Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is back in court today, a place he knows well. The Arizona Republic described the hearing as having a “Black Friday” feel, with onlookers rushing to get a seat in the gallery “as if they were rushing for doorbuster deals.”
Defense and plaintiff attorneys are arguing what punishment or other actions should follow the civil contempt conviction of Donald Trump’s favorite birther sheriff and three deputies, a ruling Judge Murray Snow handed down on May 11.
Background: In 2013, Judge Snow found Arpaio’s office guilty of racial profiling and ordered him to: 1) stop immigration patrols; 2) turn over video evidence from police stops; and 3) install a court-appointed monitor to move Arpaio’s office out of the Dark Ages.
Sheriff Arpaio did none of this, carrying on as if nothing had happened for nearly 18 months. When called on his noncompliance, Arpaio eventually pled guilty to civil contempt, hoping the plea and his offer to donate $100,000 to a civil rights organization would end the investigations of his office. It didn’t, and Judge Snow was not pleased.
Snow’s blistering 162-page ruling repeatedly found that the lawman had intentionally flouted his directives and made a habit of misstating facts while under oath.
Judge Snow’s contempt findings left the door open for a criminal trial, and last week the ACLU asked Judge Snow to refer the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office for an investigation into criminal contempt, perjury, obstruction of justice and other federal crimes. Today’s hearing will consider the ACLU request and other matters, such as who’s in charge at the sheriff’s office:
Snow said he was inclined to hand over internal affairs leadership to an outside party—whether it be to the monitor, himself or another entity.
“I don’t have confidence anymore about the direction of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office,” he said.
If Sheriff Arpaio and his deputies face a criminal contempt trial, a guilty verdict could result in fines or time in the pokey. How much time, if any, depends on the charges.
Arpaio could face six months or more in prison for criminal contempt, depending on how the charges are brought. He also could get a year in the slammer for obstruction of justice. But the crimes of perjury and lying to a court-appointed monitory carry more serious penalties: five years' imprisonment if found guilty of either… Make no mistake: Arpaio lied under oath to the judge while being questioned during the 2015 contempt trial.
Judge Snow ruled today that the county should pay victims of the sheriff’s illegal detentions $1,000 for the first hour and $200 for every 20 minutes after that, but he did not rule on whether the case should be referred to a criminal trial. The Arizona Republic, however, said, “At times, Snow seemed to telegraph that the answer would be yes.” We’ll see.
The election cannot come soon enough: Paul Penzone for Sheriff.