Sheriff Joe Arpaio Admits He Had Private Detective Investigate Federal Judge’s Wife

The man who calls himself “America’s meanest sheriff” may have finally gone too far. Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio is facing the prospect of being held in civil contempt of court for disobeying a federal judge’s order to stop patrols that amounted to racial profiling. While on the stand, Arpaio admitted that he had hired a private detective to investigate the wife of the judge presiding over the hearing.

Joe Arpaio at a 2014 campaign rally (courtesy Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons)
Joe Arpaio at a 2014 campaign rally (courtesy Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons)

Back in 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, alleging that Arpaio had conducted traffic stops and immigration sweeps in a manner that amounted to discrimination against Latinos, federal judge Murray Snow found that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office . In a blistering order, Snow told Arpaio to end the patrols. However, Arpaio’s department frequently ignored the order over the next two years.

In January, Snow declared he’d finally had enough. Snow announced that he would convene a hearing to determine if Arpaio, undersheriff Jerry Sheridan, two of Arpaio’s other current aides, and a retired sheriff’s office official should be held in contempt. Snow added that if he held the defendants in contempt, they would have to pay any fines out of their own pockets–a sharp rebuke to an office that has forced residents of Phoenix and its suburbs to ante up $74 million in various judgments, settlements and fees due to numerous legal disputes during Arpaio’s 22 years as sheriff.

Arpaio and Sheridan admitted to disregarding Snow’s order, and offered to pay a civil rights group $100,000 out of their own pockets if Snow entered a judgment of contempt and canceled the hearing. However, Snow turned the offer down and let the hearing go ahead.

While on the stand on April 23, Arpaio admitted under oath that Snow’s order had “slipped through the cracks” of the sheriff’s office. He then dropped another bombshell–he’d had his attorneys hire a private detective to investigate allegations that Snow’s wife had been overheard at a restaurant saying that her husband “wanted to do everything to make sure” Arpaio was defeated in his bid for a seventh term in 2016.? Snow promptly ordered all records of the investigation turned over to an independent court-appointed monitor.

Those disclosures came under questioning from Snow, which took place after both the prosecution and the defense finished their questioning. In an apparent attempt to unring the bell, one of Arpaio’s attorneys, Michele Iafrate, objected to Snow’s “unorthodox” line of questioning, saying her client had the right to know it in advance. However, Snow denied the objection, saying that he was well within his rights to ensure that he is able to consider all of the facts in the case.

The hearing reconvened last Thursday, after a delay to give Arpaio’s attorneys time to review more than 3,000 pages of documents for potentially privileged information. At that hearing, Snow read a carefully worded prepared statement revealing that the detective Arpaio had hired, Dennis Montgomery, had tried to convince Arpaio that Snow and several of Arpaio’s supposed enemies–including former Phoenix mayor Phil Gordon and former federal Attorney General Eric Holder–were conspiring against Arpaio. Montgomery is best known for trying to convince the CIA that he could decode al-Qaeda messages before he was exposed as a fraud.

While Arpaio ultimately concluded that the claims uncovered in the so-called “Seattle Operation” were bogus, Snow was none too pleased that Arpaio was even dealing with Montgomery in the first place. Although Snow had only reviewed a fraction of the documents, he’d seen enough evidence to conclude that Arpaio’s office was using taxpayer money and deputy man-hours to investigate “a bogus conspiracy theory” that was clearly intended to divert the court from the contempt case. If that was the intent, it didn’t work. Snow indicated that he is seriously considering a new trial in the racial profiling case if a settlement isn’t reached, and is making noises about convening a criminal contempt hearing for Arpaio.

Back in April, these revelations led The Arizona Republic’s editorial board to call Arpaio’s performance on the stand “almost pitable.” I’d go further–it’s grounds to demand Arpaio’s immediate resignation. Arpaio’s ultimate conclusion that Montgomery’s claims were bogus might be the only thing saving him from criminal charges of intimidating a federal judge, though it’s far too early to tell at this stage. But even without that, the fact that he found it acceptable to deal with a proven con man in order to troll in conspiracy theories on Maricopa County’s dime proves beyond any doubt that he is unfit for office. Sheriff Joe needs to go, and he needs to go now.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.