George V. Janovich Sr., a former sheriff convicted of protecting a nightclub and bail bond syndicate in a scandal that led to an overhaul of Pierce County government, is dead at 77.
GIG HARBOR — George V. Janovich Sr., a former sheriff convicted of protecting a nightclub and bail bond syndicate in a scandal that led to an overhaul of Pierce County government, is dead at 77.
Janovich, whose case still taints the agency he once headed , died Sunday after his appendix ruptured during a Father’s Day celebration for which he cooked a prime rib dinner at his waterfront apartment, relatives said.
He previously had several heart attacks and twice underwent bypass surgery to unclog blood vessels, including one operation while he was in prison.
Janovich, a Gig Harbor native, survived an accident in which he was burned over about 75 percent of his body at age 2, sold fish as a youngster and began a 30-year career in the sheriff’s office following graduation from high school.
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After six years as a deputy, six years as a detective, 13 years as chief criminal deputy, he was elected sheriff over the incumbent and helped consolidate Tacoma police and county sheriff’s record keeping, establish a sheriff’s canine unit and wrote the first mutual aid agreement for the county’s law enforcement agencies.
He and his wife Joan, who died March 9, also owned and operated Peninsula Ambulance Service for nearly two decades until they sold it in 1976.
Three years later, after a four-month trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Janovich and five others were convicted of racketeering in a protection scheme centering largely on bail bonding and the nightlife industry around Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base. Six others pleaded guilty in the same case.
According to federal investigators, Janovich ignored prostitution and other lawbreaking at nightclubs owned by syndicate kingpins John Joseph Carbone and Ronald John Williams, deputies harass rival nightclub owners and fudged on arson investigations at the competing businesses.
In one key piece of evidence, an undercover agent taped Janovich accepting a $1,300 bribe from a supposed racketeer in exchange for favorable treatment by sheriff’s deputies.
County voters subsequently approved an overhaul of county government that dumped the three-commissioner system in favor of a county council and executive with the sheriff an appointed position rather than an elected office.
Janovich was sentenced to 12 years but was released after six years in which he was moved from prison to prison about 30 times and was kept in protective custody because of his law enforcement background.
After release, he worked with his brother on a fishing boat in Puget Sound and Hood Canal and as a carpenter in homebuilding and remodeling projects with friends and relatives.
The sheriff’s office has sent condolences to Janovich’s family, but “there’s no hiding the fact that he disgraced our department,” sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer said. “The guys have been trying to live that down for 25 years. There’s no soft-coating that.”
Survivors include daughters Kathy Boczar, Mary Simard, Elizabeth Janovich, Lisa Janovich, Janelle Janovich, Sherri McCoy and Irene Clifton and 10 grandchildren. A funeral mass is scheduled for Saturday at St. Nicholas Catholic Church.