Arpaio Under Fire
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio relishes controversy and the national limelight that comes with it. With defiance, he confronted a Department of Justice (DOJ) civil rights probe and an FBI investigation into abuse of power allegations. Rather than cooperating with the agenc ies, Arpaio took to the airwaves to accuse the Obama administration of taking sides against Arizona. Meanwhile, he continued to stuff inmates into his 150 degree "tent city" jails, cut their food intake , and even stopped serving salt and pepper as part of a never-ending series of publicity stunts and dehumanizing gimmicks to convince taxpayers he was saving them money. Yet, it appears these controversial tactics are finally catching up to Arpaio and his office. His top aides have been accused of serious misconduct. A financial review of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) records revealed that his office misspent at least $99.5 million over the last eight years. And while Arpaio continues to deny any knowledge of illegal activities happening within his office, each day the evidence continues to mount against him.
CORRUPTION CHARGES: Following a six-month investigation triggered by a 63-page memorandum written by a former deputy chief who accused high-ranking employees of the MCSO of misconduct, mismanagement and criminal behavior, two of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's top deputies -- David Hendershott (who Arpaio previously referred to as his alter ego) and Larry Black -- were forced to resign. The investigation found that Hendershott falsely tripled statistics, misused county resources, berated and intimidated employees, and abused his power. The investigation also accuses him of using taxpayer dollars to cover his personal legal fees. Last week, news broke that the U.S. Attorney's Office is also investigating allegations that the Maricopa County Attorney's and Sheriff's Office engaged in prosecutorial misconduct&n bsp; by knowingly filing charges against county Supervisor Don Stapley although the statute of limitations had expired. Stapley, who believes he has been the "target of a corrupt sheriff and county attorney," has delivered a letter to President Obama, pleading for the DOJ to get behind the criminal investigation into the Sheriff's office. Around the same time news broke about Hendershott's dealings, a federal judge ruled that Arpaio's deputies violated the civil rights of two Latino men who were arrested without reasonable suspicion.
MCSO INCOMPETENCE: In September 2010, a financial review of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Maricopa County Sheriff's Office records revealed that his office misspent at least $50 million in taxpayer dollars on fishing trips and Disneyland vacations. It turns out that those estimates were just the beginning. Arizona budget officials recently discovered a second jail account which brings the total of misspent funds up to $99.5 million over the last eight years. County officials are struggling to figure out how to repay the misu sed detention funds, without financially hurting other county departments. "At this point, no one can say for sure where the money will come from, how long it will take to pay back or how it could affect other county operations," writes the Arizona Republic. Today, the Associated Press broke the news that three of Arpaio's own employees were arrested on drug and human trafficking charges. This past weekend, a local newspaper reported that the MCSO failed to adequately investigate more than 400 sex-crime cases over a two-year period. "Poor oversight and former Chief Deputy David Hendershott's desire to protect a key investigator from bad publicity led to delays for victims of serious crimes who waited years for the attackers to be brought to justice," reported the Arizona Capitol Times. ABC15 reported that "children who had the courage to come forward and say they were molested, raped or abused were simply ignored" by MSCO detectives. The conservative Goldwater Institute has long accused the MCSO of declaring unsolved crimes solved.
ARPAIO'S BLAME GAME: The investigation into Arpaio's top aides doesn't pin much blame on the sheriff. Yet, curiously, Arpaio himself asked his political ally, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, to conduct it. Meanwhile, Arpaio's critics have called on the Sheriff to resign, arguing that he was either incompetent or complicit in the corruption and mismanagement that has plagued his office. Arpaio claims he is neither. He blames the misspent funds on a computer glitch and a "bookkeeping problem." Arpaio has also insisted that he had no knowledge of his employees' misconduct. "When you have responsibility for about 16,000 people that I'm responsible for and I believe in delegation, sometimes things slip by, It's a big organization, lots of responsibility," reasoned Arpaio. "No one is perfect," he acknowledged at a recent press conference. His former employees suggest otherwise. Arpaio's former longtime chief financial officer Loretta Barkell claims that, over the course of ten years, she repeatedly warned both Arpaio and Hendershott that they could not use restricted jail funds to pay for the other functions they were going to. "The sheriff [Arpaio] waved his hand and said he was not a llowing the bean counters to manage his operations," stated Barkell. An unnamed detective accused Arpaio of personally drafting a search warrant for a failed corruption investigation. Arpaio's Ex-Chief Executive Officer Tom Bearup was even more explicit. "Joe [Arpaio] knows everything that goes on," Bearup said. "Because I've been there. And I know that nothing goes on in that office without [Joe's approval]. Every policy he initialed. Anything major that happened, people would go and tell him, because they felt intimidated." And up until recently, Arpaio adamantly insisted that he is behind the steering wheel .
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