That Arpaio's gang violated state statutes, particularly those that restrict the above-mentioned funds for specific uses, is self-evident.
Asked point-blank by Stapley who was responsible for the $100 million fiasco, Sheridan (the guy filling in for ex-Chief Deputy David Hendershott) hemmed and hawed.
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"It's a very complex issue," he replied. "I don't think there was any one individual responsible for it."
Sheridan contended that a system set up for other purposes eventually became the way the MCSO was keeping track of which fund was paying for what. He admitted the system was not up to the task, and he asserted that the fault was complacency, not intentional wrongdoing.
Supervisor Wilcox, for one, was not appeased by Sheridan's wishy-washy answer.
"Eight years have gone by," she said of the abuses, which date back to 2003. "And there's no excuse . . . We deal with complex systems all the time. If we had run the county the way you say this was run . . . we would be in a mess."
Save for remarks by Wilcox and Stapley, both of whom faced since-dismissed criminal charges brought on by MACE probes, there was precious little outrage from the board.
Chairman Andy Kunasek praised the "change of leadership" at the MCSO (meaning Hendershott, currently on paid leave pending the release of the "Munnell Memo" investigation, on which Arpaio continues to stonewall) and called Sheridan "a breath of fresh air."
(For more on Arpaio and the Munnell Memo, see "Munnell Memo Report Complete," Valley Fever blog, April 13.)
Kunasek wants to let bygones by bygones and play nicey-nice with the sheriff. In vague references to Hendershott, he seemed ready to lay the blame at the big man's feet.
"I don't think it was just a misfortunate mistake or an oversight in the past," he remarked. "But I think those people will be dealt with if there was any intentional misconduct."
Indeed, in a letter last year from County Manager David Smith to U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke and then-County Attorney Rick Romley, Smith outlined several state criminal statutes that may have been violated during the MCSO's raids on the detention fund and the inmate-services fund.
These include misappropriating restricted funds, hiding public records, theft, forgery, fraudulent schemes and practices, and tampering with public records.
Romley and the board later cross-deputized six Assistant U.S. Attorneys from Burke's office as deputy county attorneys so that they could investigate violations of state statutes. Romley's office was conflicted because it represented both the board and the sheriff.
I would like to have faith that the feds will finally do something about this and other scandals and abuses of power in Mari-Kafka County. However, Burke has to answer to his masters at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. And that's where things get political.
The feds have been slower than pack of Brazilian sloths on their various civil and criminal investigations of Arpaio's office. And next year's presidential election will add another monkey wrench.
Obama administration hacks, frightened by the echo of their own footsteps, do not want Arpaio to be an issue — even a minor one — in 2012. That's because an attack on Arpaio will be spun by the right as an attack on immigration enforcement. And woe be it to any Democrat perceived as lax on the undocumented.
Hendershott's a convenient fall guy, but everyone in the upper echelon of the MCSO should be on the hook for this one, Sheridan included. After all, the guy was in charge of the jails before Hendershott was suspended and he was handed Hendy's position.
Should Arpaio, or a handpicked successor, run for sheriff in 2012, it's a majority of voters who have to get ticked off, at long last, with all of Arpaio's costly shenanigans. You can't count on the feds to even go after the low-hanging fruit on this one.
Look at it this way. Let's say you lent your car to your neighbor so he could go the Circle K to buy some beer. But he disappears, rides your vehicle into the ground during a cross-country excursion, and uses one of your credit cards that he found in the glove compartment to pay for gas, his meals, his liquor, and a penthouse suite in Las Vegas.
Would you punch him out and call the cops or hand him the keys to your other car once he stops back in town and knocks on your door?
Get wise, people!
Otherwise, you'll have no one to blame once Joe Arpaio fleeces you — yet again.
