By the time newly elected San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore was sworn into office in early 2011, he'd already spent 18 challenging months as interim sheriff.
The swine flu had hit county jails, creating severe staffing shortages. And two teenage girls – Amber DuBuois and Chelsea King – were raped and murdered within 13 months of each other.
During his swearing-in ceremony Gore spoke of a department that had been through the wringer.
“It was something that I’ll never forget and I’m sure the people around this county and this country will never forget,” he said. “I don’t think the men and women of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department could have performed any better than they did during these last 18 months. They were incredible.”
If Gore thought the worst was behind him and his department, he was mistaken. Over the next decade, the department was often in the spotlight for the wrong reasons — facing scrutiny for racial profiling, deputy misconduct and deaths in its jails.
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The 74-year-old, thrice-elected outgoing sheriff would not make himself available for an interview with KPBS for this story. But San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan did address his time in office — both acknowledging the controversies and highlighting strides he made during his 13 years at the helm.
Accomplishments
Among other things, Stephan credited him for his focus on human trafficking, establishing a sex crimes unit and assembling a cold-case unit.
Before joining the Sheriff’s Department, Gore had a 31-year career in the FBI and was special agent in charge for the San Diego office at the time of the 9/11 attacks. Stephan credits that experience for Gore’s belief in the benefits of police agencies across the county working together.
“He had the respect of every police chief and certainly the respect of the DA's office,” Stephan said.
Stephan also lauded Gore for his part in creating the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force. And the cold-case unit established by Gore was responsible for the arrest last year of Jack Potter for the 2003 murder of his wife, whose legs were found in a Rancho San Diego dumpster.
Another highlight, she said, was the work she and Gore put into the county’s crisis stabilization units which provide 24/7 access to mental health services. The first non-hospital unit opened in North County last fall. Stephan says Gore’s legacy is rich.
“He deserves credit for a lot of positives and a lot of why this area is looked at as a really great symbol for professional policing. I think he would own all of those positives and would also take responsibility for the things that are negative,” she said.
Controversies
Many say the negatives outnumbered the positives during Gore’s tenure.
During his first year in office the sheriff’s department faced intense scrutiny for how it handled the case of Rebecca Zahau. In July of 2011, Zahau was found hanging in a Coronado mansion. And though she had been bound and gagged, Sheriff’s department investigators concluded she’d died by suicide.
Zahau’s family believed she was murdered by her boyfriend’s brother Adam Shacknai. A civil jury agreed and found Shacknai liable for Zahau’s death.
In the years that followed, Gore continued to face accusations that he had rushed to judgement. In 2018, he told a reporter that the suicide ruling followed a careful investigation.
“We looked at this,” he said. “We didn’t start off saying this was a suicide and then gather information and facts to support this.”
In 2017, Gore faced the public’s ire for the conduct of his deputies. More than a dozen local women accused deputy Richard Fischer of sexual assault and misconduct. Many of the women blamed Gore for not immediately firing Fischer, who eventually pleaded guilty. Gore disagreed at the time.
“In my mind I was more interested in doing it right instead of doing it fast.” he said.
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Later that year, Gore again came under fire for failing to discipline Deputy Christopher Villanueva, who shot and killed Jonathon Coronel while trying to serve a search warrant. Villanueva had fatally shot another man – Sergio Wick – months earlier.
“These gentlemen were unarmed,” said Yusef Miller with the Racial Justice Coalition. “They may have been gang affiliated, but that was splashed all over the news to defame and retraumatize the family and criminalize the individual.”
Miller characterized Gore as savvy at image-making.
“I think his PR is excellent,” Miller said. “His department and himself can neutralize and deflect the complaints of the community.”
Some complaints were backed up by data. A 2021 study by the Center for Policing Equity found that San Diego Sheriff’s deputies were four times as likely to use force against Black people than whites. Black pedestrians were also stopped 3.5 times more frequently.
Deaths in county jails, which are run by the department, have also dogged Gore. A 2019 investigation by The San Diego Union Tribune showed that the department’s jails had the highest death rate among California’s largest counties. Gore told KPBS that year that he thought the methodology used by the paper was flawed.
“It’s just getting very tiresome to keep debating this issue over and over,” Gore said.
On Thursday, acting California Auditor Michael Tilden released an audit that supports the Union-Tribune investigation. The audit found that between 2006 and 2020, 185 people died in San Diego County jails, one of the highest counts in the state.
The auditors found serious problems with how the department provides medical and mental health care, does visual safety and well-being checks, “which likely contributed to in-custody deaths.”
Darwin Fishman, also of the Racial Justice Coalition, said Gore's response to the jail deaths issue was a political calculus that he well-understood he could afford to make time and again.
“The status quo disproportionately hurts us Black and brown population,” Fishman said. “It's not white males that are dying in that sense. It's also not the people that are clearly electing him that are dying. “
Gore chose to retire earlier than expected so he can care for his ailing wife, Natalie, who has health issues. He paid tribute to her at his last swearing-in ceremony in 2019.
“You’re my rock,” he said. “Thank you. I love you.”
