Judge orders civil contempt hearing for Arizona lawman Arpaio (updated)
Judge orders civil contempt hearing for Arizona lawman Arpaio
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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio addresses the media about a simulated school shooting in Fountain …
By David Schwartz
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Controversial Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio and his top lieutenants will face a civil contempt-of-court hearing in April for repeatedly ignoring judicial orders arising from a 2007 racial-profiling case, a federal judge ruled on Thursday.
U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow ordered the evidentiary hearing to be conducted after determining there was sufficient evidence to move ahead with the proceeding that could result in penalties against Arpaio, four other individuals, and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
"After an appropriate hearing, the Court will determine whether these individuals have committed contempt of court and the sanctions for any such violations," Snow's order read.
Arpaio, 82, who bills himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," could face fines or jail time along with other current and former officials cited in the ruling.
Snow, who had become increasingly frustrated with the sheriff and his office, set the hearing to take place April 21-24 in a federal courtroom in Phoenix.
A lawyer for Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office could not be immediately reached for comment.
The judge found in 2013 that Arpaio and his deputies racially profiled Latino drivers during traffic stops and unreasonably detained them, violating their constitutional rights, in a ruling that was a major blow to the six-term sheriff.
Snow installed a court monitor to oversee the operations of Arpaio's office and ordered that changes be made to help ensure there is no repeat of the offenses.
Arpaio, who has said he will run for a seventh term, has appealed the ruling and denied that his office was guilty of racial profiling.
In the latest ruling, Snow said attorneys for the Latino drivers had shown "sufficient evidence" to warrant the contempt hearing on a range of grounds, including failing to stop immigration enforcement operations as ordered by the court.
Also cited was an alleged failure by the sheriff's office to turn over evidence to the other side's lawyers during the trial.
Snow ordered Arpaio to appear before the court along with Chief Deputy Gerald Sheridan, retired Executive Chief Brian Sands, Deputy Chief John MacIntyre, and Lieutenant Joseph Sousa.
Cecillia Wang, an attorney for the plaintiffs and director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants' Rights Project, said there already is "abundant evidence" of Arpaio and his deputies violating the court's orders.
"No doubt we will see even more evidence develop during the evidentiary hearing in April," Wang said. "It is well past time for the sheriff's recalcitrance to end."
http://news.yahoo.com/judge-orders-c...012025717.html
Contempt of court hearing opens for Sheriff Joe Arpaio
By Aalia Shaheed
Published April 21, 2015
FoxNews.com
A hearing opened in Phoenix Tuesday to decide if America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff, Joe Arpaio, should be held in contempt of court for violating a previous court order to stop his officers from conducting immigration patrols.
The four-day civil hearing stems from a 2011 court order in which Arizona Judge G. Murray Snow ruled the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office could not arrest people simply because they suspected them of being in the country illegally.
MCSO Sgt. Brett Palmer testified before a crowded courtroom Tuesday, claiming officers continued to do sweeping immigration patrols for 18 months after the judge ordered them not to.
Palmer, who supervised the office’s now-defunct human smuggling unit, said Sheriff Joe had instructed him not to train officers in accordance with the court order because doing so “was contrary to the goals and objectives of the sheriff.”
Palmer acknowledged he disagreed with some of Sheriff Joe’s approach to immigration patrols, such as his idea to set up roadblocks throughout Phoenix to catch illegal immigrants.
But Palmer said the main goal around the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was simply “to make the sheriff look good to the media and the public."
Sheriff Joe’s attorney, Michele lafrate, acknowledged there were violations but insisted they were “not on purpose.”
“They were negligent areas that need to be fixed, and Sheriff Joe… [is] committed to fixing these deficiencies and move forward,” lafrate said in court.
The sheriff is expected to testify at the hearing later this week.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/21...ff-joe-arpaio/
Sheriff Arpaio shifts blame over disobeying court order
26 minutes ago • By Jacques Billeaud The Associated Press
PHOENIX — The normally defiant sheriff for metro Phoenix responded meekly and shifted blame Wednesday as he was questioned in court about why he violated a judge’s orders to stop carrying out his signature immigration patrols.
Arpaio said he accepts responsibility for disobeying the 2011 order, but he repeatedly added that he delegated the enforcement of the injunction to his lawyers and staff. He was asked whether he remembers getting an attorney’s opinion on carrying out the order’s key section.
“Not that I can recall,” he said.
The sheriff could face fines if he’s found in contempt of court for his acknowledged violations of the injunction and two other orders issued in a racial-profiling case that Arpaio eventually lost.
Rank-and-file officers who were never told about the injunction violated the order for about 18 months.
The sheriff also has accepted responsibility for his agency’s failure to turn over traffic-stop videos in the profiling case and bungling a plan to gather such recordings from officers once some videos were discovered.
Arpaio made the acknowledgments in an unsuccessful bid to get the hearing called off. The contempt hearing marks the boldest attempt to hold the sheriff personally responsible for his actions.
His voice wasn’t booming in court as it often is before TV cameras. Instead, he was hoarse, looked tired and often answered questions by saying he didn’t recall. Arpaio’s attorney hasn’t yet had a chance to question him in court.
The sheriff, whose testimony is scheduled to resume Thursday, was questioned about a former supervisor on his smuggling squad who said Arpaio ordered him to violate the 2010 order.
A day earlier, Sgt. Brett Palmer had described a tense encounter with Arpaio about a month after the 2011 order was issued in which federal immigration authorities refused to accept immigrants who hadn’t committed a violation of state law. Palmer said he planned to take the immigrants to another federal immigration agency, but he was ordered to first call Arpaio, who ordered him not to release them.
Palmer said the sheriff eventually backed down.
“That’s his version,” Arpaio said, adding, “I don’t give orders to sergeants.”
Another officer testified that Arpaio wanted the immigrants held so the news media could film them as they were being brought out of the building where they were being held.
Stan Young, one of the attorneys who pushed the profiling case against Arpaio, cited a news release Arpaio’s office issued seven days after the 2011 order in which he said he’d continue to enforce illegal immigration laws.
Young also noted an interview with Univision in March 2012 in which Arpaio was asked if he was still detaining immigrants who were in the country illegally.
“Yes, we are,” Arpaio told Univision. “We just arrested 31 or more recently coming into the country illegally.”
Under questioning in court, Arpaio said he still had the authority at the time to enforce Arizona’s immigrant smuggling law and other state immigration laws.
Earlier in the day, lawyers played a recording of a deposition in which a lieutenant suggested the sheriff defied the 2011 order.
Lt. Brian Jakowinicz recalled an encounter with Arpaio over what to do about immigrants who were in the custody of the sheriff’s office. There were no state charges to keep the immigrants locked up, but Arpaio was insistent.
“You call Border Patrol. I am the sheriff. And I want you to call Border Patrol,” Jakowinicz quoted Arpaio as saying.
http://tucson.com/sheriff-arpaio-shi...efdb1ab6b.html
