It was a close one, but Jeffery Hendershott won out on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Mugshot of the Day.
The 29-year-old son of Arpaio's fired chief deputy, David Hendershott, beat accused probation violator Carla Atkins for the honor, seemingly proving that no favoritism exists on Arpaio's automated, online version of a public stockade.
(That said, we still question why Hendershott's name wouldn't come up on the site with a direct name search, and instead could first be found only by scanning through the mugshots of DUI suspects...)
The younger Hendershott, who was briefly employed by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in 2005, was booked into the county jail temporarily after being arrested earlier this week on suspicion of DUI and hit-and-run.
Arpaio launched the Mugshot of the Day feature on the Maricopa County
Sheriff's Office Web site in April as part of his eternal quest to
humiliate jail inmates. As New Times writer James King noted back then, the public typically votes for the inmates who appear the "stupidest/most strung out on meth/mentally ill."
As Jeffery Hendershott's "victory" shows, the public also enjoys pillorying a notable name.
(Awright, our blog post from yesterday may have helped find a few extra online voters.)
