The Last Weekend of Freedom?

Disgraced former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona may want to make the most out of this weekend, because on Friday Assistant U.S. Attorney Brett A. Sagel requested, in a two-page statement, that the corrupt former lawman be taken into custody no later than Tuesday of next week during a hearing.

You may recall two years ago in 2009 Mr. Carona, once hailed as "America's Sheriff," was convicted by an Orange County federal jury for witness tampering in trying to persuade former assistant sheriff, and one time close friend and business associate, Don Haidl to lie during a grand jury investigation.

As Orange County Register reporter Larry Welborn reports,

"If the defendant does not self-surrender before the hearing, the government would seek immediate remand of the defendant" at a Tuesday court hearing, Sagel wrote.

Carona "has had ample time to get his personal affairs in order" since his conviction in federal court in April 2009, Sagel wrote.

And since the U.S. Bureau of Prison has designated that Carona serve his sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Engelwood, Colo., "no further time is necessary" for him to surrender beyond Tuesday's hearing, Sagel added.

Meanwhile, in a last-ditch effort to stave off prison, Carona's defense team filed a petition with a federal appeals court seeking a rehearing of his failed appeal of his witness tampering conviction.

The 45–page petition, filed Thursday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, asked that the three-judge panel of justices that rejected Carona's appeal on Jan. 6 review their decision, or that the entire court take up the issue.

U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford sentenced Mr. Carona to five-and-a-half years, that in turn prompted the former sheriff's lawyers to appeal the judge's decision with an appellate court. Mr. Carona's lawyers claimed Judge Guilford abused his discretion when he declined to grant a defense motion to suppress evidence during Mr. Carona's trial.

The group of appellate judges did not agree with the defense's argument, and that ruling by the judges prompted, according to Mr. Welborn, Judge Guilford to schedule a hearing for next Tuesday in his courtroom at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana.

If Mr. Carona is ordered to prison a question by a reader was asked, will he serve his full sentence? Well, in federal prison there is no parole granted, and so one's only hopes for early release, sans any sort of clemency, is for "good behavior."

Will the disgraced sheriff surrender before Tuesday or wait out his options and basically hope for the best while standing about in a modern courtroom in downtown Santa Ana on Tuesday? Well, anybody who has followed the Machiavellian saga of Mike Carona can probably figure out the answer to that rather simple question.

[UPDATE: OC Weekly reporter Matt Coker reports,

Brian Sun, Carona's attorney, states in a letter filed in court Friday by prosecutors that Carona plans to surrender at the Federal Correctional Institution Englewood in Littleton, Colorado, before a scheduled hearing Tuesday in Santa Ana.]