Sheriff Joe Arpaio suffers another defeat in profiling case
U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow on Friday ordered another judge to rule on whether Joe Arpaio, the Republican sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, and a deputy should be held in criminal contempt of court for repeatedly ignoring court orders to stop racially profiling Latinos.
.. Two years later, Snow found that Arpaio had intentionally flouted his order, citing the sheriff’s own public comments, such as a 2012 interview with Fox News in which he declared, “I’m not stopping anything” and said he was “not going to bend to the federal government.”
.. Arpaio’s opponent in the Aug. 30 Republican primary is Dan Saban, a former local police chief who ran against him in 2004 and 2008. During their 2004 race, Arpaio opened an investigation into Saban for allegedly raping his own adoptive mother decades earlier. The case was dropped, and Saban sued Arpaio unsuccessfully for defamation.
.. In June, Penzone likewise threatened to sue Arpaio if he recycled ads from their 2012 contest, when the sheriff accused him of beating his ex-wife.