Taxpayers pick up the tab for Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio’s attorney’s fees, court costs and settlements in civil suits. Political contributors bankroll his campaigns. He and his wife Ava are millionaires, and own a number of pricey properties in the Valley. His salary with Maricopa County is more than $100,000…
About 48 hours before his lifeless body was found hanging by the neck from a blue rope tied to a pool table at his home, ex-MCSO deputy Ramon “Charley” Armendariz told a group of friends and neighbors that he was a planning a press conference where he would “expose the…
You can’t fault Sheriff Joe Arpaio for lack of chutzpah. The guy continues to beg for campaign donations while his contempt of the federal court in the ACLU’s big civil rights case Melendres v. Arpaio is costing us beaucoup bucks. Check this recent gimmicky e-mail (below) desperately seeking any cash you’ve…
When Nancy Markham’s ex-boyfriend wrapped his hands around her neck and attempted to strangle her last year, she called 911. She called again when he showed up with a handgun and tried to break into her house, again when he threatened her with a knife, and again when he drove…
When it comes to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 22-year reign over Maricopa County, a cursory glance at newspaper clippings from earlier in his career reveals that some things never change. Consider Arpaio’s penchant for investigating his enemies, his critics, and anyone who stands in his way. In January 1999, Maricopa County…
No, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you can’t sue President Obama for filling up Maricopa County jails. That’s what three judges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit concluded when they affirmed a lower court decision to dismiss Arpaio’s lawsuit challenging the president’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and…
A status conference Tuesday morning in downtown Phoenix before federal Judge G. Murray Snow continued his court’s inexorable march toward a second round of contempt hearings in the ACLU’s big racial profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio, currently scheduled to begin September 22. In Tuesday’s hearing, Snow allowed the U.S. Department…
When a reliable source sends photos of a recycling firm loading up computers in front of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s downtown headquarters at Jackson Street and 5th Avenue — given past events — it’s cause for concern. Though county officials maintain that everything is on the up and up, federal Judge…
Like a Roman emperor of old, Sheriff Joe knows how to keep the mob entertained, with the help of his echo chamber — the local media — which too often takes its cues from Arpaio’s PR staff, lapping up whatever drivel that’s dis-engorged, then spewing it forth for the evening…
The words of Sheriff Joe’s Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan came back to sink their shark-like teeth in his hindquarters Friday in federal Judge G. Murray Snow’s courtroom, where Snow again indicated that the authority of his court had been abrogated by MCSO satraps, and criminal contempt charges could result. During…
It ain’t just Sheriff Joe’s poll numbers that have dropped like a hot rock on thin ice. Arpaio’s much ballyhooed posse has taken a hit numbers-wise as well, according to the court-appointed monitor’s latest quarterly report. Arpaio uses his posse to garner media attention, sending his volunteer force of non-cops…
A Phoenix anti-puppy-mill pet-store ordinance upheld in U.S. District Court this week punishes the wrong people, critics declare. While the court ruled that the city of Phoenix can keep its ordinance — which the Humane Society of the United States celebrated as a “landmark” victory for the animal-rights world and a blow…
Though not quite the “raid” that some local media depicted it as, Friday’s events were nonetheless dramatic, with United States District Court Judge G. Murray Snow calling an “emergency meeting” for 3 p.m. at the request of his monitor Robert Warshaw, whose team has been in town for the week…
During an hour-long status conference Monday in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s never-ending contempt case, federal Judge G. Murray Snow granted a request by the U.S. Department of Justice to review documents from Arpaio’s confidential informant Dennis Montgomery in the MCSO’s so-called “Seattle investigation.” That investigation, as first revealed in June of…
Between 500 and 600 people marched from the downtown Convention Center to the 4th Avenue Jail, and then to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s headquarters, as part of protest with two demands: that Sheriff Joe Arpaio resign, and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation agents stay out of the county jail…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is putting the infamous 4th Avenue Jail on lockdown for an indeterminate amount of time on Friday because of a scheduled protest against him and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Phoenix-based grassroots organization for migrant rights, Puente Arizona, is organizing a rally for an “Arpaio-Free…
Once again, the U.S. Department of Justice has disappointed us when it comes to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s abuses of power, this time with a Neville Chamberlain-esque settlement that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved on Wednesday. The board unanimously agreed to settle on three areas of dispute in United…
Ruling late Friday, federal Judge G. Murray Snow crushed Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s attempt to have the jurist recuse himself from contempt proceedings in the ACLU’s big civil rights case Melendres v. Arpaio. Snow declared that the motion, submitted on behalf of the sheriff and his Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, did…
There was no love lost for Sheriff Joe in Salem, Oregon on June 27 as he paid a visit at the invitation of the Beaver State GOP. According to Salem’s daily Statesman Journal, Arpaio drew about 100 supporters to a rally on the steps of the Oregon state capitol, and “three…
What do you do if a political satirist paints an image of you, which you consider “beyond offensive”? If you’re Sheriff Joe Arpaio, you send it to every reporter in town, and tweet it out to your 63,400 followers. That’s what happened to an image created by longtime anti-Arpaio activist…
Maricopa County settled yet another wrongful death suit this week, paying almost $1 million to the family of Felix Torres, who died an excruciatingly painful death from ulcer-related complications in a county jail while detention officers refused to help him. Michael Lacey wrote about the case last month for New…
“Thanks, but no thanks” was the message a group of church leaders and community members had for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the day after he announced a plan to keep dozens of black churches “safe” across Phoenix with “armed deputies and posse members.” Arpaio stated his intention at a press conference…
