By Sheriff - Superior Court - Maricopa County: Fill & Download for Free

No, he should not.First and foremost, Arpaio wasn't convicted of “doing his job”, as people say. He was convicted of contempt of court. He violated court orders, knowingly and repeatedly.Next, when it looked like Arpaio was starting to lose his case, he began a “terror campaign” against the judge, starting to investigate him and his family.Third, Arpaio has been the absolute antithesis of Republican/conservative values. He essentially turned himself into some sort of dictator here in Maricopa County, where he somehow had more power than any mayors or even the governor. It was very clear, for a couple decades, that Arpaio ran the show here; some folks, like Napolitano, essentially shared power, but when there was a weaker governor in place, Arpaio was able to do what he wanted when he wanted.Arpaio was a huge budget sap, spending funds right and left on things like tanks, new buildings, fancy gadgets he didn't need, and, obviously, massive raises for himself and his team. On top of that, the fines and lawsuits he's lost have cost taxpayers in the tens of millions (best figures put the final number close to $100 million).There are clear signs that Arpaio is also financially corrupt, as demonstrated by the LLC he holds with his wife, owning properties worth several million dollars, all documented as being paid for with “cash”. Bear in mind, Arpaio's salary is just over $100,000 annually.Finally, and very importantly, Arpaio used his office to execute an entirely racist agenda. He instructed his officers to march into Latino communities, stopping “Brown people,” and demanding proof of legal residence, frequently deciding on-the-spot that certain forms of ID weren't good enough, holding the people captive until proof could be obtained.Pardoning Arpaio will be offensive to any true American.*** EDIT ***Thanks to Michael Ali for reminding me that Arpaio also gutted the MCSO sex crimes unit to address pet cases (credit card fraud, illegal brown people), allowing hundreds of molested children to continue being molested.*** EDIT 8/28/2017 ***Somebody challenged me to provide evidence of these things, so…here you go!1) Was found in 2008 and again in 2010 to be refusing medical treatment to prisoners, most of which hadn’t been convicted of a crime, they were just waiting for trial and didn’t have bail money.Judge backs county inmates in jail caseGraves, et al. v. Arpaio, et al. - OpinionSeveral million dollars were paid out in lawsuits and fines.2) Was found to have instructed his deputies to close sexual assault cases, particularly child molestation cases, without investigation. Over 75% were closed in such a manner.http://archive.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/20100115mcsocases01152010-CR.htmlHow the MCSO Neglected a 14-Year-Old Rape Victim — and Went to Town on Phoenix Mayor Phil GordonOnly 15% of child molestation cases resulted in an arrest.Tough Questions for America's Toughest SheriffJoe Arpaio's Deputy Told to Work Fraud Cases Instead of Child Rape CrimeWhen Arpaio claimed that he didn’t have the money for more investigators to actually investigate child abuse and molestation charges, the county provided him an extra $600K specifically to hire people to handle those cases, he used the money for other things.http://www.trivalleycentral.com/casa_grande_dispatch/arizona_news/arpaio-s-office-continues-to-investigate-sex-crime-cases/article_6ec5ec3a-0caf-11e2-ae18-0019bb2963f4.htmlSeveral million dollars were paid out in lawsuits and fines.3) At least 11 employees of Maricopa County were subjected to targeted harassment by Arpaio and have sued the county, either winning their cases or reaching settlements.Gary Donahoe, retired Superior Court judge: $1,275,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $767,127.Kenneth Fields, retired Superior Court judge: $100,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $81,040.Barbara Mundell, retired Superior Court judge: $500,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $134,273.Anna Baca, retired Superior Court judge: $100,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $112,588.Stephen Wetzel, former county technology director: $75,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $107,647.Sandi Wilson, deputy county manager and county budget director: $122,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $458,318.Don Stapley, former county supervisor: $3.5 million settlement. County legal expenses: $1,682,020.Mary Rose Wilcox, county supervisor: $975,000 settlement, plus $9,938 in court-ordered legal costs. County legal expenses to date: over $375,442.Susan Schuerman, Stapley’s executive assistant: $500,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $200,201.Conley Wolfswinkel, Stapley’s business associate: $1,400,000 settlement. County legal expenses: $1,586,152.Andy Kunasek, county supervisor: $123,110 settlement. County legal expenses: $1,150.Don’t worry, I already did the math: nearly $45 million.Maricopa County infighting, lawsuits cost taxpayers $44.4 million4) He was found to have knowingly misspent country funds in a number of ways to the tune of $100 million over a 5-year period. This included things like paying for trips to Disneyland and luxury resort stays.Joe Arpaio's staff misspent $99.5 million, budget officials say5) In 1999, Arpaio staged an assassination plot, even arresting and forcing the prosecution of a man. It turned out that he did it all as a publicity stunt. The county was sued by the “arrested,” who walked away with $1.6 million.A Phony Murder Plot Against Joe Arpaio Winds Up Costing Taxpayers $1.1 Million6) Here’s where he was found to be racially profiling Latinos:Reasonable DoubtAttorneys Allege 'Culture of Discrimination' in Arpaio’s OfficeU.S. sues Arizona sheriff over alleged violations of Hispanics’ civil rightsIn the case of Melendres v Arpaio, he stopped a legal Mexican tourist and held him illegally on the side of the road for 9 hours. After word got out, dozens of duplicate or similar such situations were found.Ortega Melendres, et al. v. Arpaio, et al.7) Between 2012 and 2016, Arpaio repeatedly sent deputies to Hawaii to check the veracity of President Obama’s birth certificate. Yes, the county paid for those trips.http:/www.obamabirthbook.com/2012/07/exposed-sheriff-joe-arpaio-corsi-birther-scam-heres-the-proof-that-arpaios-posse-fabricated-evidence-and-lied-to-the-nation/

From the Sacramento Bee:"Fact check: Trump’s claim that Democrats let cop killer stay in U.S. is false”"President Trump’s closing argument for the midterm elections includes a tweet featuring convicted cop killer Luis Bracamontes, who killed two Sacramento-area deputies in a 2014 rampage.The tweet features video of Bracamontes spewing profanities while on trial in Sacramento County Superior Court, a frequent occurrence in the years of court hearings he faced.But the president’s claim that “Democrats let him into our country” is not entirely accurate, and neither is the claim that “Democrats let him stay.”Bracamontes, who is now on death row at San Quentin State Prison for the October 2014 slayings of Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer County Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Davis Jr., first came into the United States in 1993, when he was 16 and Democrat Bill Clinton was president.Bracamontes, who grew up in Sinaloa, Mexico, entered the country illegally, crossing into Arizona.President Trump stirs controversy on Twitter with video of Sacramento cop killerThe Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Office has told The Sacramento Bee previously that he was first arrested in Phoenix in 1996. Prosecutors in Phoenix say he was arrested Sept. 25, 1996, on deportable drug offenses related to marijuana possession and sentenced to four months in jail starting in January 1997.Bracamontes served his time in then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s tent-city jail, then was handed over to federal immigration agents and deported on June 3, 1997, during Clinton’s second term.He apparently did not stay in Mexico long. Records in Arizona show he was arrested on drug charges again in Phoenix in 1998, then released “for reasons unknown” by Arpaio’s office. Arpaio is a Republican.Bracamontes was next arrested May 4, 2001, on marijuana charges in Maricopa County, and deported three days later. Republican George W. Bush was president at the time, and was president when Bracamontes slipped back into the United States a short time later.The date of his re-entry is not clear, but records show Bracamontes was married in Maricopa County on Feb. 28, 2002, when Bush was president.By then, Bracamontes had been living near Salt Lake City where he remained until 2014, when he and his wife embarked upon a methamphetamine-fueled trip that ended with their arrests in Placer County after the deputies were killed.

Depends on the politics of the area.Andrew P. Thomas (2005-2010)Elected Maricopa County Attorney in November 2004, Andrew Thomas is recognized as a noted author and leading authority on the criminal justice system. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1991. After graduating from law school, Andrew moved to the Valley of the Sun and joined a large law firm in Phoenix, where he practiced civil litigation. Leaving private practice in 1994 to serve as an Assistant Attorney General for Arizona, he prosecuted both civil and criminal cases.(2005-2010)Conflict with Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Superior Court judgesSee also: Joe Arpaio § Targeting of political opponentsThomas engaged in a high-profile conflict with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who are responsible for allocating funds to his office. The dispute, in which he was joined by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, resulted in a number of lawsuits, with legal costs to the county for recent disputes exceeding US$2.6 million.[41]The conflict also resulted in Arpaio investigating and Thomas obtaining multiple indictments against County Supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox.[42]Thomas originally obtained indictments on Stapley on December 2, 2008, on 118 felony and misdemeanor counts dealing primarily with financial disclosure irregularities.[43]In an effort to mediate differences with the Board of Supervisors, Thomas transferred the case and criminal investigations to the Yavapai County Attorney's Office.[44]All of the counts in the indictment were subsequently dismissed, as it was found that Stapley had not actually violated any County regulations regarding financial disclosures.[45][46]Thomas then took the case back from the Yavapai County Attorney's office,[47]and obtained a second indictment against Stapley, on 27 similar felony and misdemeanor counts, on December 8, 2009.The United States Postal Service granted a request by Thomas and Arpaio to track Wilcox's mail.[48]Using this information, Arpaio and Thomas obtained search warrants for other information and raided a company that had hired Wilcox. Thomas obtained an indictment of Wilcox, charging her with 36 felony counts related to failing to disclose business loans she took out from the business finance arm of an organization which had business before the Board of Supervisors.[49]In February, 2010, Pima County Judge John Leonardo, appointed by a special master of the Arizona Supreme Court to hear the matter, ruled that Thomas had acted unethically, and had prosecuted Wilcox for political gain and retaliation, despite conflicts of interest that should have precluded his office from prosecuting.[50]In January, 2011, After a ten-month review, Gila County Attorney Daisy Flores concluded there was insufficient evidence to pursue a criminal case against Wilcox.[51]Wilcox sued the county and was awarded a settlement of nearly US$1 million in 2011. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.[48]Related to the Wilcox indictment, and a subsequent attempt by the MCSO to intimidate her attorney, The Arizona Republic editorialized that Thomas and Arpaio were misusing their powers to "intimidate and harass their political enemies."[52]In March, 2009, Maricopa Superior Court Criminal Presiding Judge Gary Donahoe ruled that a conflict of interest between Thomas and the county Board of Supervisors over the investigation of a planned court tower created the "appearance of evil" for Thomas.[53]Thomas has made many statements, both publicly and in legal filings, that judges in Maricopa County Superior Court are biased against him.[54][55][56][57][58]On December 1, 2009, Thomas and Arpaio announced that they "filed a federal racketeering lawsuit against the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, leading Superior Court judges [including Judge Gary Donahoe], and a private law firm shared by the Board and Court, alleging the defendants have conspired illegally to block criminal investigations and prosecutions of themselves, particularly those related to the new US$341 million Superior Court Tower and Supervisor Donald Stapley Jr."[59][60]On December 9, 2009, Thomas held a press conference to announce that he had filed criminal charges against Judge Donahoe on three felony counts: bribery, obstructing a criminal investigation, and hindering prosecution. Thomas presented no evidence of actual wrongdoing on Donahoe's part, other than several rulings with which he disagreed. Thomas filed the charges without first seeking a grand jury indictment.[61][62][63][64]Subsequent to the filing of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) suit and filing of charges against Donahoe, a number of defense attorneys filed motions in Maricopa Superior Court to disqualify the Maricopa County Attorney's office from prosecuting cases. Those motions later became moot, after the RICO suit and criminal charges against Donahoe were dropped by Thomas. (See below.)[65]On December 23, 2009, the Arizona Supreme Court appointed former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor as Special Master to administer all matters arising from the controversy.[66]In February, 2010, Pima County Superior Court Judge John S. Leonardo ruled that:[T]he County Attorney [Thomas] has the following conflicts of interest between his duty to impartially exercise his prosecutorial discretion; and1) his efforts to retaliate against members of the [Maricop County Board of Supervisors] ...for actions they allegedly carried out in concert with each other against his office and against him personally, as alleged in the civil RICO complaint;2) his attempts to gain political advantage by prosecuting those who oppose him politically ...;3) his political alliance with the Maricopa County Sheriff [Arpaio] who misused the power of his office to target members of the [Maricopa County Board of Supervisors] for criminal investigation;4) his duty to provide confidential, uncompromised legal advice to members of the [Maricopa County Board of Supervisors]... on matters pertaining to the indictment [referring to Mary Rose Wilcox].[67]Subsequent to this ruling, which dismissed an indictment against Maricopa Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, Thomas announced that he was dismissing an indictment against Maricopa Supervisor Don Stapley, dismissing the federal RICO suit, and dropping the charges against Donahoe.In August, 2010, a Greenlee County judge ordered grand jury transcripts released that showed Thomas, in January, 2010, had tried to indict several members of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, as well as the Maricopa County Mangager, his assistant, an attorney working for the Board of Supervisors, and Donahoe. Based on the ruling by Judge Leonardo, Thomas, through his assistant, requested that the grand jury return the case to his office, to be forwarded to a special prosecutor. Instead, the grand jury took the rare action of ordering the inquiry ended. One of Thomas' own prosecutors had explained to the jury during orientation that to "end the inquiry" meant "the case is so bad, there's no further evidence that could be brought to you folks."[68]Rather than ending the inquiry, as ordered by the grand jury, Thomas held a press conference to announce that he had worked with Arpaio, and Arpaio's attorney, to refer the matter to the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Public Integrity Section.[69]The DOJ responded that they did not intend to review the file. Further, the acting chief of the section responded "In these circumstances, I was dismayed to learn that your mere referral of information to the Public Integrity Section was cited and relied upon in a pleading in federal court [the now-ended Arpaio/Thomas civil RICO lawsuit] and then used as a platform for a press conference."[70][71][72]Phoenix New Times reporter Ray Stern noted that, despite multiple press conferences and a complete set of grand jury transcripts, there is no record of Thomas having presented any evidence of bribery by Donahoe.[73]On May 21, 2010, Donahoe filed a notice of claim, a precursor to filing suit against Maricopa County, alleging abuse of power by Thomas and Arpaio, and demanding US$4.75 million to settle his claims.[74][75]In August 2012, the DOJ announced it was ending its investigation of Arpaio and Thomas and that no indictments would be issued, stating that they "do not believe the allegations presented to us are prosecutable as crimes."[76]As of June, 2014, costs to Maricopa County taxpayers related to Arpaio's and Thomas' failed corruption investigations exceeded US$44 million, not including county officials' investigation into the MCSO's budgeting.[77]State Bar of Arizona investigationsIn 2008, the State Bar of Arizona launched an investigation of Thomas. In response, Thomas filed a Petition for Special Action with the Arizona Supreme Court in an effort to halt the investigation. [5] The Arizona State Bar filed a response noting that "a lawyer who happens to be an elected public officer... cannot simply opt out of the lawyer-regulatory system claiming the privilege of his elected office." [6] Thomas' private attorneys filed a reply on July 2, 2008. [7]. Thomas also posted a call to reform the State Bar of Arizona on the Maricopa County Attorney web site. [8] On August 15, 2008, the Arizona Supreme Court denied his Petition for Special Action and ruled that the State Bar of Arizona could proceed with the ethics investigations against Thomas. The State Bar of Arizona dismissed those complaints in March, 2009.In March, 2010, the Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, at the request of the State Bar of Arizona, appointed a special investigator to look into accusations of misconduct against Thomas, after a Pima County judge ruled that he acted unethically in investigating county supervisors for political gain.[78]Thomas said that the State Bar of Arizona investigation into his ethical conduct was stacked against him and orchestrated to damage his campaign for state attorney general. Officials involved in the investigation dismissed Thomas' allegations as baseless.[79]Thomas filed a petition with the Arizona Supreme Court in an attempt to end investigations into his ethical conduct. The court refused to end the investigation.[80]On December 6, 2010, the report from the Arizona Supreme Court was released, and with the recommendation that Thomas be disbarred. The report alleges 32 ethics rules violations by Thomas, involving conflicts of interest, dishonesty, misrepresentation, filing a frivolous suit, and filing charges against county officials solely to embarrass or burden them. The report also alleges that Thomas engaged in criminal conduct and "conspired... with others to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate Judge (Gary) Donahoe" by filing a criminal complaint against him.[81]The investigative report was provided to a judge appointed by the Arizona Supreme Court, who made the decision to move forward with disciplinary recommendations against Thomas. The State Bar of Arizona's probable cause orders, signed by Judge Charles E. Jones, state that "Ethical violations by respondent, as described by Independent Bar Counsel, are far-reaching and numerous. Evidence thus far adduced portrays a reckless, four-year campaign of corruption and power abuse by respondent as a public official, undertaken at enormous and mostly wasteful cost to the taxpayers... Motivation for much of the alleged impropriety appears retaliatory, intended to do personal harm to the reputations of judges, county supervisors and other county officials... Actions by respondent appear intent on intimidation, focused on political gain, and appear fully disconnected from professional and prosecutorial standards long associated with the administration of justice ..." Judge Jones added a 33rd ethical violation in the probable cause orders: that Thomas failed to submit substantive responses to the investigator.[82][83]