PHOENIX >> In his 24 years as metro Phoenix\u2019s sheriff, Joe Arpaio survived scandals and dodged investigations that would easily have sunk the careers of many politicians. He locked up journalists and made criminal cases against poli<\/b>
\nPHOENIX >> In his 24 years as metro Phoenix\u2019s sheriff, Joe Arpaio survived scandals and dodged investigations that would easily have sunk the careers of many politicians.
He locked up journalists and made criminal cases against political adversaries who tangled with him, investigated judges and misspent $100 million in jail funds. He let investigations into child rape cases languish because officers were pulled away, in part, to help in Arpaio\u2019s immigrant efforts.
Arpaio was found to have violated the civil rights of Latinos in a racial-profiling case expected to cost taxpayers $92 million by next summer.
His critics felt like they finally won a measure of accountability against the lawman after he was found guilty earlier this month on a misdemeanor contempt charge for flouting the courts in carrying out his signature immigration patrols.
But their victory was upended when a pardon by his most powerful political ally \u2014 President Donald Trump \u2014 allowed Arpaio to wiggle out of legal jeopardy again.
\u201cArpaio played up to Trump, and Trump is a good old boy, and he doesn\u2019 t give a damn about us \u2014 only likes people of his own mind and from his base, \u201d said Mary Rose Wilcox, a former county official who was charged with crimes in a now-discredited corruption case brought by Arpaio. \u201cHe wanted red meat, and Arpaio was that red meat.\u201d
For Arpaio, the pardon is the ultimate vindication after repeatedly complaining that he was being unfairly targeted for merely enforcing the law in arresting immigrants in the country illegally.
He celebrated the victory at an Italian restaurant with his wife and said he\u2019 ll discuss more about his future early next week. The former sheriff vowed to remain active politically, and issued a fundraising appeal for his legal defense fund within an hour or two of the pardon\u2019s announcement Friday afternoon. Arpaio, reached Saturday, declined to comment further.
A judge nominated to the bench by former President George W. Bush ordered Arpaio to stop his immigration patrols in 2011 amid allegations that his officers were racially profiling Latinos. The judge later found Arpaio\u2019s office systematically profiled Latinos and recommended a criminal charge against the sheriff for prolonging the patrols 17 months after he had ordered them stopped.
The pardon drew widespread condemnation among Latinos, Democrats and even some Republicans who believe the move is offensive to immigrants at a time of deep racial divisions in the aftermath of the violence in Charlottesville. Some conservatives said it was a long-overdue action to preserve the legacy of a man they say was punished for doing his job.
\u201cIt\u2019s a misdemeanor equal to a barking-dog complaint, \u201d said Tom Morrissey, a former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. \u201cTo spend millions of taxpayer dollars to go after Sheriff Joe for doing his job, I think, was kind of ridiculous.\u201d
The reality is that taxpayers in Phoenix and its suburbs will pay for Arpaio\u2019s racial profiling for years to come.
The overall profiling case against Arpaio and his office has already cost taxpayers $66 million on items such as attorney fees, officer training and an alert system to spot problematic behavior by sheriff\u2019s deputies. Over the next year, it will cost an additional $26 million, largely for adding officers to the effort to comply with a court-ordered overhaul of the agency.
The financial toll is expected to continue until the sheriff\u2019s office comes in full compliance for three straight years with court-ordered changes. The sheriff\u2019s office was deemed 40 percent compliant in the first phase of the overhaul and 58 percent compliant in its second phase, according to the latest report measuring the agency\u2019s progress.
Taxpayers have footed another $82 million in judgments, settlements and legal fees for the sheriff\u2019s office, covering issues such as lawsuits over deaths in his jails and the lawman\u2019s failed investigations of political enemies. That tally includes $3.5 million paid to a family of a developmentally disabled girl who was molested while Arpaio\u2019s office did not investigate her abuser.
\u201cJoe Arpaio received a pardon yesterday, \u201d Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo, a longtime Arpaio critic, said Saturday. \u201cThe taxpayers did not receive a pardon.\u201d
While Arpaio had long defied predictions of his political demise, the costs of the profiling case and the criminal case against the Republican sheriff are believed to have contributed to his loss in November to Democrat Paul Penzone, a little-known retired Phoenix police sergeant.
Arpaio suffered a cruel irony on election night: He lost the heavily Republican Maricopa County by nearly 13 percentage points, while Trump \u2014 who shares similar views on immigration as Arpaio \u2014 won by more than 3 percentage points.
Morrissey blamed a steady stream of negative news about Arpaio from local reporters for Arpaio\u2019s loss.
\u201cIt was day after day after day of the media attacking him, \u201d Morrissey said.
Wilcox offered a different explanation: Voters grew tired of Arpaio\u2019s legal problems and penchant for self-promotion, but were not familiar with Trump.
Arpaio\u2019s \u201cabuses were so well documented that finally people said we had enough, \u201d Wilcox said. \u201cThey didn\u2019 t know Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

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