For 35 years, I carried a badge in San Diego County. I learned that the most powerful thing a peace officer does is sign a sworn statement and ask a judge to trust it. The judge cannot check every fact, so the system only works when officers tell the whole truth, including the parts that weaken their case.
That is why the California Supreme Court’s decision on Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco cannot be the end of this story. Reasonable suspicion now exists to open a criminal investigation into how his office obtained 650,000 election ballots.
Last Thursday, the court unanimously ruled that Bianco broke state law by seizing the ballots from the November 2025 Proposition 50 election and ordered them returned. The justices made clear that voted ballots stay with election officials, even during a criminal investigation. The court also found he was wrong to ignore Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta’s order to pause…