Overdue
by digby
Two high-ranking Maricopa County officials confirmed late Thursday that they will testify next week before a federal grand jury exploring allegations that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has abused power.
County Manager David Smith and Assistant County Manager Sandi Wilson said they were preparing to testify before the grand jury on Wednesday.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio denied any knowledge of the grand jury, but news of sheriff’s officials being called to testify before a federal panel has been circulating in county circles for months.
“I’m not going to comment on that situation,” Arpaio said Thursday. “We’re just going to continue doing our job and our investigations that we have in progress.”
Sheriff’s detectives have undertaken a series of controversial investigations into county officials in the last year which heated up in recent months with indictments of two members of the Board of Supervisors, and a wide-ranging racketeering complaint filed in federal court that alleges a vast conspiracy against county supervisors, judges, private attorney and administrators including Smith and Wilson.
But the allegations of abuse of power have dogged Arpaio since long before that claim was filed.
The man is a crook and a psychopath and should have been thrown out of office long before now. He’s gotten away with murder for years.
But it looks like he finally fucked with the wrong Justice Department:
On March 3, 2009, the United States Department of Justice “notified Arpaio of the investigation in a letter saying his enforcement methods may unfairly target Hispanics and Spanish-speaking people” Arpaio initially denied any wrongdoing and stated that he welcomed the investigation, and would cooperate fully. By May, 2009, Arpaio had hired a Washington D.C. lobbyist, who wrote to Obama administration officials suggesting that the decision to probe Arpaio had been driven by political rivalries and score settling. In July, 2009, Arpaio publicly stated that he would not cooperate with the investigation.
In October 2009, the Department of Homeland Security removed the authority of Arpaio’s 160 federally trained deputies to make immigration arrests in the field. Despite the actions of the Department of Homeland Security, Arpaio has maintained that he will still pursue illegal aliens under Arizona state law.
And now this. Good.
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