Octavio Flores with members of his family, hours after being released

The first time I met Octavio Castaneda Flores, he was in county stripes, his hands cuffed to a desk where he sat in the visiting room of Durango Jail.

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Bill Montgomery Would Rather Talk About Jodi Arias Than Judge Snow's Order, and Here's Why
After Nine Months in Jail for Working Without Papers, Luz Ruiz Rascon Finally Will Go Free
Bill Montgomery Is No Immigration Moderate

It was January, and already he had spent four months in stir, nonbondable on eight class four felonies involving forgery and ID theft.

Octavio, now 28, would spend four more months in jail, before he was finally released this week, after the prosecutor in the case moved to dismiss all remaining charges.

Wednesday, I saw him as a free man, surrounded by his children, his wife Brenda, and their newborn Michael.

He had missed the birth of his youngest son. Nevertheless, he was all smiles.

"It feels great to have my family back," he told me, as Michael slept the sleep of the innocent in Brenda's arms. "I can't explain it. I don't have the words to explain it."

Ready and Pearce, tied at the hip for all eternity as far as I'm concerned

It may be neo-Nazi mass-murderer J.T. Ready's version of Valhalla.

Flanked by revealing images of Jennifer Lopez, each promising that you can "See her nude," if you sign up for something called "Playboy Plus," Ready salutes us from the grave and the Internet in an article by journalist Jake Whitney, titled, "A Border Tale."

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Why Authorities Could've Prevented J.T. Ready's Murder Spree

Whitney revives the story of the Ernst Rohm of the East Valley in the June print edition of Playboy, which I'm told features Playmate of the Year Raquel Pomplun on the cover.

Recall this guy? How dare they!

When you're the editorial board of the newspaper of record in a benighted patch of sand like Maricopa County, I suspect it's easy to fall prey to self-deception and confuse 20/20 hindsight with omniscience.

See Also:
Judge Snow's Decision Damns Not Just Arpaio, but All of Maricopa County
Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Case Costs County Over $1 Million So Far, with More to Come

Particularly if your collective voice is the only one you listen to, as is the case with the wannabe know-it-alls who say grace over the unsigned opinion pieces of the Arizona Republic.

Convincing others of your omniscience, that's a harder nut. The Rep's mediocre high muck-a-mucks think themselves capable of Orwellian mind-tricks, and like Soviet-era Pravda can simply make revisionist history a reality by declaring it so.

Take the latest asinine offering from the Rep's editorial board, which would have you believe that all the organizers of the failed recall of Sheriff Joe Arpaio needed was "patience."

Alas, if only the recall committee Respect Arizona had waited for federal Judge G. Murray Snow's recent ruling in the racial profiling lawsuit Melendres v. Arpaio, success would have been inevitable.

One expensive bunch of pork belly

Sheriff Joe Arpaio's legal beagle Tim Casey has indicated that the sheriff's office will appeal federal Judge G. Murray Snow's recent decision, wherein Snow found the MCSO guilty of racial profiling and ordered it to stop.

Considering the payday Casey's firm Schmitt Schneck Smyth Casey & Even, P.C. has scored by defending biased policing in Melendres v. Arpaio, I can't say I blame him.

See Also:
Joe Arpaio's Racial Profiling Case Costs County Close To $1 Million, So Far
Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos
Joe Arpaio Blames Feds for MCSO's Racial Profiling, and Why He's Full of It
Joe Arpaio's Top Ten Bigoted Statements

According to Maricopa County, Casey's firm has billed $945,205.96 in Melendres.

Nearly a million clams. Not bad for losing.

Actually, the damage is a little higher, as the firm Ogletree Deakins worked on the case at one time, and billed $80,035.50.

That's a total of $1,025,241.46 that the county's ponied up for the case.

Dennis Wilenchik, deflated after his spanking by Judge Silver last week

Would you be surprised if the demon dog of the Arizona legal community were to act like a jerk in federal court toward a Deputy U.S. Marshal?

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Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution
Wilenchik's a Liar, and There's More
Dennis the Menace
Andrew Thomas' Ex-Special Prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik Appointed to Real Estate Board by Governor Jan Brewer

That's why, when I learned about a hearing last week into the behavior of Dennis Wilenchik, an old enemy of New Times', the only thing I wondered was why a hearing was necessary.

Mold litigator extraordinaire and erstwhile "special prosecutor" for disgraced, disbarred ex-County Attorney Andy Thomas, Wilenchik recently appeared before Arizona's U.S. District Court Chief Judge Roslyn Silver to defend his actions toward Deputy U.S. Marshal Delvin Brown.

I'm not kidding by much when I say that a full regurgitation of Wilenchik's bad-boy conduct over the years would require the length of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Highlights of Wilenchik's career in law include: sparring with judges, ordering the arrests of journalists in the middle of the night on trumped-up charges in his role as Thomas' Grand Inquisitor, lying about ordering those arrests, issuing broad, Orwellian subpoenas into the online reading habits of the general public, fudging his resume, and having an investigator for the State Bar of Arizona tailed by private dicks.

Lilia Alvarez of Respect Arizona announces that the recall has fallen short of its goal

***Updates regarding new voter registrations are at the end of this post.***

Respect Arizona, the group that had been spearheading the effort to remove Sheriff Joe Arpaio from office, announced Thursday afternoon that it had not obtained the signatures necessary to trigger a recall of the sheriff.

As a result, the group did not submit its signatures to the county elections office by the 5 p.m. deadline

See Also:
Joe Arpaio Recall Supporters Set Up "Camp Recall Arpaio" in Downtown Phoenix
Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos
Joe Arpaio's Top Ten Bigoted Statements
Judge Snow's Decision Damns Not Just Arpaio, but All of Maricopa County

With bankers boxes of petitions weighing down a table next to her and around 40 supporters looking on, Respect Arizona's campaign manager Lilia Alvarez explained the situation to reporters assembled before the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors' auditorium, nearby where the group had erected tents days before as part of what they called "Camp Recall Arpaio."

"I must admit to you that despite the 120 days of hard labor and dedication we have come up short," she said.

Can someone check Joe for vitals? The MCSO's beginning to resemble a re-make of Weekend at Bernie's.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio recently crawled out from under his rock in Fountain Hills where he's been licking his wounds since his February slip and fall to do a YouTube video, in which he responds to U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow's ruling, enjoining the MCSO to stop its racial-profiling ways.

See Also:
Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos
Joe Arpaio's Top Ten Bigoted Statements

The video gives Arpaio a chance to show off his graveyard tan and his emaciated wrists. If his lips weren't moving, I'd swear he'd been embalmed already.

Plus, you're telling me Arpaio would rather do a YouTube video in his office than a full on press conference? More evidence of how fragile the old coot is these days.

Anyway, in the video, Arpaio cops the same line that his lawyer Tim Casey did on Friday when Judge Snow's ruling dropped.

That is, he blamed it all on the training his deputies received from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement once the MCSO entered into a so-called 287g agreement with ICE, allowing some MCSO detention officers and deputies to act as immigration cops.

"Now the federal court has ruled that the federal training was unconstitutional and it led to racial profiling," says Arpaio, who also indicates that his office will be appealing Snow's decision.

I like my sheriff well done...

Sheriff Joe Arpaio, guilty of racial profiling? You don't say? Next thing, they'll be telling us Zonies that we all live in a desert, or something.

See Also:
Judge Snow's Decision Damns Not Just Arpaio, but All of Maricopa County
Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos

Arpaio's statements over the years should leave no doubt that his views on race and ethnicity are of the pre-Civil Rights Movement variety. And in some cases, pre-Civil War.

But being a bigoted pol in a racist county means never having to say you're sorry for the dumb, prejudiced pabulum you spew. Well, except when it comes to defending yourself in federal court against charges of biased policing.

The ten quotes below lend ever more credence to federal Judge G. Murray Snow's recent ruling in, Melendres v. Arpaio, where the jurist found that Arpaio's agency discriminates against Latinos and enjoined it from doing so further.

Particularly egregious is the one where Arpaio talks about the ethnicities of his daughter's adopted children. See, no one is spared, not even members of his own family.

Class act, that Joe.

Respect Arizona's Lilia Alvarez, holding down the fort Sunday at Camp Recall Arpaio

Nativists, Comicon enthusiasts, and supporters of the effort to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio from office.

Downtown Phoenix was abandoned on Sunday, save for these three groups as members of the pro-recall organizations Respect Arizona and Citizens for a Better Arizona set up tents on the plaza in front of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Auditorium at 205 West Jefferson Street.

See also:
-Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos
-Joe Arpaio Recall Needs 100,000 Signatures According to Organizers (w/Update)
-Joe Arpaio Recall Suspends Paid Signature Gathering Campaign for Second Time

Respect Arizona campaign manager Lilia Alvarez said her group would be camping out Sunday and Monday nights, and would be either in front of the BOS auditorium or across the street at Cesar Chavez Plaza till 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, May 30, which is the deadline for the effort to turn in its signatures to Maricopa County Elections.

Alvarez estimates that the recall now needs 90,000 more signatures to have a cushion in addition to the 335,317 necessary to force a recall.

"We're really pushing now for Arpaio to resign," she told me. "After this ruling, we should not have to spend the taxpayer dollars to have a recall special election."

Wanna return the gesture to this racist buffoon? Then read on...

Please see update below regarding "Camp Recall Arpaio."

After the second suspension of the paid signature drive in the effort to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio, I complained that we were probably stuck with Arpaio until the end of his term, unless we had a loaves and fishes-type miracle.

See also:
-Joe Arpaio's Doomsday: Arpaio Loses ACLU Civil Rights Lawsuit, MCSO Enjoined from Racially Profiling Latinos
-Joe Arpaio Foe Rebecca Jimenez Leads in Guadalupe Mayoral Race (w/Update: Jimenez the Winner)
-Joe Arpaio Recall Suspends Paid Signature Gathering Campaign for Second Time

And with just five days left before the May 30 deadline, a miracle would still be mighty helpful.

Still, who can deny that the events of this week have put one last gust of wind at the backs of volunteers still hustling to score the 335,317 signatures necessary to force a recall on Sheriff Joe?

Join the fight to remove Joe Arpaio from office.

First Joe's old nemesis Rebecca Jimenez is elected mayor of Guadalupe, for which the MCSO provides law enforcement services.

Then U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow, a conservative jurist nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush, hands Joe's opponents a major win in the civil rights lawsuit Melendres v. Arpaio.