Accused Of Retaliation, Sheriff Joe Wants DOJ To Name His Department’s Alleged Victims
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office — the same law enforcement agency accused of retaliating against political opponents — wants the names of ‘each and every’ resident interviewed by Justice Department officials who accused the MCSO of racial discrimination and other civil rights violations.
But a Justice Department spokeswoman said Wednesday that they ‘look forward to sitting down soon with MCSO,’ but ‘will not hesitate to take prompt legal action’ if they find that MCSO ‘is again failing to act in good faith.’
A defiant Arpaio had issued a statement on Wednesday (the deadline for MCSO to tell the feds whether they planned to cooperate with the three-and-a-half year investigation into allegations of discrimination) saying he would ‘not tolerate being micromanaged by Washington, DC.’ He said he wants to evaluate all of the evidence the feds have on him and his office.
‘What we want for the Department of Justice to do is play ball,’ Arpaio said in a statement. ‘In other words, provide whatever proof they may have to back their findings - proof which, by the way, they have refused to give to us or to the media. And if they cannot prove their findings, which I suspect to be the case, then stop the political posturing.’
DOJ spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement to TPM that the findings of the Civil Rights Division ‘show a clear violation of the Constitution and federal law, and are more than sufficient to file a complaint against a law enforcement agency.’
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Offce, she continued, ‘purports not to understand the underlying basis for the findings when MCSO’s own actions and documents form the basis of these findings.”