Joe Arpaio Admits Racial Profiling And Contempt: Will Anti-Immigrant Sheriff Go To Jail?

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio admitted on Monday that he ignored a 2011 court order to cease racial profiling and pseudo-vigilante immigration enforcement. He offered to pay civil damages for contempt. However, U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow ordered a four day hearing for Arpaio and his colleagues.

The hearings, slated for April, could lead to criminal cases led by federal prosecutors, who have declined to negotiate a settlement with Arapio. If found guilty of criminal charges, 86-year-old Arpaio could face jail time, as could four other members Phoenix-area Sheriff’s Office. Arapio’s lawyers argued that the department couldn’t undo their mistakes, and were sorry.

"Defendants can express sincere remorse to the court and to plaintiffs, begin to make amends to those who have been injured and take affirmative steps to ensure nothing like this occurs in the future,” said the defense, according to Reuters.

The 2011 racial profiling order stemmed from a 2007 suit brought by a Latino driver’s group. Arpaio fought the suit, but ultimately lost. Racial profiling of Latinos led to monitoring of the department which has cost the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office around $22 million dollars, and according to CNN could cost $10 million per year. That’s five percent of the office’s annual budget. As of 2014, department had implemented retraining programs and now claims to be racial-profiling free.

"There is nothing defendants can do to change what has already been done,” said the defense, according to Reuters.

Apologetic In Court, But Unrepentant In Public

In public, Arpaio has been wholly unrepentant for his department’s actions. For a year-and-half his officers ignored a court order to stop detaining residents on “suspicion” of being an illegal immigrant. His many mistakes have given him two things to things to potentially apologize for.

The first is his apparent racism, revealed in the courts and described by Phoenix Times reporter Ray Stern who covered the 2007 trial. In one article, Stern describes Arpaio’s office culture.

“Time and time again, Arpaio would receive a letter from someone railing against ‘Mexicans’ standing on street corners or speaking Spanish, and Arpaio would highlight what would appear to be the most bigoted portions of the letter just before distributing it to his staff or asking his secretary to write a thank-you letter to the sender.”

In another article, Stern summarized the prosecution’s use of Arpaio’s own book, which contained blatent anti-Chicano passages. Arpaio denied all charges of racism, both personal and institutionally in his department.

“Basically, anytime Arpaio was shown some of the blatant bigotry in that book, he blamed it on co-author Len Sherman. And this was despite being read back his testimony from a previous deposition in which he'd said he didn't need to read his own book because he'd written it himself.”

Yet Arpaio could apologize to his constituents without acknowledging or dignifying accusations of racism. The department was clearly mismanaged, and lost tens of millions of taxpayer dollars due to it’s mistakes (ironically, wasting taxpayer money was another argument he made for dismissing his current case). Earlier last week at a public forum, Maricopa citizens attending the talk asked Arpaio three separate times.

"To show that this is a time of healing, we've asked for an apology before," said immigrant rights activist Lydia Guzman, according to the Arizona Republic. "I'm offering the microphone to the Sheriff so that he can offer an apology tonight."

Arpaio declined.