"When I was the executive editor of the Sacramento Bee for many years," offered Rodriguez, "we quite often reported on secret grand jury testimony . . . But I was never threatened with arrest, let alone arrested. My question is this, in retrospect, were the arrests the correct police action?"
Arpaio played D, with Chief Deputy David Hendershott glowering from the front row of the audience.
"The point is, [Lacey and Larkin] did release grand jury [information]," insisted Joe, "and I presume that's a violation of the law. They did put my home address on the Web, which is a violation, a felony. Put me and my family in danger . . . But that's not the issue. The issue is that my chief deputy, Dave Hendershott, made a decision to put those two people under arrest. We have the probable cause. We have the right to do that."
Sure, Joe, that's why your third arm (Hendershott being the second), County Attorney Andrew Thomas, dropped the case less than 24 hours later, essentially admitting that the witch hunt against New Times had been a boxcar loaded with nitro, careening out of control.
Elliott, Cronkite News Service's head of digital news, showed a public document he said he'd located online "in 30 seconds" that had Arpaio's home address on it.
Arpaio said he'd tried to get that information redacted. Then, he admitted there may have been some, well, "slipperage" in reining in his address from the public domain.
Green inquired about the infamous subpoena to New Times, asking for IP addresses on all of the paper's online readers, along with a load of other personal info.
That is, on one hand, Arpaio was enraged about his address' being on the Internet; on the other, he wanted everyone else's reading habits laid out for him like rifles at a gun show?
"I'm not going to comment," responded Joe. "There's some litigation pending."
Nice dodge, Joe. Usually, it's "pending litigation" that he cites when he wants to keep New Times scribes from entry to the media events. The stuff about "security"? That's a new one.
Arpaio and Rodriguez got into it over a question from Rodriguez that dealt with Arpaio's abuses of power, his retaliation against critics, and his refusal to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice over its investigation into his office.
Arpaio accused Rodriguez of getting his question fed to him by CBS 5 News, which has recently done some take-no-prisoners pieces on Arpaio. Rodriguez vigorously denied it.
"I thought I saw that on Channel 5," Arpaio said.
"Maybe you did," Rodriguez shot back. "We're not allowed to follow up on media questions?"
"Well, listen," Arpaio said, "We have a lawsuit pending [against them]."
A suit pending against Channel 5? For what, reporting the facts? Wonder how far that alleged legal action will get, and how much it will cost taxpayers? Both CBS 5 reporter Morgan Loew and producer Gilbert Zermeno were in attendance. Neither had heard of such a suit against their station.
Shortly thereafter, the singing began. Arpaio played the fool, putting on his funny hats. First the Wildcats cap, then a plainer ASU hat.
The panel rose, and Joe was escorted out the door with his security and his sycophants. Outside, his armored clown car awaited.
SHREDDING PARTY
As Arpaio and Company scooted out, I asked Hendershott, then Arpaio, why their deputies have been destroying public docs in the big racial-profiling lawsuit Melendres vs. Arpaio.
There was no reply from the aspiring Krusty the Clowns. Best to keep mum. After all, destroying public records is a class 2 misdemeanor, and we all know most of those in Joe's jails are in there for misdemeanors. Or so Joe told the profs.
See, in a stunning revelation recently made public as part of the ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit, an MCSO sergeant has admitted that the department has been destroying documents and e-mails directly related to the MCSO's anti-immigrant sweeps. This despite numerous requests by the plaintiffs' lawyers for those documents and e-mails since the beginning of the suit in December 2007.
During an October 27 deposition of Sergeant Manuel Madrid, a supervisor and founding member of the MCSO's infamous Human Smuggling Unit, Madrid admitted that he had been deleting e-mails related to the sweeps and shredding so-called "stat sheets" submitted by individual deputies and posse members. The Human Smuggling Unit takes the lead in all immigration raids and sweeps, and Madrid was one of those responsible for compiling data on the dragnets.
In that deposition, part of which was made public recently in a 132-page motion by the plaintiffs seeking sanctions against the MCSO, Madrid stated that the destruction of evidence continued at least until the recent October 16-17 sweep in Surprise. Below is an excerpt from Madrid's questioning under oath by a lawyer for the plaintiffs:
Q: After the sweep from about two weeks ago, were you given stat sheets by the individual officers who participated?
A: Yes.
Q: And do you still have them?
A: No.
Q: What did you do with them?
A: I believe I shredded them.
Madrid made clear that he destroyed all the stat sheets as a matter of course after collecting data from them, which included information on stops made by sheriff's deputies, criminal arrests, citations issued, and the number of hours the deputies worked. The stat sheets also included a section for notes by the deputies or posse members involved.
Joe and his MCSO clowns continue to violate the rights of citizens everywhere in Maricopa County.
Andrew Thomas authorizes Joe and his MCSO clowns to continue the violations.
Andrew Thomas needs leave public office. He needs to be disbarred.Joe should have lost his police certificate when he was elected sheriff.
Nothing but clowns are elected to city, county, state and federal government.
What does that make us?
I know what you mean....
I read both books and both are very good.
It never ceases to amaze me how the justice system is only for everyday people and the one's that are suppose to represent the justice system are most times more corrupt than those they prosecute...
The only difference with criminals and representatives of the justice systems is the representatives of the justice system get away with anything they want.
There is no real checks and balances when it comes to justice, just a bunch of bullshit.
I used to believe in the justice system, but not anymore. It's a joke as far as I'm concerned. It's not about justice, it's about money, power and what connections you have that willingly look the other way within the justice system.
Ever notice how everyday people get hammered for just about anything and everything, and yet politicians can seem to get away with all kinds of crimes and even murder.
Candy Ass Thomas and Bozo Joe Arpaio are proof positive of this.
Coz, Then there's the Ray Krone wrongful conviction and imprisonment on Death Row of an innocent man starting back in the early 90's and those same prosecutors in the County Attorney's office and officials are STILL there and got away with it. There's an established pattern that has been allowed to continue to bring us to today. Read two books about how justice is handled in Maricopa County. "Jingle Jangle" Ray Krone story by Jim Rix. And "Accidental Felons" Daniel Horn. Both should be required reading for all college students and the public who are interested in the justice system.
If Bozo Joe and the Goons aren't busy changing evidence, their busy destroying it, they've been doing that for years.
All one has to do is read the Scott Norberg story to see how long it's been going on.
It's bad enough I have to put up with this clown since I live in Maricopa County why, did he need to tarnish my Wildcats? Joe can go shove a cactus up his butt. Maybe this is his way of trying to spread his influence beyond our county borders? Ran for govenor? God I hope not.
All this interview process did was further prove what a corrupt lair Bozo Joe is and how senile he's really getting...
Stephen, Great job! Couldn't wait for your coverage of this special event at the ASU Cronkite School of Journalism. Keep the pressure on. You are the leader in exposing the abuse of power by the sheriff. Finally others are following your lead. We had it with the typical reporter "soft-ball" questions who have contributed to the escalation of abuse of power and a reign of terror in Maricopa County and the state.
It's time for the enablers and supporters of arpaio and thomas to pay their legal bills. We don't know anyone who even voted for these clowns who have destroyed people's lives, families, the community, cost the taxpayers millions of dollars they don't have and they've threatened the future of Arizona.
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