Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Is Convicted of Criminal Contempt
August 1, 2017 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
But Mr. Arpaio insisted, publicly and repeatedly, that his office’s practices were legal and would not change, and advocates said the detentions continued.
On Monday, Judge Bolton ruled that Mr. Arpaio had willfully violated the 2011 court order. “Not only did Defendant abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise,” she wrote.
Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union and one of the lawyers in the suit against Mr. Arpaio , said the verdict “is a vindication for all the victims of his illegal stops and detentions whose constitutional rights were violated.”
Some supporters of stricter immigration enforcement rallied behind Mr. Arpaio. Dan Stein, the president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said the election of President Trump had vindicated Mr. Arpaio’s policies.
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“Clearly Joe Arpaio won the war, even though he lost this particular battle,” Mr. Stein said. “Like any good American citizen, he recognized his obligation and was willing to pay the price for a form of civil disobedience.”
Jack Wilenchik, one of Mr. Arpaio’s lawyers, said Judge Snow’s 2011 order “was not clear and definite, and Judge Bolton did not adequately address that.” He added that Judge Bolton had also violated Mr. Arpaio’s rights by denying him a trial by jury.
The former sheriff lost the civil case in 2013, when Judge Snow ruled that his office had systematically violated the rights of Latinos, echoing the findings of a Justice Department report from 2011.
In 2015, Judge Snow found Mr. Arpaio in civil contempt of court for violating the initial order, and prosecutors charged him with criminal contempt. Mr. Arpaio maintained in both cases that he had not willfully defied the court, and that any violations were committed by his underlings.
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Judge Bolton dismissed that claim, citing evidence that Mr. Arpaio understood the order, and noted the several times when he had said he would not change his ways.
She scheduled sentencing for Oct. 5.
Mr. Arpaio, who once called himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” made jail inmates wear pink underwear and served food that some prisoners called inedible. He regularly held undocumented immigrants past their court-ordered release dates to ensure that they would be picked up by immigration agents, and vowed to investigate President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
He was also accused several times of abusing his authority to investigate political opponents, and his legal troubles caused mounting bills for the county, Arizona’s largest.
Last year, frustration with his headline-grabbing tactics turned into a defeat at the polls.
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