While no planned action was taken yet by an Arizona prosecutor to address federal government concerns that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office committed constitutional violations and discrimination against Latinos, the attorney lashed out against Homeland Security's decision to stop Arpaio's work.
Instead, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery criticized Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's decision to stop Arpaio from checking inmates' immigration status and argued it would allow criminals to be released into the community. Montgomery said he was asking President Barack Obama to order the restoration of access to federal systems revoked Thursday.
The Obama administration action came after the Justice Department determined Arpaio's office participated in a "systematic disregard" for the Constitutional rights of Latinos while targeting illegal immigrants, bringing the most bruising criticism yet to the lawman's boundary-pushing foray into Arizona's immigration enforcement. Maltreatment of Spanish-speakers in the jails also violated the constitution, federal officials alleged.
1990s: In the late 1990s, federal investigators probed claims that Arpaio and his top aides ordered surveillance on political foes, including former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley. They also looked into claims that funds tied to the sale of Arpaio's souvenir pink underwear were embezzled. The investigation ended in August 1999 when the U.S. Attorney's Office sent Hendershott a letter saying there was insufficient evidence to justify further action.
2002: Two sheriff's deputies testified that they were ordered to conduct surveillance on unsuccessful sheriff's candidate Tom Bearup.
2002: Sheriff's deputies arrested actor Nick Tarr for wearing a partial uniform of the state Department of Public Safety in his role as a pitchman promoting a proposition to allow slot machines at horse and dog tracks. Arpaio opposed the proposition. Hendershott ordered Tarr's arrest on accusations of impersonating an officer. The citation was later dropped and Maricopa County paid Tarr $125,000 to settle his wrongful-arrest lawsuit against the sheriff.
2004: Claims of using the Sheriff's Office for political purposes surfaced again when Hendershott ordered deputies to Pinal County to investigate accusations against Dan Saban, Arpaio's opponent in the Republican primary. Hendershott would later orchestrate a release to the media of allegations that Saban raped his adoptive mother in the 1970s. The statute of limitations had expired, and Saban, who was 17 at the time of the alleged assault, claimed he was the victim of statutory rape.
2010: Activist Sal Reza was arrested near the Lower Buckeye Jail complex while protesting Senate Bill 1070, Arizona's immigration law. Reza had been arrested a day earlier with another group of protesters outside the Fourth Avenue Jail, and his release required him to avoid contact with victims "including arresting officers." The charges against Reza were eventually dropped at prosecutors' request, and Reza has filed a wrongful-arrest lawsuit against Arpaio.
2011: The Justice Department's memo on its investigation includes a section devoted to alleged retaliation.
Finance
Arpaio has long touted his financial management, frequently boasting of returning funds to county coffers each year as a result of his spartan operation. But he also has faced financial controversies.
Employee classification
A county investigation earlier this year revealed that Arpaio's office had for eight years paid thousands of employees from the wrong accounts, adding up to $99.5million in misappropriated funds.
Sheriff's officials blamed the problem on antiquated software to track employees, but Arpaio's former chief financial officer, Loretta Barkell, said she had brought the problem to the attention of the sheriff and other administrators for years.
"The sheriff waved his hand and said he was not allowing the bean counters to manage his operations, that the budget people, the accounting people, personnel people would have to figure it out and fix it. But he was not going to change his decisions on how he was managing his staff," Barkell said.
Arpaio said the issue was a bookkeeping error that did not impact public safety.
The funds were repaid through an accounting measure, but the issue tarnished the office's reputation for sound financial management.
Misspending
Another investigation in 2010 revealed high-ranking sheriff's deputies violated policy with county-issued credit-card purchases of pricey meals and stays at luxury hotels.
Other records indicated that the Sheriff's Office spent money earmarked to improve jails on training for management that included an eight-week apartment rental in Coronado, Calif., and rental fees for awards banquets and staff parties, including one at a Phoenix amusement park.
Bus controversy
The most visible and controversial purchase with the funds was a $465,000 inmate-transport bus in 2009. County administrators said the purchase was not approved, but sheriff's officials said they never before had had to seek approval to spend the jail funds.
The bus sat idle in a county lot until it was approved for use earlier this year.
Immigration
Inmate treatment helped define Arpaio's early years in office and put him in the national spotlight, but immigration enforcement made him a political superstar.
Arpaio claims he does not need the issue to build his reputation. But immigration is the topic of discussion when presidential candidates come to seek Arpaio's approval, and it is one of the attractions when he speaks around the country.
History
Arpaio wasn't always a supporter of strident immigration enforcement.
When an Army reservist named Patrick Haab held a group of immigrants at gunpoint in the desert in 2005, Arpaio had Haab arrested.
"Being illegal is not a serious crime," Arpaio said.
Then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas' decision not to prosecute Haab drew public support, creating a backlash against Arpaio. The result: The Sheriff's Office began assigning deputies to target human smugglers the following year.
The deputies have since arrested thousands of suspected illegal immigrants as well as smugglers moving their human cargo through the Valley.
Violations cited
In their findings, Justice Department investigators cited what they say are signs of a "chronic culture of disregard" in the Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff's officials claim the Justice Department chose to highlight isolated incidents.
Several cases alleging racial profiling have made their way through courts in recent years:
In July, Maricopa County paid $200,000 to two Hispanic men -- one a U.S. citizen and the other a legal resident -- who were detained during a work-site raid in 2009.
In August, a federal judge dismissed a similar claim stemming from a work-site raid on the grounds that the Sheriff's Office did not participate in or authorize any unconstitutional conduct during the enforcement effort at a landscaping company.
A hearing in federal court this week will help determine whether a similar racial-profiling lawsuit will move forward. The judge hearing that case ordered the Sheriff's Office to pay more than $90,000 in attorneys' fees and costs for destroying documents relevant to the case.
Investigations and operations
Crime-fighting efforts in the Sheriff's Office are often overshadowed by Arpaio's personality and pet projects, but several have earned notice -- both positive and negative.
No blockades: Arpaio's 1992 election was earned in part on his experience with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Within a year of taking office, Arpaio announced a plan to set up a blockade around Maricopa County to search vehicles for drugs. The blockades were found to be illegal and Arpaio was forced to abandon the plan.
Posse prostitution sting: The volunteer sheriff's posse included special operations in the early 1990s to target prostitutes and graffiti vandals. The operations faltered under the weight of bad publicity, including allegations that posse members took advantage of the prostitutes' services. Still, the measures earned Arpaio fans in government and the public.
Boot-camp investigation: When 14-year-old Tony Haynes died at a "tough love" boot camp in 2001, the story was national news. Arpaio's deputies worked the case for years, resulting in the camp director's 2005 conviction for aggravated assault and manslaughter.
Smuggling arrests: This year, sheriff's deputies arrested three of their own when a member of Arpaio's human-smuggling unit and two detention officers were among 19 people arrested on suspicion of participating in a heroin-smuggling operation. The yearlong probe began when a confidential informant told sheriff's investigators that he had witnessed a deputy snorting cocaine and bragging about how he escorted cars and trucks carrying drugs or money to "make sure they would get to their destinations safely."
Sheriff Joe Arpaio's boundary-pushing foray into Arizona's immigration enforcement over the last six years met its most bruising criticism when the U.S. Justice Department said the lawman's office carried out a blatant pattern of discrimination against Latinos and held a "systematic disregard" for the Constitution.
Arpaio, defiant and caught by surprise by the report's release on Thursday, called the allegations a politically motivated attack by President Barack Obama's administration that will make Arizona unsafe by keeping undocumented immigrants on the street.
The Obama administration "might as well erect their own pink neon sign at the Arizona-New Mexico border saying welcome illegals to your United States, my home is your home," he said.
The government found that Arpaio's office committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including unjust immigration patrols and jail policies that deprive prisoners of basic Constitutional rights. "We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department, a culture that breeds a systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections," said Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department's civil rights division.
The report will be used by the Justice Department to seek major changes at Arpaio's office, such as new policies against discrimination and improvements of staff and officers. Arpaio faces a Jan. 4 deadline for saying whether he wants to work out an agreement to make the changes. If not, the federal government will sue him, possibly putting in jeopardy millions of dollars in federal funding for Maricopa County.
At a news conference, Arpaio says the government's move will result in releases from jail of illegal immigrants who had previous been arrested for crimes.
They called it a Pearl Harbor-style sneak attack, nothing but a phony show of political pandering by the Obama administration, pointing to the lack of specifics in the 22-page report.
"President Obama and the band of his merry men might as well erect their own pink neon sign at the Arizona-Mexico border saying 'Welcome all illegals to your United States, our home is your home,'" said Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
He vows he will never resign, and is committed to running his department. He did acknowledge that there may have been some individual cases where deputies didn't do things by the book, and that he would look at those cases individually -- and rejected the sweeping generalizations made in the report.
The government found that Arpaio's office committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including unjust immigration patrols and jail policies that deprive prisoners of basic Constitutional rights. They interviewed 400 people -- inculding 75 current and former employees of MCSO -- and Sheriff Arpaio himself.
"I do have compassion, but I'll tell you one thing. Enforcing the law overrides my compassion," Arpaio said.
The Justice Department wants the office to change its ways or risk losing federal money.
Arpaio has 60 days to implement changes, and then there will be a review. If progress has not been made by then, legal action could be taken.
Also Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security cut ties with MCSO because of the report, ending an agreement that allowed trained sheriff's deputies to enforce immigration law, and restricting the sheriff's ability to screen for inmates immigration status while they are in his jails.
Joseph M. "Joe" Arpaio, born June 14, 1932 is the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County in the U.S. state of Arizona. First voted into office in 1992, Arpaio is responsible for law enforcement in Maricopa County. This includes management of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, county jail, courtroom security, prisoner transport, service of warrants, and service of process. Arpaio styles himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff. He is well known for his outspoken stance against illegal immigration. Arpaio has become a flashpoint for controversy surrounding Arizona's SB1070 anti-illegal immigration act.
Arpaio was once widely popular among voters in Arizona. However, his popularity has waned since 2007, but remains positive among registered Republicans.
Arpaio was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Italian parents both from Avellino, Italy. Arpaio's mother died while giving birth to him, and Arpaio was raised by his father, a grocery store owner. Arpaio completed high school and worked in his father's business until age 18 when he enlisted in the United States Army. Arpaio served in the Army from 1950 to 1954 in the Medical Detachment Division and was stationed in France for part of the time as a military policeman.
Following his discharge in 1954, Arpaio moved to Washington, D.C. and became a police officer, moving in 1957 to Las Vegas, Nevada. He served as a police officer in Las Vegas for six months before being appointed as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which later became part of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).[11] During his 25-year tenure with the DEA, he was stationed in Argentina, Turkey and Mexico, and advanced through the ranks to the position of head of the DEA's Arizona branch.
In late 2008 and early 2009 Arpaio appeared in Smile...You're Under Arrest!, a three-episode Fox Reality Channel series in which persons with outstanding warrants were tricked into presenting themselves for arrest.
On June 9, 2011 Sheriff Arpaio was interviewed on Fox News on KSAZ-TV about a song on iTunes titled, "F#@K Sheriff Joe" by Contraband, describing him on his deathbed battling his own mortality.
Arpaio's practices include serving inmates surplus food[18] and limiting meals to twice daily.[19] He has also banned inmates from possessing "sexually explicit material" including Playboy magazine after female officers complained that inmates openly masturbated while viewing them or harassed the officers by comparing their anatomy to that of the nude models in the publications. The ban was challenged on First Amendment grounds but upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In February 2007, Arpaio instituted an in-house radio station he calls KJOE.Arpaio's radio station broadcasts classical music, opera, Frank Sinatra hits, patriotic music and educational programming. It operates from the basement of the county jail for five days a week, four hours each day.
In February 2010 Judge John Leonardo of Pima County Superior Court found that Arpaio "misused the power of his office to target members of the (Board of Supervisors) for criminal investigation.
In 2008 a federal grand jury began an inquiry of Arpaio for abuse of power, in connection with an FBI investigation. Arpaio is being investigated for politically motivated and "bogus" prosecutions, which a former US Attorney called "utterly unacceptable". Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has called Arpaio's "long list" of questionable prosecutions "a reign of terror".
The targets of Arpaio's alleged abuse of power have included or currently include: Phil Gordon, Phoenix Mayor; Dan Saban, Arpaio's 2004 and 2008 opponent for the office of Sheriff of Maricopa County; Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General; David Smith, Maricopa County Manager; The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors; Barbara Mundell, Maricopa Superior Court Presiding Judge; Anna Baca, former Maricopa Superior Court Presiding Judge. Gary Donahoe, Maricopa Superior Court Criminal Presiding Judge Daniel Pochoda, ACLU attorney;[60] Sandra Dowling, former Maricopa County School Superintendent;[61] Mike Lacy, Editor, Phoenix New Times.
To date (July 10, 2010) of the above only Sandra Dowling has been successfully prosecuted.[61] Indicted on 25 felony counts, Dowling eventually pled guilty to patronage for giving a summer job to her daughter, a single class 2 misdemeanor which was not among the original counts, although as part of the plea bargain she also agreed to recuse herself from the Maricopa County Regional School District. Dowling has since filed suit, alleging negligence, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and several constitutional violations.
Over the two years prior to September, 2010, feuding between Arpaio and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on one side, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on the other side cost at least $5.6 million, most of which was paid to private attorneys. Arpaio and Thomas filed several lawsuits against the Board of Supervisors, including a federal civil-racketeering suit against the supervisors, four judges and attorneys who work with the county. Arpaio and Thomas lost every case, either by ruling of the courts, or by dropping the case.
In early 2010, Arpaio and Thomas sought to have a grand jury indict a number of Maricopa County Judges, Maricopa County Supervisors, and employees of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The grand jury, in an unusual rebuke, ordered the investigation ended. This action has been described as meaning that "...the case is so bad, there's no further evidence that could be brought to substantiate it". Legal experts agree this is a rare move. Thomas and a subordinate attorney on his County Attorney staff face a hearing later in 2011 before the Ethics Committee of the Arizona Bar, the result of which could be a number of sanctions up to permanent loss of their law licenses.
In November and December, 2010, lawsuits naming Arpaio were filed by Judge Gary Donahoe, retired Maricopa County Superior Court judges Barbara Mundell, Anna Baca, and Kenneth Fields, County Supervisor Don Stapley, Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson, and Susan Schuerman, executive assistant to Supervisor Don Stapley.
During the month of July 2010, a committee established by Arpaio, the Campaign to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2012, funded advertisements critical of Rick Romley, a candidate in the Republican Primary for Maricopa County Attorney and Arizona Attorney General candidate Tom Horne, despite the fact that Arpaio is not currently running for re-election (his term does not expire until the end of 2012).
An order issued on the behalf of the Maricopa Elections Department on August 24, 2010, found that one of the advertisements, a direct mailer, advocated the defeat of Romley, and was an in-kind contribution to Bill Montgomery (Romley's primary election opponent), in violation of Arizona election law. The order stated that the Campaign to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2012 will be fined three times the amount of money that was spent on the mailer. In September, 2010, Arpaio's campaign was fined $153,978 in this matter. Montgomery ultimately defeated Romley in the primary election, with Romley stating Arpaio's ads "hurt" his results.
An analysis by the Maricopa County Office of Management and Budget, completed in September, 2010, found Arpaio has misspent almost $100 million in taxpayer dollars over the previous 5 years.
The analysis showed that money from a restricted detention fund which could only legally be used to pay for jail items, such as food, detention officers' salaries and equipment, was used to pay employees to patrol Maricopa County. The analysis also showed that many Sheriff's Office employees, whose salaries were paid from the restricted detention fund, were working job assignments different from those recorded in their personnel records. Arpaio's office kept a separate set of personnel books detailing actual work assignments, different from information kept on the county's official human-resources records.
Arpaio used the detention fund to pay for investigations of political rivals, and activities involving his human-smuggling unit.
The analysis also showed a number of inappropriate spending items, including a trip to Alaska where deputies stayed at a fishing resort, and trips to Disneyland.
Separate investigations by The Arizona Republic uncovered widespread abuse of public funds and county policies by Arpaio's office, including high-ranking employees routinely charging expensive meals and stays at luxury hotels on their county credit cards.
In September, 2010, a 63 page internal memo, written by Maricopa Deputy Chief Frank Munnell, was made public. The memo alleged years of misconduct and mismanagement by Arpaio's second in command and other top MCSO officers, including the use of a public-corruption task force to conduct politically motivated probes into political opponents. The memo alleged that top officials in the MCSO "willfully and intentionally committed criminal acts by attempting to obstruct justice, tamper with witnesses, and destroy evidence." Arpaio forwarded the memo to the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, requesting they conduct an administrative investigation. Former top MCSO staffers have claimed that Arpaio knew of the acts alleged in the Munnell memo, but took no action to stop them.
