the bureau of prisons' online inmate locator.
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