The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it's investigating allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault around Missoula, Montana, including the University of Montana.

According to the Justice Department, "This investigation will focus on allegations that [the Montana agencies] are failing to adequately investigate and prosecute alleged sexual assaults against women in Missoula."

Just as a point of reference, the DoJ notes that this isn't the first time it's investigated something like this; you may be familiar with the Justice Department for its investigation into the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for allegedly bungling sex crimes, as well.

"The department previously found a pattern or practice of gender discrimination in the New Orleans Police Department," the DoJ says. "Similarly, the department found problems of significant concern involving the handling of sex crimes in both the Puerto Rico Police Department and the Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff's Office."

Join the club, Missoula.

More >>

Michael DeSisto, founder of DeSisto School, poses with young men. Paul Babeu served as the school's headmaster from 1999 to 2001.

We recently came across a February 27 segment from Jim Sharpe's talk show on KFYI about Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's time as headmaster at the DeSisto School in Massachusetts -- a school for troubled teens where state officials found sexual and physical abuse was occurring.

Sharpe and his on-air sidekick were defending Babeu in light of some of the facts that ABC 15 had reported the previous night.

More >>

Image: Democracy Now

Sunita Patel says in a federal complaint that she was acting as a legal observer when sheriff's deputies arrested her during a protest last year at the 4th Avenue Jail.

​
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is being sued again -- this time by four immigration activists arrested last summer during a protest at the 4th Avenue Jail.

Two of the plaintiffs are lawyers who acted as legal observers during the protest; one demonstrator claims he was beaten by guards.

Their allegations stem from a July 29, 2010 demonstration near the "sally port" driveway entrance to the jail, where some activists chained themselves together to protest the state's hotly contested anti-illegal-immigrant law, SB1070, and the state's "climate of hate." Dozens of protesters were arrested by Phoenix police and sheriff's deputies, including local activists Salvador Reza and Alfredo Gutierrez.

 Two of the lawsuits were filed in federal court and two in Superior Court.

Gustavo Ramirez, a California resident, claims he wasn't blocking the sally port entrance before being arrested and thrown headfirst on the concrete of an "isolated" part of the jail's garage. As one deputy pressed his head to the ground, according to Ramirez's lawsuit, others "made sport out of kicking him in the back, legs, abdomen and other parts of his body, including his hands."More >>

uncoverage.net

​In a concession to common sense, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio agreed today to stop  plans for chain-gang parades in front of Chase Field before the start of tomorrow's MLB All-Star game.

 

"I'm not going to interfere with the ball game tomorrow," Arpaio promised in a news conference this afternoon.

Apparently not wanting to put a blemish on America's sacred pastime or emotionally scar the scores of children attending the All-Star game, Arpaio said he is keeping his imprisoned clean-up crew away from the event.

More >>

Rudy Soriano

​Rudy Soriano was sentenced today for the March 2010 murder of 32-year-old Rodolpho Yurralde, after which he wheeled Yurralde's dead body around a Phoenix apartment complex before accidentally tipping it over.

Soriano, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in April.

Phoenix police found Yurralde's body outside of a west Phoenix apartment complex on March 13, of last year. Residents of the complex later told police they'd watched as a man wheeled the body into an outdoor common area in a shopping cart.

The cart tipped over, Yurralde's dead body fell out, and the the suspect -- later identified as Soriano -- took off running, witnesses told police.

More >>

The MCSO's "ass-kicking" babe-cop Kelly Bocardo is responsible for the upcoming $650,000 bill for Maricopa County taxpayers.

​The Arizona Republic reported yesterday that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is likely to dole out a cool $650,000 in taxpayer coin to the family of a 33-year-old man killed by a motorist who was "pursued recklessly and in violation of law at high speeds by" a Maricopa County Sheriff's deputy.

That deputy was Deputy Ronald Frieberg. Also named in the suit is Deputy Kelly Bocardo, who, according to the suit, "failed to provide critical information to her supervisor so he or she could manage the pursuit."

What the Republic failed to point out is that Kelly Bocardo is the same Kelly Bocardo who appeared as the most vile of all of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's floozies in his reality TV debacle Police Women of Maricopa County (Deputy Amy Duong, you're still cool. Call us?).

More >>

www.news.cnet.com

​The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office experienced another newspaper to the nose yesterday when the United States Supreme Court declined to hear a case where a lower court ruled against it in a lawsuit regarding cross-gender jail pat-downs.

For many heterosexual, male inmates, a female detention officer grabbing their junk might be slightly less uncomfortable than allowing a male guard do it. It might, in some cases, be the highlight of his day.

However, it wasn't for former MCSO inmate Charles Byrd. He claims a 2004, somewhat-nude strip search -- during which a female MCSO detention officer cadet grabbed his butt and penis -- violated his Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

More >>

​If you're man, and had plans of going to jail to get felt up by a woman, we have some bad news.

The United States Supreme Court decided today to not hear the case of a former Maricopa County jail inmate who claims a female detention officer grabbed his junk during a somewhat-nude pat down while he was a guest of the county in 2004.

The former inmate, Charles Byrd, claims that having a woman conduct a search that included him stripping down to only his jail-issued pink undies violated his Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, and ruled that the cross-gender pat down violated Byrd's rights -- and the Supreme Court will not hear the case to potentially overturn that ruling.

More >>

You're "going down" if you cross MCSO Detective Deb Moyer -- just ask her husband.

​Since our prior post about the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's "ass-beating" detective/reality TV star Detective Deb Moyer, we've got some new information about a recent domestic-violence situation between her and her husband.

First: Moyer's husband also is one of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's boys in beige. In fact, he's the office's former public-information officer, David Moyer. Second: if you live near Moyer, and hear what sounds like a domestic disturbance, you better "mind your business. [Dave Moyer's] a cop."

More >>

 

The Arizona Republic ran an article today about Captain Joel Fox's lawsuit against Terry Goddard and Cox Communications over the public release of sensitive e-mails.

The story by Repub veteran JJ Hensley, though, fails to mention one thing:

The e-mails' gushy love talk between Fox and his supervisor, Larry Black, which are undoubtedly the motivation behind the suit. (See our article from Friday about the lawsuit.)

We put in a call to the paper's editor, Randy Lovely, to find out what happened. It seems safe to assume the omission was made after a discussion by editors, but it's unclear why the final decision shortchanged readers. Would the Repub have decided differently if one of the pair had been a woman?

Sure, the intense expression of man-love between Fox and Black is personal stuff, but it's well within the scope of the SCA scandal, as we've explained.

More >>