Randy Parraz, anti-Arpaio activist, is suing the county because of a questionable 2008 arrest by deputies. Yesterday, a federal judge rejected a county motion to dismiss the case.

A lawsuit filed by activist Randy Parraz against Maricopa County following his 2008 arrest outside the Board of Supervisors Auditorium can move ahead, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

Parraz was arrested on September 29, 2008, after he and members of his group, Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability, held a demonstration at a Supervisors' meeting to protest abuses by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and were asked to leave. As yesterday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver explains, though, (see below), Parraz was arrested after he'd already left the downtown Phoenix auditorium, a public building, and was standing outside. A dispute remains as to whether Arpaio's deputies had probable cause to arrest Parraz on suspicion of trespassing and disorderly conduct, Silver wrote.

Her ruling was made in response a motion for summary judgment made by the county, which had argued that deputies were justified in arresting Parraz. The ruling includes a transcript of a videotaped conversation between Parraz and deputies that preceded his arrest, which reveal that when Parraz asked why he was being asked to leave the spot outside the building and what law he was breaking, a deputy answered, "It doesn't matter."

See also: Randy Parraz, Anti-Arpaio Activist and U.S. Senate Candidate, Files Federal Lawsuit Over 2008 Arrest

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Lawrence Robinson

Paul Penzone, former candidate for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is supporting Lawrence Robinson for Phoenix City Council's District 8 seat.

The race promises to be interesting, if not contentious.

Robinson is vying to represent South Phoenix against Kate Gallego and Pastor Warren Stewart -- all candidates with impressive resumes.

See also: Stewart Endorsed by Black-Brown Coalition
See also: Robinson Joins Race for Phoenix District 8 City Council Seat, Drama Follows
See also: Maupin: White Candidate for City Council Is Attempted "Political Lynching"

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More than five years after the Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio learned his agency had mishandled hundreds of sex-crime investigations, no one has been disciplined and a key report on the matter has yet to be released to the public.

The investigation into what happened is fraught with negative implications for Arpaio, whose decision to choose politics over policing in the mid-2000s resulted in the denial of justice for an unknown number of rape and molestation victims.

Arpaio learned of the debacle in late 2007, when officials in El Mirage -- a west Valley town that had been policed by the Sheriff's office from 2005 to 2007 -- informed Arpaio that problems had been discovered with dozens of sex-crime investigations. The Sheriff's Office ultimately re-examined more than 500 cases, finding that most had not been properly investigated.

The public has yet to learn what Arpaio's long-running internal investigation uncovered in terms of what went wrong, and who screwed up. Presumably, Arpaio's internal probe doesn't address the question of whether Arpaio himself did anything wrong.

See also: Victims Wonder Why Arpaio Let Sex-Abuse Cases Languish

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Pinal County Sheriff Babeu

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who easily beat out his fellow Republicans in the August primary, is no doubt hoping for a repeat performance against his general Election Day challengers.

He's facing Democrat Kevin Taylor, a former sheriff's deputy in Ohio, and Independent Ty Morgan, a former PCSO deputy.

Just over an hour before the polls, and candidates are feeling confident about their efforts to unseat Babeu.

See also: Paul Babeu's Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff's Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation

See also: Paul Babeu's Suspicious Past as School's Headmaster

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Image: YouTube

These statements punctuate a powerful new TV ad that slams Sheriff Arpaio for his scandal involving poorly investigated sex-crimes cases. However, the figures in the ad are exaggerations.

After skewering Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's fabrications in a recent political ad, we'd be remiss not to mention how a new anti-Arpaio ad bends the truth.

The powerful ad by Valley musician Devin Fleenor and Citizens for Professional Law Enforcement, which aired on TV for the first time yesterday, shows a girl recounting a sexual assault -- as the man's hand closes on her shoulder, implying he still hasn't been brought to justice.

"Sheriff Arpaio -- why didn't you do something?" the girl cries.

It was a clever and poignant way to show the pain suffered by the victims of Arpaio's scandal.

But the ad is weakened near the end with a falsity, displayed in bold letters, that the scandal involved "432 Sex Crimes Ignored -- 432 Victims Silenced."

See also- Sheriff Arpaio Distorts Truth in Ad About Sex-Crimes Investigations

See also- Joe Arpaio's Sex Crimes Debacle Eviscerated in New Video by Devin Fleenor

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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, facing what may be the closest election of his long career, tries to rewrite history in a new ad about his office's poorly done sex-crimes investigations.

Arpaio's campaign ran the ad in a prominent location on the Arizona Republic's Web site, and the main theme is that the newspaper is running a series on the sex-crimes investigations for political reasons.

One look at this fact-challenged ad and you know Arpaio's grasping at straws in what has become the worst scandal of his five terms in office:

-See also: Victims Wonder Why Arpaio Let Sex-Abuse Cases Languish

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See also: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Admits He Busted Mexicans to "Spite" Critics in 2009 Recording; Evidence Shows He Also Did It for Publicity, Not Legit Enforcement

Image: Ray Stern

Brian Sands, one of Sheriff Arpaio's deputy chiefs, told a judge today that goal of saturation patrols wasn't to round up illegal immigrants. But in 2010, Sands described one incident in which that actually was the goal.

Brian Sands, one of Arpaio's deputy chiefs, told a federal judge today that busting illegal immigrants wasn't the goal of saturation patrols.

Sands said something quite different in 2010 to investigators probing corruption within Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Office.

As late as the fall of 2008, Sands claimed, Arpaio's former chief deputy, Dave Hendershott, had instructed a lieutenant during a saturation patrol in the northwest Valley to "round up as many illegal aliens as he could arrest."

And, by Sands' account, that's exactly how it went down.

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See also: U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow Sets Up Sheriff Arpaio for Knockout in Racial-Profiling Case; Ruling Describes Deputies' Dirty Tricks

See also: Joe Arpaio Admits Racial Profiling, Takes Bigoted Suggestions From Supporters, as MCSO Deputies Pass Racist E-Mails and Racially Profile

U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow ruled today that he will stay on as judge in the ACLU's racial-profiling case against Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office.

The highly anticipated trial over accusations that the Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office committed widespread discrimination will begin as scheduled on July 19, a federal judge ruled today.

U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow states in his July 3 ruling that he won't recuse himself from the case simply because his brother-in-law happens to work for the plaintiffs' law firm.

Snow notes that it would be in the interests of justice to resolve the case, which was filed four-and-a-half years ago and has already seen the replacement of several lawyers for the plaintiffs and another judge.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on behalf of local Latinos who say they were profiled and mistreated in racially charged traffic stops. It's separate from the U.S. Department of Justice probe that found evidence of widespread discrimination under Arpaio, but involves many of the same allegations.

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Image: Ray Stern

Sheriff Joe Arpaio stands next to his ally, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, during a news conference in 2009 announcing "corruption" in Maricopa County. In a new recording, Arpaio claims he busted Mexicans to "spite" his critics.

News media across the country lit up over the weekend with anti-Sheriff Joe Arpaio stories after a recording surfaced in which Arpaio admits he busted Mexicans to "spite" critics.

Bigots at the Texans For Immigration Reform fundraising rally in September of 2009 laughed as the Maricopa County sheriff described the illegitimate reason for targeting Hispanics in illegal-immigrant roundups.

After critics including local politicians and officials with the U.S. Justice Department "went after me, we arrested 500 more just for spite," said Arpaio. A couple of days ago, he clarified for the Associated Press that he only regretted not mentioning that he had busted "thousands," and not just 500.

Arpaio has been accused of leading the worst case of racial profiling in a law enforcement agency in U.S. history. The Justice Department, which announced the damning findings against the Sheriff's Office in December, appears ready to sue Arpaio for failing to cooperate in settling the matter.

No local observers should be surprised to hear Arpaio mock his accusers. Arizonans have long been aware that Arpaio's anti-illegal-immigrant crusade has been conducted mainly to pump up his political mojo among right-wingers.

As we noted last week, one of Arpaio's top men, Deputy Chief Frank Munnell, and Arpaio's longtime spokeswoman, Lisa Allen, seem to agree in a secretly made recording that the immigrant round-ups are done for publicity.

Another great example of Arpaio's ulterior motives can be found in the lengthy investigation into whistle-blower Munnell's allegations.

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Joe Arpaio is heading to court after failing to negotiation a settlement with the Department of Justice over its racial-profiling findings.

Few would be surprised to know that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office is lying about about its negotiations with the federal government over accusations of widespread racial profiling by deputies.

Both Arpaio and his ally, County Attorney Bill Montgomery, have accused the U.S. Department of Justice of lying about the evidence in its December finding that Arpaio's office practices routine discrimination against Hispanics. That could be true -- it wouldn't be a shock to find out the federal government has lied.

But we don't know the folks at the DOJ as well as we do Arpaio and those who work for him. Arpaio, as we've learned over the years, is a habitual liar.

For example, Arpaio lied to the public in 2009 when he announced that a campaign-finance scandal had "nothing to do with the Sheriff's Office." Arpaio lied about the 2010 arrest of County Supervisor Don Stapley. Arpaio apparently lied about his lack of memory during the Andrew Thomas hearings. The examples could go on and on.

Now the DOJ is accusing Arpaio's lawyer of lying and cheating in their negotiations to resolve the racial-profiling problem.

Arpaio and his representatives are such forked-tongue scoundrels, to paraphrase a new letter by DOJ deputy assistant Attorney General Roy Austin, the federal government is giving up on him.

See you in court, Austin tells Arpaio in the April 11 letter to Joseph Popolizio, Arpaio's lawyer. More »