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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) ― The sheriff of Orange County turned himself in to federal authorities and made a brief court appearance wearing handcuffs on Wednesday to face charges that the once-rising Republican star took cash and gifts in exchange for political favors.

Michael S. Carona heard the charges against him but did not enter a plea, although his attorney said outside court he would plead not guilty to seven counts of conspiracy, mail fraud and witness tampering on Monday.

"He's so anxious to fight these charges that we have to hold him back," said Carona's attorney, H. Dean Steward. "He's angry. He didn't want to go through this today and he's embarrassed."

Prosecutors accuse Carona and others of collecting $350,000 in everything from payments, loans, a boat, vacation expenses, watches, ringside boxing tickets and luxury box seats to the World Series playoffs.

Also charged are his wife and his alleged mistress, who is an attorney; both appeared in handcuffs with Carona on Wednesday.

Carona; his wife, Deborah; and Debra Victoria Hoffman, identified as Carona's mistress in court papers, face counts of conspiracy. Carona and Hoffman face four counts of mail fraud; Carona also is charged with two counts of witness tampering, and Hoffman faces three counts of bankruptcy fraud.

David Wiechert, an attorney for Carona's wife, said he believed his client was included in the indictment to put pressure on her husband.

"Police officers are acutely receptive to pressure on their loved ones. They (prosecutors) know that if Michael Carona is willing to take a bullet for his partner, he's willing to take a bullet for his wife."

A public defender assigned to Hoffman did not speak with reporters at the hearing. An after-hours call to her office was not immediately returned.

Two former assistant sheriffs already pleaded guilty to lesser counts in exchange for their help building a case against Carona.

Carona, who has vowed to remain in office, was held in a cell several hours before he was released later on $20,000 bond. He and his wife held hands as they raced to a waiting SUV and sped off without comment.

He has turned over his passport, but the magistrate denied a prosecution request to confiscate his firearm.

Steward maintained that federal authorities could have allowed his client to avoid being detained in a cell and appearing in court with handcuffs, but they chose not to for symbolic reasons.

"They were trying to send him a message: ... 'You did something very bad, we gotcha,"' Steward said. "If you want to play it that way, we're ready. We're going to aggressively fight these charges."

The corruption case marks a dramatic fall for Carona, a county marshal who rose from relative obscurity in 1998 to win the job of top cop in a county of 3 million people between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Local Republican activists were immediately enamored of Carona, a handsome, tough-on-crime bodybuilder and Mensa member who spoke publicly of his deep Christian faith and family values.

In 2002, he became an overnight sensation when he looked into the cameras and told a 5-year-old's killer, "Don't sleep. Don't eat. We're coming after you."

CNN's Larry King called him "America's Sheriff," a nickname that appears on Carona's official biography.

After his star turn on television, Carona's name was whispered as a possible candidate for lieutenant governor or the U.S. Senate -- and he even met with Karl Rove, White House political strategist at the time, to plot his career.

In 2002, photos surfaced of the sheriff canoodling with a young woman during a trip to Moscow -- with her wearing his sheriff's jacket. Two more women would later accuse Carona of sexual harassment, claims that Carona has denied and ultimately went nowhere.

Three years later, the Los Angeles Times reported that Carona had issued badges and concealed-weapons permits to campaign contributors without proper training or background checks.

The allegations added to a growing chorus of concerns about department integrity and morale, and Carona barely eked out a third term last year against underfunded opponents. The race was in stark contrast to 2002, when he ran unopposed.

In August, Carona paid a $15,000 fine to the state Fair Political Practices Commission after he incorrectly billed his campaign committee for thousands of dollars in non-itemized expenses.

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