Don Barnes (sheriff)

Last updated
Don Barnes
13th Sheriff-Coroner of Orange County, California
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 7, 2019 [1]

Don Barnes (born 1965) is the Sheriff-Coroner of Orange County, California. He was elected to the position on November 5, 2018, and sworn in on January 7, 2019, replacing Sheriff Sandra Hutchens, [1] who had endorsed Barnes shortly after she announced that she would not seek re-election.

Contents

Career

Barnes was sworn in as a Deputy Sheriff in 1989. Barnes rose through the ranks of the department. In 2016, he was sworn in as Undersheriff. [2] In 2018, then-Sheriff Sandra Hutchens announced that she would not seek re-election to a third term. She endorsed Barnes for the position. [3] Barnes defeated Duke Nguyen in the 2018 general election. [4] Barnes was sworn in as the 15th Sheriff-Coroner on January 9, 2019. [1]

In 2020 Barnes was a defendant (with Orange County) in Ahlman v. Barnes (and a parallel state action Campbell v. Barnes ), filed on 30 April. [5] The case was a class action suit on behalf of medically vulnerable inmates in Orange County Jail, assisted by civil rights organisations. [5] A temporary restraining order (TRO) was granted in part on 26 May, that the defendants follow CDC social distancing guidelines, increase testing and improve sanitation in the jails. [5] The defendants tried multiple times to get a stay on the TRO,, finally being granted a stay by the Supreme Court on 5 August ( Barnes v. Ahlman ). [5] Justice Sotomayor filed a robust dissent. [6] Litigation continued until 32 May 2022 when the Supreme court denied certiorari. [5] The same day the parties agreed preliminary settlement "the jail would follow CDC guidelines; offer free COVID testing;" a $5 incentive for vaccination; allow more out-of-cell time for quarantined inmates; "increase their recordkeeping; and allow plaintiffs' counsel to monitor conditions via requests for video recordings." [5] Final approval of the agreement and attorney's fees was made on 12 September 2022. [7] The attorney's fees and costs awarded were $714,928.39, [5] simultaneously $2,985,071.61 in fees and costs in Campbell v. Barnes. [8] The cases had taken over two years, and cost the County over $3.7m in plaintiffs costs alone. [8] Due to an oversight the case wasn't technically closed until 27 July 2023. [9]

Barnes was unopposed for re-election in 2022. [10]

In June 2021, Barnes became the Chairman of the Intelligence Commanders Committee of the Major County Sheriffs of America, the national association of sheriffs from largest counties in the United States. [11] In this capacity, he testified in May 2023 before the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence and the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Management and Technology regarding the security challenges facing the United States. [12]

In February 2024, Barnes became Vice President of Homeland Security of the Major County Sheriffs of America. [13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Don Barnes is sworn in as Orange County's new sheriff". Daily Pilot. January 10, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "About Undersheriff Don Barnes - Don Barnes for Sheriff". Barnesforsheriff.com. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  3. ↑ "Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens won't seek re-election | 89.3 KPCC". Scpr.org. June 27, 2017. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  4. ↑ "Don Barnes". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Ahlman v. Barnes 8:20-cv-00835 (C.D. Cal.) | Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse".
  6. ↑ https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/20a19_k537.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  7. ↑ https://ia903203.us.archive.org/35/items/gov.uscourts.cacd.781419/gov.uscourts.cacd.781419.288.0.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  8. 1 2 "$3.7 Million in Attorney Fees Paid to Settle COVID-19 Class-Action at Orange County Jail | Prison Legal News".
  9. ↑ https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.781419/gov.uscourts.cacd.781419.318.0.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  10. ↑ "Official Election Results". Orange County Registrar of Voters. June 25, 2022. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
  11. ↑ "OC Sheriff Don Barnes To Chair Intelligence Commanders Committee For National Association Of Sheriffs". CBS News. June 3, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Statement for the Record by Sheriff Don Barnes, Orange County Sheriff's Department (California), Chairman, Intelligence Commanders Committee, Major County Sheriffs of America" (PDF). United States Congress. May 16, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Major County Sheriffs of America Installs New Executive Board Members". Major County Sheriffs of America. February 13, 2024.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.