Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

Sheriff Arpaio is back on the stand: lying and shifting blame. What else?

I know nothing ... nothing.

The contempt of court hearing of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio resumed again this week, with Arpaio himself taking the stand Wednesday and then again this morning.

The first part of the hearing in April did not go well for the sheriff: his lead attorney quit on the first day, deputies turned on Arpaio, he admitted his guilt, and he revealed in a bombshell testimony that his lawyer had investigated Judge Murray Snow's wife in a bizarre attempt to get dirt on the judge and force him to step down—a dead-end investigation that cost taxpayers at least $250,000 and maybe as much as $1 million.

The hearing turns on this point: After Arpaio and his deputies were found guilty in 2013 of racial profiling in the Arpaio v. Melendres case, Judge Snow slapped a long list of restrictions on his office. He had to refrain from immigration patrols, he was instructed to turn over video evidence from traffic stops, and a court-appointed monitor was to be installed to oversee compliance toward a non-racist agency.

Arpaio did very little, if any, of this. In fact, in his typical blustering way, the arrogant turd bragged to the media that he wouldn't comply. And he didn't. He continued his infamous immigration sweeps, his office "lost" the videotapes from traffic stops, and he told Megyn Kelley on Fox News that appointing a monitor was "garbage." Harrumph! Harrumph!

None of this sat well with Judge Murray Snow, who ordered Arpaio's ass to appear before the court to explain himself. The sheriff had nothing to explain of course, other than that he's an egotistical peckerhead who's used to judges, senators, governors and the press kissing his backside. However, as the legal costs of his unethical and illegal actions continue to soar, approaching $75 million, Arpaio's approval ratings have collapsed, most of the goons in his inner circle have been indicted or removed from office, and his power has ebbed. When the April hearing began, then, Arpaio pled guilty immediately, hoping that would quash the proceedings, but that wasn't the end for Judge Snow.

The question the judge wants answered is this: Did Sheriff Arpaio knowingly ignore the court orders? Or did his office just fuck up—a bureaucratic mistake? Arpaio of course maintains that others were in charge of complying with the orders (perhaps because he was busy investigating Obama's birth certificate). In fact, invoking the Sgt. Schultz defense, he says he knew very little about the court orders, which seems an outlandish statement given that he's the head of the guilty agency. His view also does not conform with some of the sheriff's former deputies and lawyers, who say he was clearly told what his office needed to do in order to comply with the court.

[Former Arpaio lawyer Tim] Casey’s testimony Tuesday and Wednesday was especially damning for the sheriff. Casey painted a picture of a client so resistant to orders that it prompted Casey to quit Arpaio’s racial-profiling case.

Here's the deal: If Judge Snow determines that the sheriff's actions were an administrative blunder, he'll probably be fined. However, if the court finds that Arpaio's non-compliance was deliberate, the civil hearing will likely move to a criminal phase, and the sheriff's butt could land in the pokey if he's found guilty. Given Arpaio's braggadocious behavior before the cameras after Judge Snow first issued the orders, it's hard to see his refusal to comply as a paperwork error. Stay tuned.
http://www.dailykos.com/blog/Baja%20Arizona%20Kossaks