Thread: Arpaio asks for facts to back up civil rights case

abc6.com
By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press
Updated: Jan 04, 2012 7:01 PM EST

PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona sheriff whose office has been accused of a wide range of civil rights violations conditionally agreed Wednesday to take part in discussions with federal officials about ways to correct the alleged violations.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that his office first needs the U.S. Justice Department to provide facts to back up its allegations that his office racially profiles Latinos, bases immigration enforcement on racially charged citizen complaints and punishes Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish.

"I have a suspicion that politics might be involved in this, but we want to resolve (the case)," Arpaio said.

Joseph Popolizio, one of the lawyers representing the sheriff's office, said in a letter to Justice officials that Arpaio was ready to go to court if federal authorities refuse to provide the information to back up their claims.

The self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America has been a national political fixture who has built his reputation on jailing inmates in tents and dressing them in pink underwear, selling himself to voters as unceasingly tough on crime and pushing the bounds of how far local police can go to confront illegal immigration.

The sheriff's office said it doesn't discriminate against Latinos and that Justice Department didn't provide facts to support its allegation that Arpaio's office has a culture of disregard for basic constitutional rights.

Popolizio said in his letter that constructive talks between Washington and the sheriff's office could occur only if the Justice Department backs up its allegations.

"We are merely requesting the opportunity to conduct our own weighing of the reliability of the evidence in your possession," Popolizio said.

The changes in the sheriff's office that Justice officials were seeking include training in constitutional policing and dealing with jail inmates with limited English skills, collecting data on traffic stops and immigration enforcement, and establishing a comprehensive disciplinary system that permits the public to make complaints against officers without fear of retaliation.

Arpaio's lawyers set a Jan. 18 date for the Justice Department to say whether they would provide the information and believe federal officials could provide that information by March 19.

The civil rights allegations have led some Arpaio critics to call for the sheriff's resignation. Arpaio has said he won't resign and intends to seek a sixth term this year.

Separate from the civil rights probe, a federal grand jury has been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009. That grand jury is examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad.

http://www.abc6.com/story/16447332/a...il-rights-case

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that his office first needs the U.S. Justice Department to provide facts to back up its allegations that his office racially profiles Latinos, bases immigration enforcement on racially charged citizen complaints and punishes Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish.

"I have a suspicion that politics might be involved in this, but we want to resolve (the case)," Arpaio said.

I am sure his suspicion is right.....you can bet it is all about politics.

Says he'll cooperate, want investigators to produce evidence of racial profiling

Sheriff Joe Arpaio informed U.S. Justice Department investigators that he will continue to cooperate with the federal government's efforts to reach a settlement and resolve the racial-profiling allegations leveled against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.

Justice Department investigators gave Arpaio until today to acknowledge whether he would participate in a settlement or fight the allegations contained in a 22-page letter of finding the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division released last month.

While Arpaio pledged cooperation, he could not resist taking shots at the long-running federal investigation which the Sheriff's Office has characterized as a "witch hunt." Attorneys for Arpaio wrote that cooperation "can only occur if the DOJ provides the facts and information on which it bases its findings."

The U.S. Justice Department last month accused the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office of rampant discrimination against Latinos in its police and jail operations, prompting an immediate suspension of Arpaio's participation in federal immigration enforcement.

Arpaio and many of his top administrators said they believe Justice Department investigators chose to highlight isolated incidents of racial profiling and did not provide evidence that the Sheriff's Office participates in widespread profiling of Latino residents, as federal investigators have alleged.

Justice Department officials reviewed thousands of documents and conducted more than 200 interviews with sheriff's personnel and former jail inmates during the course of the investigation.

Arpaio said the Justice Department should provide proof to back up the investigators' findings, among them that Latino drivers are four to nine times more likely than White drivers to be stopped by sheriff's deputies.

"And if they cannot prove their findings, which I suspect to be the case, then stop the political posturing," Arpaio said.

Federal officials have declined to release records related to the investigation, saying the matter is ongoing until Sheriff's Office and Justice Department attorneys can come to an agreement or a court intervenes.

Civil-rights investigators conducting similar probes in other cities, including New Orleans, released complete reports along with summaries of the investigators' findings. But some of those probes into other police agencies differed from the investigation into the Sheriff's Office, which was colored by Arpaio's failure to cooperate with the inquiry in the early stages. It wasn't until federal officials filed a rare lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office, threatening to withhold millions of dollars in federal aid to Maricopa County, that Arpaio's administrators relented and gave Justice Department investigators the access and information they were requesting.

The two sides will now enter a 60-day negotiation process designed to bring the parties to some sort of court-enforced resolution on how the Sheriff's Office will address the inadequacies highlighted in the Justice Department report. If attorneys for the Sheriff's Office and Justice Department cannot reach an agreement, a federal court would have to intervene.

The Justice Department began its civil-rights investigation of the Sheriff's Office in 2008 under Republican President George W. Bush. The investigation was publicly disclosed in a March 2009 letter to the Sheriff's Office.

Among the Justice Department's findings released last month:

Hispanics were routinely targeted for traffic stops without reasonable cause and subsequently charged with immigration-related crimes. Legal residents were sometimes treated as if they were illegal immigrants and even jailed.

Latino inmates with poor or no English proficiency were frequently punished for not understanding English, were required to fill out forms in a language they did not understand, or were denied critical services available to English-speaking inmates.

Community activists and critics who spoke out against the Sheriff's Office's treatment of Hispanics were themselves targeted for retaliation.

The Justice Department also found that the Sheriff's Office did not adequately train or supervise its personnel to avoid civil-rights violations and, in fact, permitted the specialized units to engage in unconstitutional behavior.

Also, the department found three additional areas of concern that require further review. Investigators allege that some sheriff's deputies use excessive force against Latinos; the agency's immigration-enforcement programs have caused distrust within the Latino community; and certain types of criminal cases have been improperly investigated.

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/electi...#ixzz1iXrJtokD

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