Brad Gates, six-term Orange County sheriff and cowboy at heart, dies at 85

Brad Gates, who during his 24 years as Orange County sheriff became the region’s most influential politician as he helped expand and modernize his department, died Friday at his San Juan Capistrano home, according to the department. He was 85.

“Orange County has lost a legend, and our department has lost one of our most beloved family members,” Sheriff Don Barnes said in a statement Friday.

During six terms in office, Gates earned a reputation as a powerful politician who was a cowboy at heart.

“He enjoyed riding horses, was often spotted in a cowboy hat, and even won his first election as sheriff with an endorsement by western actor John Wayne,” Barnes said. “The West was tamed long before Brad Gates became sheriff, but like the lawmen before him, he ensured a rapidly growing county was kept safe.”

Gates was first elected sheriff in 1975. Over the years, he took over airport, harbor patrol and jail operations from other departments, The Times reported, and created a central county morgue that shifted control of autopsies from far-flung mortuaries to a facility under his control.

He constructed the Intake Release Center, which is responsible for processing all individuals being booked into and released from the Orange County jail system, Barnes said, and expanded the county’s Theo Lacy Facility, a maximum-security jail complex in Orange, amid concerns of jail overcrowding. Under his leadership, the Sheriff’s Department became the first large law enforcement agency to have video cameras installed in patrol units.

Gates also launched a regional anti-drug task force, the Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, and founded the Drug Abuse Is Life Abuse program, which teaches students at more than 600 county schools about drug, gang and violence prevention.

“The population of Orange County nearly doubled during his tenure, and Brad Gates accomplished the task of ensuring one of America’s fastest-growing counties had a first-class Sheriff’s Department,” Barnes said.

After Orange County’s municipal bankruptcy in 1994, the Board of Supervisors appointed Gates to help run the county, and he assisted in the development of a financial recovery plan.

He became the leading proponent of Measure R, which provided for a half-cent sales tax designed to help lift the county out of its financial crisis without slashing key services, such as law enforcement, The Times reported. Voters killed that proposal.

In a statement issued on social media, Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer recalled that as a member of the Board of Supervisors, he worked alongside Gates to navigate the aftermath of the county bankruptcy, “refusing to compromise on public safety and our duty to keep Orange County safe.”

“Sheriff Gates and his passion will be missed by many, including me, but his legacy of service in this county and law enforcement will live on,” Spitzer said.

Gates also faced controversies. In the late 1980s, he was sued by political opponents who accused him of spying on them, The Times reported. The case was settled out of court, and Gates repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Others, including the American Civil Liberties Union, sued him over inmate deaths and jail crowding.

Gates also clashed repeatedly with the Board of Supervisors over his demands for more money to expand the county’s overcrowded jails.

Gates graduated from Capistrano Union High School, Orange Coast College and Cal State Long Beach, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminology, and also did extensive graduate study in public administration at Claremont Graduate School. He retired from the Sheriff’s Department in 1999 at age 59.

Gates is survived by his wife, Deedee; son Scott; daughter Deedee Jo; her husband, Eddie; grandchildren Joanna, Emma and Nathan; and siblings Stillman, Robert and Margaret Lapham.