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America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff,” has been ordered to turn over an unredacted copy of the damning report on the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office’s investigation into his office to a judge for review.
The MCSO released the 1,022-page report and more than 20,000 supporting documents in April, much of which was blacked out.
See our story on the report here.
The sheriff claims he can’t release an unredacted copy of the report until the MCSO determines a punishment for Captain Joel Fox, who, so far, has avoided getting canned as the result of the investigation. His, umm, pal, Deputy Chief Larry Black, and Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott weren’t as fortunate.
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According to Arpaio, Fox being a county employee — and a cop — offers protections for his privacy that prevent the release of the report until he’s had the opportunity to appeal any punishment.
The Arizona Republic, which sought the release of the unredacted report, argues that “those protections only apply to some material in an employee’s personnel file and that the Pinal County report is not exempt from the state’s public-records laws.”
According to the Republic, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge San Meyers gave Arpaio until Monday to turn over both the redacted, and unredacted, reports.
