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"I want nothing to do with [Mayor Jimenez] and the little town of Guadalupe," Arpaio told the news media recently.
Negotiation with enemies, no matter how newfound, is not a tactic beloved of Maricopa County's senior lawman. Because Jimenez and Guadalupe have embarrassed him — forced him to justify his actions and defend himself against charges of racial profiling — he wants to cut an 18-year tie with the town that puts $1.2 million a year into MCSO coffers during a time of county budget shortfalls.
Relations between Guadalupe and the MCSO were not always so strained.
Mark Johnson, recently demoted from his post as acting town manager partly because of his support of the Sheriff's Office, said Guadalupe entered into a contract with the MCSO on July 1, 1990. During the mid- and late-1980s, Guadalupe had a police force of about eight men, but the tiny department was disbanded after a scandal involving the police chief and other officers' planting heroin on suspects to get drug convictions.
Those framed went to prison and later sued the city for false imprisonment and violation of their civil rights. As a result, the city could no longer afford liability insurance and opted to enter into an agreement with the MCSO for police protection. The MCSO, then headed up by Sheriff Tom Agnos, came with its own insurance.
"The sheriff's department, at that time, was very cooperative," said Jose Solarez, Guadalupe's town manager from 1987 to 1991.
The MCSO was a welcome change from the Guadalupe PD, given the corruption that had plagued the municipal police force. But Solarez has seen the community's attitude toward the MCSO change to one of general dissatisfaction. The widespread perception is that Arpaio's MCSO is arrogant, hostile to residents, and unresponsive to complaints.
One problem Guadalupe residents cite is the MCSO's response time. The Sheriff's Office's own statistics show average response times of five minutes to well over 30 minutes during the past year and a half, depending on the seriousness of the call. But nearly everyone who spoke for this article had a story of making a 911 call that was either not responded to at all or not responded to in a timely manner.
The complaints were largely anecdotal and involved everything from loose dogs and courtesy checks on seniors to nighttime hit-and-runs and intruder alerts. Perhaps the most egregious example was vaguely cited as a pretext for the sheriff's sweep in Guadalupe. The MCSO's April 3 press release mentioned a recent "armed robbery," implying that illegal aliens may have been involved.
The only recent armed robbery mentioned in the MCSO's monthly reports to the Guadalupe Town Council occurred March 18 at the Circle B convenience store on Avenida del Yaqui. Two suspects in masks and gloves displayed a gun, and the clerk handed over about $300. Betty Mar, the proprietor of the store, said she believed the robbers were locals, not illegal aliens. Though a silent alarm was tripped, it took deputies 40 minutes to respond to the incident, she said. By then, of course, the suspects were long gone.
Lieutenant Shepherd denied that the response time was 40 minutes on that call, but he admitted that it took too long for deputies to arrive.
One issue is that Guadalupe sometimes shares its deputies with other, unincorporated areas of Maricopa County. It's a situation the town is unhappy with.
Even council member Frankie Montiel, who seems more supportive of the MCSO than his colleagues, has found fault with the arrangement.
"One call we had involved loose dogs inside the Frank Elementary School," said Montiel, the sole Yaqui tribal member on the council. "It took them 48 minutes to get there because they were out at Sun Lakes on another call."
Response time is not the only gripe the town has had against the MCSO. Council member Alma Yolanda Solarez mentioned the town's problem with drivers speeding through the city and through stop signs on their way to parts of Tempe. Semi-trucks also go through town unimpeded, she said, despite ordinances restricting them. She also said she felt there had been little improvement in the MCSO's dealing with the drug and gang activity in the town.
"Arpaio's been here, what, 18 years?" said Solarez. "And the community remains the same. There's no progress."
Aggravating the strained relationship between the sheriff and Guadalupe are accusations that Arpaio's MCSO has been insensitive toward the town's citizenry, has directed foul language at older Guadalupanos, and has physically assaulted citizens for no good reason. All this before April 3.
Several incidents described by residents during council meetings and elsewhere have involved MCSO Deputy Jim Carey.
"They were complaining because he was arresting people, mostly on warrants," Shepherd said. "That's exactly what we pay him to do. I'd say he's doing his job."
New Times has made public-records requests for Carey's personnel file and many other MCSO documents relating to this story. There has been no response from MCSO public-information officer Paul Chagolla.
Perhaps the best-documented incident involving Carey occurred on June 1 of last year and was witnessed by Mayor Jimenez, who was not yet on the council. ASU student Nelson Medina said Carey lunged at his throat after ordering Medina to leave an area where he had been watching MCSO deputies arrest someone.