​The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office announced today that it's currently training 22 military veterans to be detention officers at the MCSO's jails.

As you're probably aware, the MCSO currently has more than a few openings for detention officer gigs (more on that below).

In October, Sheriff Joe Arpaio issued a press release announcing that military veterans returning from war would get preferential treatment when it comes to getting jobs with the MCSO.

Giving members of the military preferential treatment in hiring practices is not abnormal. Announcing that type of policy in a press release, however, is.

"My previous military service assisted me in beginning my law enforcement career in 1954, and now I have the privilege to extend this opportunity to veterans today," Arpaio says in a press release.

The training program lasts nine weeks, and according to the MCSO, "will prepare new recruits to work the rigorous tasks of dealing with inmates in the jail facilities."

As we mentioned, the MCSO currently is in need of some new detention officers, as several now-former DOs successfully made the transition from guard to inmate.

More >>

MCSO

MCSO Detention Officer Jeffery Higgins

​A detention officer with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office accused of getting drunk and pointing a loaded gun at his own son has pleaded not guilty to one count each of aggravated assault and criminal damage.

Jeffery Higgins entered his plea in Maricopa County Superior Court this morning.

According to court records, the latest incident isn't the first time Higgins has pulled a gun on his son (more on that below).

Police were called to Higgins' Mesa home about 3 a.m. on January 24 after his wife called 9-1-1 to report that her husband was drunk and fighting with their 19-year-old son.

Higgins' son later told police that he'd come home a few minutes before the altercation and found his father "very" drunk. Higgins, in a drunken stupor, then started an argument with his son.

In the middle of the argument, Higgins got up and tried to walk outside to get in his truck. His son followed to make sure his father wasn't going to drive in his drunken state.

More >>

Is Joe Arpaio trying to scare off Mike Stauffer, his opponent in this year's election?

​The Arizona Attorney General's Office currently is investigating Scottsdale Lieutenant Mike Stauffer at the directive of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office over last year's jailhouse death of Marty Atencio (the MCSO disputes it's an "investigation," but we got our hands on a recording of a voicemail a special agent from the AG's Office left for Stauffer, which you can hear below).

Stauffer, as you may know, is running against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in this year's election for sheriff -- and, as you also may know, Arpaio's got a bit of a history when it comes to trying to intimidate those who oppose him (the arrests of county supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox, not to mention the arrests of the owners of this publication, for example).

Additionally, Arpaio pal/Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery's office recently told Stauffer that the County Attorney's Office would no longer prosecute cases he investigates as a member of the Scottsdale Police Department -- a claim the MCAO disputes.

Stauffer tells New Times that the County Attorney's Office told his superiors that something he posted on Facebook about the Fiesta Bowl scandal created a conflict of interest between him and Montgomery, and that cases he's involved with will have to be shipped out to other county attorneys.

More >>

Image: Ray Stern

Randy Parraz meets with supporters outside the meeting hall of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors before leading a disruptive walkout.

​
Activist Randy Parraz led a disruptive walkout on Tuesday at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting in protest of board policy and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

As they left noisily, Parraz and his supporters claimed that they'd been promised a chance to speak after each segment of the meeting and were miffed that Chairman Max Wilson told them their comments would have to wait until the end.

But that wasn't the only reason they split. Arpaio's critics knew they'd get a chance to speak at the meeting, and some of them later did speak.

Their frustration was also clearly fueled by the attitudes of Jerry Sheridan, Arpaio's chief deputy, county attorney Bill Montgomery, and most of the board itself.

More >>

MCSO

MCSO Detention Officer Jeffery Higgins

​A detention officer with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office was arrested early this morning on suspicion of aggravated assault and criminal damage after police say he drunkenly pointed a loaded gun at his 19-year-old son.

According to court records, this isn't the first time Higgins has pulled a gun on his son (more on that below).

MCSO spokesman Chris Hegstrom tells New Times that Detention Officer Jeffery Higgins was arrested by Mesa police yesterday and booked into a Maricopa County jail on a $25,000 bond. He posted bond and was released from jail at 3:20 p.m. today.

According to court records obtained by New Times, police were called to Higgins' Mesa home about 3 a.m. after his wife called 9-1-1 to report that her husband was drunk and fighting with their 19-year-old son.

Higgins' son later told police that he'd come home a few minutes before the altercation and found his father "very" drunk. Higgins, in a drunken stupor, then started an argument with his son.

More >>

Image: Ray Stern

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu has lots of respect for Sheriff Joe Arpaio now that he'd like his support in Babeu's run for Congress. In 2007, Babeu said Arpaio arrested a police officer on animal cruelty charges simply to grab headlines.

​
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who wants Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's support in his newly announced bid for Congress, had strong words for Arpaio after the 2007 arrest of officer Thomas Lovejoy.

Babeu questioned Arpaio's motives in the arrest, saying they were driven not by honest enforcement of the law, but an "insatiable appetite for media attention."

As the former president of the Chandler Law Enforcement Association, Babeu made the statements in a news release following Lovejoy's booking on a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge after Lovejoy's K-9 partner, Bandit, died in a hot patrol car.

Here's what Babeu said back then about the self-proclaimed "Toughest Sheriff," the guy he's now sucking up to:

We strongly disagree with Sheriff Arpaio's decision to charge, arrest and book Sgt Lovejoy, since the case has no criminal merit.

There was no intention to hurt, never mind cause the death of Bandit by any stretch of his culpable mental state (defined in ARS 13-105).

We are further troubled by our belief that the decision to charge, arrest, book and simultaneously hold a public press conference has been driven by an insatiable appetite for media attention.

Rather than fairly considering the legal merits of the case, as any citizen entitled to due process should receive, the Sheriff elected to manipulate the raw emotions of the public which are currently charged by recent local and national headlines.

The Sheriff's motivation is further suspect due to the unprofessional treatment of Sgt Lovejoy.

More >>

New Times

Joe Arpaio wants evidence to support the claims made in the DOJ's report on the MCSO's racial-profiling practices.

​There's good and bad news about the deadline the Department of Justice gave Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to decide whether he'd cooperate with the feds in fixing the problems outlined in the DOJ's report on the MCSO's racial-profiling practices (last month, the DOJ concluded that the MCSO is guilty of the worst racial-profiling practices in U.S. history. Click here for all the details).

The good news: the sheriff met today's deadline and, for now, has opted to not lead taxpayers into another pricey lawsuit.

The bad: Arpaio met the deadline by making demands of the DOJ, setting a deadline for those demands, and emphatically saying he's not afraid to take the feds to court.

In other words, taxpayers aren't gonna have to cough up the cash to foot the bill for another of the sheriff's lawsuits...yet.

In a 29-page letter to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, who heads the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, Arpaio's attorneys pledge cooperation with the federal government -- but only if the DOJ provides evidence for all the allegations it's made against the MCSO.

The sheriff's giving the feds until January 18 to meet his demands. If the DOJ fails to meet this deadline, Arpaio "will not cower to the threat of litigation," which is easy for him to say -- he's not the one paying for it; Maricopa County taxpayers will get the bill for the sheriff's litigious (ahem) toughness.

More >>

Image: MCSO

Two of the five men arrested yesterday on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy.

​  

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office arrested five men last night on suspicion of human smuggling and conspiracy, days after a federal judge's ruling on such investigations.

Looks like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, under more pressure than ever to reform his ways, is sticking to his statement that he won't stop his enforcement operations against illegal immigrants.

Arpaio, who's in Iowa stumping on behalf of presidential candidate Rick Perry, will likely comment on the arrests tomorrow, says MCSO spokesman Lieutenant Jesse Spurgin.

In a major racial-profiling lawsuit against the sheriff's office on Friday, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow issued an order that restricts the way the sheriff's office can conduct human-smuggling investigations. Snow ruled that MCSO can't detain someone solely on the belief that the person might be in the country illegally.

More >>

By now, most of you have seen the video of Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detention officers using a Taser on Marty Atencio, an assault suspect who died after getting zapped while already in jail (see our story on Atencio's death here).

However, some of you might have missed it -- you see, the MCSO strategically waited until late in the day on the Friday before Christmas to release the video, when many people were traveling, or not paying attention to the news while preparing for the big day.

They could have released it Thursday, but that would have stolen headlines from a story Sheriff Joe Arpaio actually wanted you to hear about -- a story (described in an MCSO press release issued Thursday) about how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents refused to pick up some illegal immigrants Arpaio's boys in beige arrested Wednesday night.

But we haven't forgotten about Marty.

More >>

www.dailycaller.com

Iowa Congressman Steve King: Joe Arpaio "takes great pains to make sure that he doesn't discriminate against people based on race."

​Maybe Iowa Congressman Steve King didn't get a chance to read the Department of Justice's scathing 22-page report on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his agency's historic racial profiling paractices -- because that's the only logical explanation for why he produced a Youtube video defending the sheriff, and is calling him an "ardent defender of liberty and a champion of immigration law."

A lone congressman acting as a Joe Arpaio apologist wouldn't be so bad...if Congressman King wasn't the vice chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement.

The DOJ, as you know, released its report on the MCSO last week and came to the conclusion that the agency -- under Arpaio's (ahem) leadership -- is guilty of the worst racial profiling practices in U.S. history.

According to King, though, "[Arpaio] takes great pains to make sure that he doesn't discriminate against people based on race."

More >>