The charges against Stern were ultimately dropped, natch. But why would Iafrate not keep fighting New Times' request for legal fees in the Dougherty matter?
Could it be a little thing called a federal grand jury? You know, the one that's currently investigating the MCSO and Joe on criminal abuse-of-power charges?
jamie peachey
Um, Joe Arpaio himself stops by New Times' offices to present a $40K check to former staff writer and current U.S. Senate candidate John Dougherty (middle) and Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey.
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"From a guy [like Arpaio] that's never given us the time of day, why did they not want to have this hearing?" asked New Times lawyer Suskin. "Maybe because it was a hearing to make a judicial finding on whether or not they deal in bad faith with people. And maybe they didn't want to have that determination."
Especially not with that federal grand jury impaneled. Add to it the fact that MCSO attorneys are facing an oral argument later this month at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in a lawsuit filed by New Times against the sheriff in the Lacey-Larkin arrests, and you can see why the MCSO just wanted to pay $40K to make this thing over the lawyer fees go away.
As with all settlements involving Arpaio — like the county's $43 million-plus in payouts over wrongful deaths and other malfeasance involving Joe's jails — taxpayers pick up the tab. Arpaio never has to dip into his own pocket.
Asked about the $40K check, New Times co-founder Michael Lacey noted the bigger picture.
"It's about a 1 percent down payment on what it's cost for us to get public records that ought to be available for free," he told me. "We've spent a ton of money in legal fees [over the years] trying to obtain public documents. In the case, for example, of elections we were covering, the records don't get released 'til years after the election occurs. And the people that suffered from that are the voters."
Still, never did a $40,000 check seem so sweet.
BRATT'S BET
Hollywood actor Benjamin Bratt told me that he and his brother, director Peter Bratt, considered boycotting appearing in Arizona to promote their new film La Mission — they've denounced Sand Land's new "papers, please" legislation and the state's new ethnic-studies ban — but decided to come anyway.
"The unconstitutional law encourages racial profiling, endangers public safety, and betrays our most basic American values," the brothers, both sons of a Peruvian-born immigrant mother, stated about 1070 on their film's Facebook page. The movie opens Friday, June 11, at area theaters.
"We did consider a boycott," said Bratt when we spoke this week. "But, as artists, it's our responsibility on some level to give support where we can. And if the encouragement we're receiving on our Facebook page is any indication, 90 percent of the people writing in [agree]."
Bratt describes the film as "a cinematic love letter" to lowrider culture and the diverse San Francisco Mission District, where he and his brother grew up. The film follows Bratt's character, Che Rivera, a tough ex-con challenged emotionally by the homosexuality of his only son, a scholar heading for college at UCLA.
I don't have the space in this column to give the film all the props it deserves, but suffice it to say that La Mission beautifully evokes Latino culture, which despite its challenges and heartbreak, is shown to be centered on family, spirituality, cultural pride, and love.
"All of us desire to have a sense of belonging and a sense of being needed," said Bratt, adding, "It doesn't matter if you're white or black or yellow or red or brown. If you see that up on the screen, you get that, yeah, we are all the same . . . The film demonstrates that to people who may not understand Latino culture at all."
Bratt, his brother, and comedian/talk-show host George Lopez, a pal of the Bratts' and a supporter of the film, will attend a Q&A session following La Mission's showing at the AMC Arizona Center at 7 p.m. along with United Farm Workers co-founder and legend Dolores Huerta. Their appearance at the AMC Arizona Center is for a fundraiser to aid such local Hispanic advocacy groups as Puente and Somos America.
The brothers Bratt will also appear for a Q&A following the 8:45 p.m. show at Harkins Arizona Mills. You can get all the details on my Feathered Bastard blog, plus read more of my interview with Bratt there.
I'm glad the Bratts will be here, because a boycott of Arizona doesn't have to mean boycotting those fighting the vicious, unprecedented hate directed at Hispanics in this state. And, perhaps, if some of those with ill will in their hearts see the movie, it will help put a human face on a now-stigmatized minority, and reveal that they are as "American" as it comes.
