Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Contempt Court Case Set to Resume in September
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is scheduled to appear in court for contempt-of-court hearings beginning in late September to review the violations that "America's Toughest Sheriff" admitted against a judge's orders in a 2011 racial profiling case.
Arpaio's request to put the contempt case on hold while his office petitions an appeals court to disqualify the judge from the case was denied on Monday by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow.
"We need to move forward. We need to correct anything that's problematic and resolve this case," Snow said, according to ABC 15.
As a result, the contempt hearings are scheduled to resume on Sept. 22 through Sept. 25, and then on Sept. 29 through Oct. 2.
The hearings will examine if the notorious sheriff should be held in contempt of court for violating a December 2011 pretrial injunction that prohibited his officers from racially profiling Latinos in the state and detaining people who were assumed to be undocumented.
According to Judge Snow, Arpaio's top aides failed to tell rank-and-file members of his immigrant smuggling squad about the ruling. As a result, the officers continue to operate business as usual and violated the order for a year and a half.
"He has been trying to get out of this desperately," Alessandra Soler, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, told the Los Angeles Times back in April. "He has been hiding behind the badge, and that's why it is very, very important to have a public trial."
A supervisor who developed training materials to address the injunction, after the judge barred the agency from executing immigration patrols, also gave testimony earlier this year. While on the stand, he admitted that the training never took place. Instead, the sheriff's office continued to do immigration enforcement over the next 18 months.
When asked why the training never happened, Sgt. Brett Palmer admitted, "It was contrary to the goals and objectives of the sheriff," reports The Associated Press. He added that he was ordered "to make the sheriff look good to the media and the public."
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