A Brief History of Frank Robles

Former disgraced Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle seems to have hatched a plan for revenge.  He's working hard to remove his successor, Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff from office in 2010.

With the  failure of former Undersheriff Neil Lingle to win a seat on the Palm Desert City Council last November, and the unimpressive resume of his one time heir apparent Mike Andrews, Bob Doyle has been forced to scrape the bottom of the barrell to come up with a candidate against Sheriff Sniff.

And that candidate that the ol' Royal Doyle has dug out of the muck of Riverside County's good old boys club is Frank Robles.  

A quick look at Frank Robles' past shows that he could not have been on the short list of candidates to challenge Sheriff Stan Sniff, but rather every other viable candidate passed up the chance to run, for reasons we will get to later in this article.

So who is Frank Robles, the man that Bob Doyle wants to be Sheriff?

Frank Robles is the disgraced former Police Chief of Desert Hot Springs.  Robles lost that job when crime, drugs and gangs became so rampant in DHS that the City Council voted to disband its police department and contract with the Riverside Sheriffs Department for law enforcement services.

Robles came over to the Riverside Sheriffs Department as part of the deal, and brought with him another DHS cop, Neil Lingle.  Rumor has it that Robles promoted Lingle at DHS just so Lingle could come in as a supervisor in the Sheriff's Department.  This is the move that later put Lingle within one vote of becoming Sheriff when Doyle mysteriously resigned less than one year into his new four year term.  Thankfully, that one vote went to Stan Sniff.

In 1994, Frank Robles ran for Riverside County Sheriff and was soundly defeated.  According to those in the know, Robles had support from a couple of political power brokers in Orange County:  Don Haidl and George Jaramillo.   Haidl and Jaramillo were knee deep in the scandal that brought down Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona who was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in federal prison.

Our sources tell us that Frank Robles introduced Haidl and Jaramillo to Bob Doyle, and Robles even helped Doyle establish the campaign contributions for badges and gun permit program that led to the downfall and resignation of Bob Doyle.  

We understand dear readers, that while serving in the capacity of Assistant Sheriff, Frank Robles was interviewed by federal agents regarding his relationship with Don Haidl and George Jaramillo.   If this is true, it validates our theory that Doyle left office fearing that the Carona investigation was an investigation into Doyle's own abuse of power and unethical fundraising practices.

After Stan Sniff was appointed Sheriff by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, Robles retired, obviously knowing that his questionable ways would not fit into the restored ethical environment that Sheriff Sniff would be bringing back to the Sheriff's Department.

Robles announced his candidacy a few weeks ago with several costly news paper advertisements and the launching of a flashy website.  Campaign finance reports are not available yet, so Robles contributors are as of yet unknown.

The word we are hearing dear readers is that Robles' campaign is being bankrolled by those contributors who had badges given to them by the Royal Doyle, but had them recalled by Sniff.  If this is true, the only reason these people would be stepping up to fund Robles' campaign is if they expect to get either their badges or unearned gun permits back, or both.  That's illegal, isn't it?

Either way, Robles is going to have a tough time taking out Sheriff Stan Sniff.

Sniff has done an amazing job rebuilding ties to the community, restoring trust with those that believe Doyle and his cronies violated their trust, and raising morale amongst the rank and file deputies.  With the deputies firmly in Sniff's corner, and all the money that that brings to the race, Robles would need to raise a million dollars to beat Sniff next June.  

To raise that kind of money Frank Robles will have to sell more badges to rich donors and more promotions to unqualified Doyle cronies in the Sheriff's Department than one can imagine.  That's not likely to happen.  Frank Robles would probably have to sell his soul to to Devil to prevail against Sniff.  

But as this quick look at Frank Robles' career shows, maybe that happened years ago when the gangs and the drug dealers were overrunning Desert Hot Springs and Frank Robles did nothing to stop it.

Comments

[Carmichael8487]

Fun reading but this tripe is built on "if this is true," and "sources tell us." Stan Sniff, our appointed sheriff, has done nothing to earn my vote. His enormous ego is not justified by his performance in office. I want to see Robles in action before commiting to him, but this hatchet job is built on Jello.

[Jack]

And all of that matters because why? I read that Robles has basically put management on notice that the gravy train is coming to an end and that the scarce money in the department is going to be focused on the officers and law enforcement workers FIRST. Maybe that's why you're taking pot shots at him...because he's actually taking a stand. A stand for cops, not pencil pushers.

[No On Robles]

Sniff was appointed by the Board to end the corruption that was destroying RSO since Doyle became Sheriff. Even Lingle said he would change the dept's course if they voted for him. Which everyone knows was a lie. The SOFTBALL TEAM still would have been in charge, not the REAL COPS.

[No On Robles]

Another thing that discredits Doyle and anyone he endorses is the fact that another idiot with one of his executive council badges was hooked up in Newport last month. Doyle said they had all been collected. So did Lingle. They were lying and you can't trust a damn word either of them says.

[Mr. Robert L. Donovan]

Who shot Officer Davis?

[Henry Thirteen]

Frank knows who.