Thread: Arpaio to review complaint that AG campaign hired illegals

http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/28589.php

Arpaio to review complaint that AG campaign hired illegals
The Associated Press
Published: 10.06.2006
PHOENIX - Maricopa County's sheriff and county attorney will review a complaint that the campaign of Republican attorney general candidate Bill Montgomery used illegal immigrants while filming a television ad.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said his office on Thursday began reviewing a Democrat legislator's complaint that a film crew working for the campaign violated state law by transporting undocumented immigrants.
State Sen. Bill Brotherton, D-Phoenix, said the incident appeared to violate state human smuggling laws. He sent letters to Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas asking them to investigate. He also asked U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton to review the case to see if the film crew violated federal laws by knowingly hiring illegal workers.
A Charlton spokesman said a response had been sent to Brotherton, but the senator said he had not yet received it. Thomas' office said the complaint would be reviewed like any other.
Thursday's developments are the latest twist in a saga that began with a complaint to the state Citizens Clean Elections Commission by the campaign of Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard.
Goddard's complaint accused Montgomery of using his public funding for the primary election to produce a commercial for use in the general election. The commercial in question was filmed on Sept. 12, the day of the primary election.
Goddard asked that Montgomery be forced to surrender about $73,000 in public financing for the general election to make up for allegedly illegal spending of his primary election public funding. That's roughly half of his general election campaign war chest.
Montgomery's response said the contract for the commercial was signed and the airtime purchased on Aug. 15, but incorrectly entered as Sept. 12 transactions.
He said it was reasonable to believe that primary election campaign purchases would be used after primary day.
Goddard's complaint also contained a report by a Gilbert park ranger who said a member of the film crew told him that Hispanic men participating in the video shoot were illegal immigrants who were being paid for their services. A second witness said the men told him they were illegal immigrants and were filmed being frisked by police officers.
A main part of Montgomery's campaign platform is a tough stance on illegal immigration, so any use of illegal workers in his commercials could be politically damaging. A recent poll found Montgomery trailing far behind Goddard.
On Wednesday, the producer and cameraman for the film shoot filed sworn statements denying they knowingly hired illegal immigrants.
The filming also included shots of a Gilbert police car, raising questions that a law prohibiting a city or town from using personnel, equipment or other resources to influence the outcomes of elections may have been violated.
Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman arranged for its use at the park, which is next to the town's vehicle maintenance yard. Town Manager George Pettit said the car should not have been used, but there won't be any consequences. He called it a "lesson learned."

Sheriff: No evidence candidate used illegal workers
Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 7, 2007 12:00 AM

A complaint filed a year ago accusing a political candidate of hiring illegal immigrants for a campaign commercial has fizzled for lack of evidence, even as the county is ramping up its enforcement against illegal immigration.

"It was a political thing," Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said of the complaint. "We sent people out; we just couldn't make the case."

Records show Arpaio's office took little action on the complaint, filed by then-state Sen. Bill Brotherton, a Phoenix Democrat. advertisement




At issue was a film shot by Bill Montgomery, who last fall was the Republican nominee for state attorney general. Brotherton cited a report from a Gilbert park ranger who said the cameraman for the Montgomery commercial told him the spot was about illegal immigration and illegal workers were being paid to appear in it.

Brotherton seized on that as grounds for what he saw as two possible violations. One involved the state's anti-smuggling law, since the workers would have had to be transported to the Gilbert park where the commercial was being filmed.

The second involved a federal law that penalized employers if they hired illegal workers.

But sheriff's office records indicate that investigators had no way to track down the people accused of being illegal immigrants, making it impossible to determine if they had been illegally transported to Freestone Park.

"What do you do?" asked Capt. Paul Chagolla, the sheriff's spokesman.

Without the bodies, there was no way to pursue an investigation, he said.

And at the time, the county did not have the authority to enforce federal immigration law, something it has now due to training from the federal government.

Brotherton, now a Maricopa County Superior Court judge, declined comment.

The cameraman filming the commercial filed an affidavit saying he did not knowingly hire illegal workers. Montgomery lost the election to incumbent Terry Goddard.

But the state Democratic Party said the inaction shows how politicized the immigration issue is with Arpaio's office, which now runs a hotline on which citizens can report immigration problems.

"If this was a case they could have used to their political advantage, they would have jumped all over it," said Emily Bittner, a party spokeswoman.


Without a way to track down the people accused of being illegal workers, the investigation ran into a dead end, Chagolla said.

www.azcentral.com