A distraught Mike Atencio, on his way to the hospital to watch his brother Ernest “Marty” Atencio die, told me today that he and his family believe his brother was “murdered” by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s thugs in the Fourth Avenue Jail.”The sheriff’s office murdered my brother,” said Atencio, acting as…
Note: For Updates, including the name and mugshot of the victim, see below.Following on the heels of a report by the U.S. Department of Justice condemning the MCSO for engaging in “discriminatory policing” and blasting its treatment of Latinos in and out of its jails, an incident involving a prisoner…
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery expressed skepticism today about the claims of racial profiling by the Sheriff’s Office, and demanded the return of a jail program to identify illegal immigrants. The feds announced yesterday they were canceling the 287(g) program in Maricopa County due to findings by the U.S…
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau isn’t ready to comment this morning on the impact of severing ties with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.Which is a shame, because we have some good questions for them. Like, why was ICE supervising operations (see the last couple of pages of its…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s having a rough week — Department of Justice investigations, botched sex-crime investigations, etc.To celebrate Arpaio’s comeuppance, we’re goin’ with the above photo of America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff” cozyin’ up to his PR puppy for this week’s New Times You Write the Caption contest.If you missed…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s had a pretty rough week — aside from the Department of Justice determining that he’s guilty of the worst racial-profiling practices in U.S. history, the sheriff is still dealing with the fallout from the Associated Press’ decision to pull the old El Mirage botched sex-crime…
In case Sheriff Joe Arpaio missed the gist of the fiat handed down Thursday by U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ending Arpaio’s 287(g) jails agreement, John Morton, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, doubled down on the dictate.In a letter dated December 15 to County Attorney Bill Montgomery, the ICE…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — flanked by two attorneys and MCSO Deputy Chief Jack MacIntyre — held a press conference this afternoon to address the Department of Justice’s findings that his office is on the hook for the worst-racial profiling practices in U.S. history.In short, the four men came…
Eileen GilBride, Sheriff Arpaio’s lawyer, reacts to criticism by Chief Judge Kozinski that she had come to court unprepared. Questions asked by a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in yesterday’s hearing of the New Times vs. Sheriff Arpaio false- arrest lawsuit seemed to lean toward the newspaper’s position…
Flanked by community activists and fellow elected leaders at her El Portal restaurant in central Phoenix, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox held aloft the recently-released U.S. Department of Justice report on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s racial profiling campaign against Sand Land Latinos, and praised it as a sort of Christmas…
Back in the late 1990s, the Justice Department ordered Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to stop the physical and medical abuse of inmates in county jails.The problems persist more than a decade later, despite the Department’s stipulations for reform.Today, the Justice Department ordered Arpaio to reform a “culture” of racial…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu says he hasn’t had a chance to read the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on Joe Arpaio’s committing some of the worst acts of racial profiling in U.S. history, but that isn’t stopping him from chiming in and bashing the feds.Somehow, Babeu’s using Arpaio’s bad…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office didn’t just commit racial profiling of Latinos, according to the findings of the U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation. Rather, Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling by a law enforcement agency in U.S. history, a DOJ expert concluded.Arpaio and his commanders created a “culture”…
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yanked the 287(g) program from Maricopa County jails today because of a finding that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office abused the rights of Latinos. The program, in which deputies are cross-trained by federal authorities to identify illegal immigrants booked into jail, has been credited by…
The hits keep coming for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. First, the media continues to hound him about hundreds of botched sex-crime investigations. Then Randy Parraz, the man who organized the takedown of ousted former Senate President Russell Pearce, demands his resignation. And now he’s being asked to leave the…
In a grotesque mix of Freudian projection, denial, all-out hubris and crass hypocrisy, ex-state Senate President Russell Pearce has told the Arizona Capitol Times that he’s trying to “forgive” Jerry Lewis, the man who spanked him hard by 12 points in the Legislative District 18 recall election for the “dishonesty”…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his top supervisors declared last week that agency’s failure to properly investigate hundreds of sex-crime cases didn’t jeopardize public safety.The father of one teenage girl in El Mirage says that’s a bunch of crap.In 2008, the girl was just 14 when she had sex…
The Stones’ “Street Fighting Man” comes to mind…Intriguing video by activist/videographer Dennis Gilman of the fray at the ALEC conference between demonstrators and Phoenix police. While it’s hardly the siege of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, some of the tactics of the police are certainly questionable.The scene where the…
What kind of heartless soul would hassle a 79-year-old man holding a puppy about botched sex-crime investigations? No-nonsense 12News reporter Brahm Resnik, that’s who.Resnik tracked down Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio at the Christmas party for the MCSO’s MASH Unit to ask him how more than 400 sex-crime investigations were…
Basketball superstar Scottie Pippen wants $1 million each from the ASU Foundation and various media outlets around the country for calling him broke.Sounds like a great way to raise money — if his legal moves can equal his performance for the Chicago Bulls.In a federal complaint filed yesterday in the…
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday will take its second look at New Times’ lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the 2007 arrests of the newspaper’s two top executives..The Ninth’s 11-member en banc panel will hear the appeal this time, rather than the three-member panel that ruled on the…
Arizona Congressman Ben Quayle today officially joined several other GOP members of Congress in calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to step down over “Fast and Furious,” the Justice Department’s botched gun-running sting.Previously, Quayle politely asked Holder if he had any intentions of stepping down.Quayle, however, remains mum on the…
