When Mel Gibson was arrested for drunken driving, the department withheld video and audio tapes of the arrest, asserting they were exempt from open-government laws. There were questions about favorable treatment for Gibson after a sheriff's spokesman initially said the arrest occurred "without incident" and made no mention of the superstar's now-notorious anti-Semitic rant. "When a celebrity is involved, that's when people pay attention," said Robert Stern of the Center for Governmental Studies, a research group.
is why didn't the sheriff go to the judge" before Hilton was released. Baca has dismissed criticism over the decision. Last year, the Los Angeles Times reported Baca put one of his closest friends on the payroll as a $105,000-a-year adviser.
The newspaper also said he had accepted more than $42,000 in gifts since taking office, including some from those who do business with his department. In 2004, he took more gifts than California's other 57 sheriffs combined. Baca oversees an 8,000- officer force that has been vexed by low morale, tight budgets, overcrowded jails and the persistence of gang crime.
Jonathan Wilcox, a Republican strategist who teaches a course on politics and celebrity at the University of Southern California, said Baca may be caught between public expectations and the reality of the criminal justice system: "Sheriff Baca needs to be very concerned with at least the impression that the final frontier the law is now as affected by celebrity as almost every other aspect of our lives." When Mel Gibson was arrested for drunken driving, the department withheld video and audio tapes of the arrest, asserting they were exempt from open-government laws.
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