Another rousing endorsement of the Candidate
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
A Closer Look at Sheriff's Candidate Jerry Airola
July 24, 2006 11:17 PM CDT
Sheriff's candidate Jerry Airola has used the TV airwaves to tout his business successes and his law enforcement credentials as he tries to convince voters to put him in charge of Metro.
There's little doubt that Airola's company, Silver State Helicopters, has made him a millionaire. But is he really a cop, as he claims?
When the I-Team interviewed Jerry Airola, we found him to be bright, energetic, and telegenic, but is he telling the truth about his law enforcement credentials? In a nutshell, no.
Click here to see the letter the I-Team received from Merced County.
His slogan is pretty familiar by now. His ads say he's a cop, a father, and a businessman. Call this a case of two out of three.
Jerry Airola said, "My goal is, I'm going to be sheriff for the next 20 years. I'm not going to go to work for a casino in four years."
Jerry Airola certainly doesn't lack confidence. He says he expects to be elected to five terms as sheriff based on his experience as a businessman and as a cop.
On his campaign website, he' says he is "currently a sworn deputy sheriff" in California's Merced County. On his company website, he says the same. In campaign mailers sent out just a few days ago, he says he's a cop. And in television interviews, he doesn't hesitate to whip out his cop ID.
On Face to Face With Jon Ralston, Airola said, "I was sworn back in as a police officer in November 2004 and if you notice, it says Jerry Airola, Deputy Sheriff."
In an interview with the I-Team earlier this month, we asked the question about Merced several different ways just to make sure there was no mistake.
George Knapp: "If I call the department, they will tell me you are a cop there?"
Jerry Airola: "Absolutely. Matter of fact, you can call the sheriff there."
We did. The answer we got: Jerry Airola is not a deputy or a reserve deputy.
Undersheriff Bill Blake told the I-Team the department had to suspend the relationship with Airola last year. A follow-up letter from the department spelled it out. Airola was never a deputy. For 10 months he was a reserve deputy and even that ended last September after an audit revealed he wasn't qualified. He was then "separated" from the department.
How did Airola hook up with the Merced office in the first place?
His helicopter company has expanded into law enforcement support activities and he saw a lucrative market in providing choppers to small police agencies. Airola says he offered to give a helicopter to the North Las Vegas Police Department. NLVPD turned it down because they didn't want their department to be used by Airola as a marketing tool. Airola then went to Merced with the same offer, but there was one other condition.
Jerry Airola said, "And with the sheriff I said, what I'd really like, with the Homeland Security Act of 2003, which allows any peace officer to carry his weapon anywhere in the nation, I'd like to go back to full time status as a peace officer. So he said. Let's do that."
In exchange for a free helicopter, Sheriff Mark Pazin agreed to make Airola a reserve deputy. But Airola says he had another goal in mind as well.
"I told him Mark I'm going to run for sheriff in Clark County and he knew that. I need to get my foot back in the door of law enforcement. I've been doing this stuff with helicopters. I need to take it to the next level and be sworn in again," he stated.
Airola admits he needed to beef up his law enforcement credentials in order to run for sheriff, and, for a time, he was allowed to visit Merced a few times each month to fly helicopters for the department. That all stopped earlier this year, he says, when his campaign began.
"I didn't want anything coming back on the sheriff's office overall, so I took a leave of absence," he explained.
According to the sheriff's office, Airola isn't on a leave. He's not there because he doesn't qualify, and for an obvious reason he lives in Nevada.
George Knapp: "You can be a full time resident of Las Vegas and still be a cop in Merced?"
Jerry Airola: "Yes."
No. California law is clear. Only residents of that state can be deputies.
One reason for that is they need to have a valid California driver's license. Neither applies to Airola. When Merced ran an audit, they realized that it was against the law to have Airola as a reserve deputy. Thus, the relationship ended.
Airola has worked as a police officer. In 1991, he became a patrol officer in the town of Los Banos, California -- population back then around 28,000 -- known for its dairy farms and almond orchards. Two years later, he was fired after leading an effort to oust the chief of police. He admits he might have jumped the gun.
"If I could do anything differently, if I hadn't, I'd still be there today. So, maybe it was the best thing," he claimed
After Airola was fired for his union acitivites, he filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and won a monetary award, although he never returned to full time duty as an officer in Los Banos or anywhere else.
Airola called Monday night and said the Merced sheriff assured him that he was on leave, not suspended, and that the California law barring non-residents from serving would be changed by the legislature. To date, that has not happened, nor have we heard from the Merced sheriff.