Living in central Phoenix, I went to some of Netroots last week. After Sen. Elizabeth Warren's barn-burner on Friday, about 300 people, led by Puente Arizona, marched to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail (one-minute video of the protest above). It was only 100 that day, a cool wave. Nearby, a couple thousand inmates were living in tents, where it can reach 135+.
In addition to exposing and condemning the sheriff's criminal practices, marchers had two demands: 1) that Immigration and Customs Enforcement be removed from his office, because immigration is a federal responsibility, not his—a county lawman convicted of racial profiling; and 2) the sheriff must resign, because he's a corrupt dickhead.
It's looney tunes crazy that people are still protesting this blowhard, who Arizona Rep. Rául Grijalva, in his introduction to Sen. Warren, called "a criminal with a badge." He is a criminal, convicted in 2013 of racial profiling in the ACLU's Melendres v. Arpaio case, and found guilty of contempt of court this summer. By all rights he should be bounced from office, if not into the pokey, for twenty-plus years of this shit.
Another big DOJ trial begins in August, and it will cover territory way beyond Melendres, which focused on racial profiling. In addition to that charge, United States v. Maricopa County will look at abuse of powers broadly, and with Sheriff Joe Arpaio that's a lengthy menu of corruption that includes kick-backs, retaliation and harassment, frivolous lawsuits, campaign finance shenanigans, inmate torture and murder (although a pending settlement would take some of those crimes off the table).
But that's next month—right now he's gotta deal with this pesky contempt of court hearing, which is ongoing and could, I say could, land his butt in the slammer. Here's what got us here and why Arpaio's spending so much money to stop it:
After the Melendres trial, which was presided over by federal Judge Murray Snow, the court issued a long list of reforms for the sheriff's office. Among others, the judge ordered Arpaio to end his immigration "sweeps," turn over video evidence from traffic stops and install a court-appointed monitor to help implement these new (for Arpaio) less racist policies. The sheriff did almost none of this, thus the contempt charge. He no doubt bragged to his battalion of pinheads, who, if they spoke their minds would be speechless: "Fuck you, Feds! Up yours, Obama, you of questionable birth!"
[Ed: Sheriff Arpaio's birther investigation continues, funded by taxpayers, despite his frustration because "nobody wants to look at it right now." And I got carried away there with the sheriff's taunting.]
Arpaio admitted guilt on the contempt charge before the hearing began; shit, he even said he'd donate $100,000 to a civil rights organization to stay out of court. No deal, said the victims and Judge Snow, and the hearing's first phase began in April. The sheriff's lead attorney quit on the first day; over the next three days, when we saw a surprisingly contrite Arpaio, the hearing established that the sheriff did indeed disobey court orders—clearly contempt, which he plead to.
The next phase, which was slated to begin in June, will consider whether Sheriff Arpaio disobeyed the court willfully or incompetently. In other words, did he ignore the judge's orders out of spite and on purpose, as one of his patented "Up yours!" to the Feds, along with a wink-wink to nativists, or did his office just screw up? If Judge Snow rules that Arpaio's actions were purposeful, not just an oversight, he'll refer the case to federal trial, and if found guilty the sheriff and some top deputies could face jail time.
Although this second phase was to begin in June, here it is July and nothing's happening, and that's because Sheriff Arpaio is putting the legal brakes on. One way outta this pickle for him, one way to stop this hearing from becoming a full-blown federal trial leading to a jail cell, is to cast doubt on the integrity of the court. By undermining Judge Snow's honesty and impartiality, he's trying to delay the proceedings and maybe get the case tossed (or even nullify earlier Snow rulings).
To pull off this unabashed smear of a Republican Mormon appointed to the federal bench by George W. Bush, the sheriff's legal team, whose asses have to be jealous of the loads of shit coming out of their mouths, have orchestrated two schemes to "get" Judge Murray Snow: 1) he's crooked and 2) he's biased. Neither has worked and the hearing will continue soon, but so far Arpaio's corrupt, vindictive assholery has cost upwards of $1 million, writes Stephen Lemons in New Times.
More about the money, the attacks and the judge's rulings over the orange twist.
#1: Judge Snow is Crooked
According to Lemons's reporting, this tactic is where Sheriff Arpaio has spent most of his money: investigating Judge Snow in order to get dirt that would disqualify him from the court proceedings—a smear campaign, funded by RICO money. Of course, claiming a political enemy is crooked is old hat for Joe Arpaio, who's smeared his share of elected officials, judges, journalists and everyday citizens who stood in his police state path.
But this current boneheaded scheme, referred to in the press as the "Seattle Operation," makes the Keystone Cops look like the "Mission: Impossible" team. The short version goes: Arpaio's office was contacted by Dennis Montgomery, a computer geek and wannabe private eye in Seattle, with news of a criminal plot involving Judge Murray Snow. Enter Arpaio, stage right, salivating.
Dennis Montgomery is no stranger to the sheriff or the Feds, as he's also mixed up in Arpaio's birther nonsense. What's more revealing of this slimeball is that since the invasion of Iraq he's conned the US government out of more than $20 million, claiming his software can find hidden terrorist codes in Al Jazerra broadcasts. Pure, unadulterated poppycock, concluded the New York Times.
So the fraudster Montgomery told Sheriff Arpaio that he discovered CIA evidence proving Judge Snow was part of an illegal conspiracy that included at least three other men who had rocky relationships with the sheriff: Attorney General Eric Holder, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and US Attorney Dennis Burke (all now gone from those offices). The team's objective: spy on and collect blackmail-worthy dirt on Sheriff Arpaio in order to force him from office. Montgomery accused the group of wire-tapping the sheriff's phones and "penetrating" his office's email accounts. It was bull, like most of what comes out of his mouth, and even though Montgomery had a reputation for scamming people and entire countries, Arpaio sent lots of men and money to Seattle to aid the investigation of this crackpot story.
However, after months of "research," after Arpaio's office sent Montgomery mountains of computer gear and at least $120,000 in cash, after the Seattle sleuth sent Arpaio dozens of print-outs and hard drives containing "proof" (but really nothing), after all this the sheriff is spit-raving mad at Montgomery and his attorney Larry Klayman (yes, the World Nut Daily screwball), because all he got was "junk." Arpaio is out perhaps a million dollars, holding nothing but his dick.
This isn't a secret. Stephen Lemons, who's been about a year out-front of the MSM on this boondoggle of a tale, revealed the Dennis Montgomery kerfuffle in June 2014. Judge Snow read that article and brought it up during the first phase of the contempt hearing—asking Arpaio why he was spending time and resources sleuthing in the Northwest instead of implementing court orders at home. He also directed the sheriff to turn over all documents related to the bogus conspiracy theory.
That's significant because the DOJ, whose trial begins August 10, would like to look at those records in light of their abuse of powers investigation. From where I sit, an attack on a federal judge easily meets or exceeds the legal standard for abuse of powers. Neither Arpaio's nor Montgomery's attorneys wanted the files made available to DOJ, but this week Judge Snow said the Feds could review all records from the "Seattle Operation."
#2: Judge Snow is Biased
After phase one of the contempt hearing, Arpaio's attorneys filed a motion to remove Judge Snow from the case because, they said, he is biased against the sheriff. This charge also begins with a tip that Arpaio's people believed and pursued, instead of, say, investigating real crime. And like the Montgomery tease, this tip did not pan out.
The background: In 2012, Karen Grissom, a friend of Judge Snow's wife Cheri, overheard Mrs. Snow at a local restaurant say that she and her husband "would do anything" to remove Sheriff Arpaio from office. A year later, when Arpaio was on the hot seat because of mounting hearings and investigations, Karen Grissom, who is sympathetic to the sheriff, decided to let him know about Cheri Snow's comment because it casts doubt on the judge's impartiality, and she posted her story on Arpaio's Facebook page. Again, his team lurched into action!
Most mind-boggingly, the sheriff's lawyer at the time, Tim Casey, hired a detective to investigate Judge Snow's wife! This invasive, outrageous directive was undertaken "with Sheriff Arpaio's express direction and with his authorization," and Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery authorized the hire. Bozos! Similar to the Seattle saga, after all of the investigations and interviews and snooping around Cheri Snow, there was no there there. Attorney Casey said the informant's story was "fundamentally flawed":
Casey believed the allegations against Snow's wife "lacked substance or merit," according to a 2013 Casey letter to Arpaio recently made public.
Again,
New Times reported early on about the investigation of Cheri Snow, another article her husband read. On the last day of April's contempt hearing, Judge Snow himself asked Sheriff Arpaio if he had had the judge's wife investigated. When Arpaio
admitted that he had, the courtroom was stunned, a collective gasp, and the TV machines went bonkers that evening with the bombshell revelation. SHERIFF ARPAIO HIRES PRIVATE DETECTIVE TO INVESTIGATE THE WIFE OF THE JUDGE PRESIDING OVER HIS TRIAL!!
While the investigation of the judge's wife produced nada, Arpaio turned the soap opera finale into another legal barb, which might have been his objective all along—not to find anything on Cheri Snow but to insert himself in the relationship and, in effect, choreograph the judge's "bias." After the hearing's first phase ended, Arpaio's lawyers filed the motion to remove the judge. They argued that, given Judge Snow's obvious prejudice against the sheriff for investigating his wife, he should step down. How'd that happen?
Judge Snow has been nothing if not fair, and all of his rulings have been upheld on appeal. He granted a stay, which is why the second phase did not get underway in June, so he could consider the motion. About ten days ago, then, in a 40-page ruling, Judge Snow said he will not recuse himself and the hearing will resume, probably in September.
Sheriff Arpaio has spent perhaps $1 million to smear a federal judge. None of his allegations have been upheld, and now everyone knows what he's been up to, just as a federal trial on abuse of powers gets underway.
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On Friday, Sheriff Arpaio thanked the marchers from Netroots for being peaceful, but said he wasn't stepping down because he's just upholding the Constitution. We could agree with him but then we'd all be wrong.