Radley Balko wonders what will happen to the court-document stealing deputy of Maricopa County: "I can't think of another case where a judge has ordered someone jailed for contempt and the police department has refused to carry out the order. I'm not sure what would happen next. A duel? Arm wrestling?"
Court vs. cops stalemate in Maricopa County
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Where is Rusty the Baliff when we need him?
This seems like a possibly excellent outcome, in that I really hope it provokes some sort of reaction from higher up the law enforcement foodchain.
I have absolutely no idea of what the specific legal mechanism would be, but there has to be _something_ in place for when the local sheriff goes off the rails. State police? something federal?
It's Marbury vs. Madison all over again, except this time, the judge was not nearly as sophisticated.
I'd love to see Federal Marshals storming the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Any chance they'll call in Walker?
If the apology doesn't come (which I pretty sure it hasn't as yesterday was the deadline set by the judge) I don't see much of anything happening ti the deputy who swiped the files. The judge can rule in contempt, but if the sheriff will not obey, then the judge would have little recourse (though I'm not fully aware of Arizona law).
I guess the Judge could declare a mistrial and set a date for a new trial, or get state level or federal level law enforcement to carry out the imprisonment of the deputy.
IANAL, and IIRC, Arizona has the remnants of spanish law. I think that means either the governor gets to fix the problem, or maybe the legislature can pull the charter of the sherrifs department. Again. IANAL.
Considering he just got heckled off-stage at ASU:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=16927589&ch=4226713&src=news
I have a feeling he's not about to stand out in public and issue an apology. We can only hope that the sheriff's position in Maricopa is an elected position and that he can be recalled or impeached.
+1 for duel
Who was heckled off stage? All I get at that link is a fitness video commercial.
I'm afraid you've got that wrong. The problem is EXACTLY that the sheriff's position is Maricopa is an elected position. The "Good Citizens" of Maricopa LIKE him (or at least the majority of the voting population, or whoever monitors the local elections and stuffs the ballot boxes does), and keep re-electing him.
I presume because the sherrif's office picks on "undesireables" (people who 'don't look like us', people who are accused of dealing drugs, those nasty lawyers, those crooked politicians) instead of middle class white protestant soccer moms, the locals don't see a problem with it at all.
Or they didn't in the beginning, and now they're terrified of him. Or they never elected him in the first place, and the polls are administered by Deibold voting machines.
@toogood #2
I seriously doubt this will prompt any reaction from law enforcement beyond closing ranks and sticking up for "one of their own."
I wonder what kind of a freakazoid bozo you have to be to vote for this asshole? I mean, I hear you, Jerril, and unless someone is stuffing ballot boxes they DO keep re-electing him, but I just can't wrap my mind around the mental disorders involved.
I mean, don't the "good citizens" know that Maricopa County has become a national byword for police overstepping their authority, and for brutal mistreatment of prisoners?
Or am I just too much of a Northeastern Liberal to grok this? I guess I don't really see that as a bad thing, come to think of it.
Said it before, and I'll say it again: It's high time for a good old fashioned boycott of Maricopa County. Failing that: A decent riot is in order.
Joe Arpaio is one of the biggest pieces of shit in America. That is all.
Not a riot. That sheriff would just order his men to open fire. And they would.
If the county police refuse, they're in contempt of court. Call in the next higher authority: state police to arrest the county cops.
I bet there are plenty of good samaritans who would aid in citizens' arrests until order of law can be restored.
Well, Arpaio got his job (and got famous) by railing against "the system" and how it was failing people. Unfortunately, now he _is_ the system, and since he's obviously raised a department that still feels "the system" is the problem, neither he nor his deputies feel any compulsion to obey the law, the Constitution, or any other aspect of that system. Dangerous times...
And IANAL, just like the earlier commenters, but I believe the judge's order would have to be enforced by the state police (backed up by the state AG). If that didn't happen, for whatever reason, the feds would have an opening to declare the entire jurisdiction problematic, and the Sheriff's dept would go away. This has happened before, IIRC, maybe in Georgia?
@Xopher, if the sheriff's police actually put up an armed resistance to a court order, that's tantamount to treason. The state police, FBI, John Q. Citizen, national guard and every disenfranchised Latino on Maricopa county would be up in arms against them, watering the tree of liberty.
Sounds like it time to call in the Feds & turn the sheriffs office in Maricopa County into a steaming crater. Remove the entire lot of them, they're worse than the criminals they supposedly "protect" the citizens from.
If they finally throw Arpaio in federal prison, I think Maricopa County should build a statue in honor of the hard work and great risks taken all these years by John Dougherty to report on this scumbag back before it was fashionable.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/related/to/John+Dougherty
I think that you are, in fact, just too much of a northeastern liberal(good move, incidentally). Here is how it works:
There are Bad People, subhuman criminal scum who threaten Law and Order out there on the streets. Liberals, and their friends at the American Communist Lawyers Union, want to coddle these degenerates because they hate our Brave Police and care more about the "rights" of Criminals than about the rights of Decent People.
Brave Sheriff Joe, God bless him, has the guts to stand up for what's right. If a few people happen to die of heatstroke or "excited delirium" in his squalid prison camps, so what? They are Bad People. If they weren't, they wouldn't have been in prison.
(The above is my best approximation of the requisite mindset, minus any explicitly racial component)
This would terrify me if I lived anywhere near there. The idea that officers had the bravado to interfere with criminal proceedings and then faced no consequences for it would pretty much mean they're every bit in charge as they think they are. I would move immediately.
Well that's the only way the Feds'll intervene. Obama's administration has been rather limp-wristed these days. Of course, it won't simply be a riot in the traditional sense of the word, it's what I would call a rebellion- and the people taking part will know full well the potential risks. If they're willing to take them, I'm willing to cheer them on.
I should clarify that the boycott is a first-resort, and this incident still hasn't played out fully.
There is a lot the judges can do against Arpaio. Every inmate he mistreats is in jail because of a warrant. Every showy search he sends his SWAT team to perform comes because of a warrant.
Withhold warrants, and his effectiveness as a sheriff is nill, and the dull witted morons who comprise a majority of voters in Maricopa County will have no choice but to elect someone else.
This should have been done the first time an Arpaio inmate miscarried a baby, not because of this.
Checks & balances, people.
To make matters more terrifying, recent polls have shown that Arpaio would likely win if he chose to run for governor: http://preview.tinyurl.com/ydqgwu6.
I need to finish my education and get out of this crazy state!
"The problem is EXACTLY that the sheriff's position is Maricopa is an elected position."
agreed. people hate to hear this, but democracy isn't all it's cracked up to be. the problem is that everyone gets a vote whether or not they understand what it is they are voting for/against. i would argue that giving everyone an unconditional vote is a huge flaw in our system of government. i dont want to turn this into an Obama thing, but honestly, what % of people who voted for Obama could accurately relay anything about his positions, accomplishments, or voting record? or even list the offices he's previously held?
individuals are intelligent, but people, groups of people, are extraordinarily stupid. it's one of those counter-intuitive things where the parts are greater than the sum of the whole.
i bet he only gets reelected because he's made a felon out of enough of those who would oppose him, and they've lost their right to vote - which is also ridiculous, by the way - how are the victims of unjust imprisonment, ie for drugs, supposed to help mend the broken system if being a victim of that broken system negates your ability to fix it??
i would argue that giving everyone an unconditional vote is a huge flaw in our system of government.
They tried the other way. It didn't work out so good for people who weren't rich white dudes.
i dont want to turn this into an Obama thing...
And yet you did. Odd.
Wow. I'm aware that Sherrif Joe is an outlier, but the whole mess reinforces my thankfullness we don't go in for elected law enforcement in Canada. Professional law enforcement f*cks up often enough, without adding populist nonsense into the mix like Joe does.
I guess if Marikafka County gets bad enough, the FBI gets to come in, as they did on a few good-old-boy Southern sherrif's offices during various civil rights-related cases in the 60s?
Opening fire? Ha. We are smarter than them. I never intended to hold ranks.
Looks like the officer in question is in jail, although the report doesn't really say how he got there. He "self surrendered" -- to whom? The sheriff that refused to arrest him?
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/MCSO-Officer-who-took-lawyer-s-paperwork-goes-to/2JOJCPeEM0OHrPiRKh0a-g.cspx
A quick google reveals that Sheriff Joe IS under investigation by the FBI, but not for what you might think. They're investigating allegations that Joe has demonstrated a pattern of retaliation against political foes. The DOJ, on the other hand, opened an investigation into Joe's civil rights abuses earlier this year. So many of this petty despot's antics have been splashed across the internet that it's only a matter of time before his brazen "I am the law" attitude costs him his ability to vote for himself.
There's more:
Arpaio's gang have been "calling in sick" at the courthouse, creating problems with the running of the court. And then there was the lovely coincidence of a bomb threat today at the courthouse.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/12/02/20091202courtdisrupted02-ON.html