For those following the continuing saga of Joe Arpaio v. federal judge G. Murray Snow, a remarkable twist in the case was reported by the Phoenix New Times. Arpaio requested the court to appoint a defense lawyer for him! But then a spokesperson said that wasn’t what happened. Does he indeed need a criminal defense lawyer?
You be the judge (no pun intended):
- Arpaio Asks Federal Judge to Find Him a Criminal Defense Lawyer
- Arpaio’s Request for Court-Appointed Lawyer Not What It Seems, Sheriff’s Official Says
- Arpaio May Have Covered Up Video Evidence, Can Bring Lawyer to Hearing, Judge Rules
The hearing is tomorrow, December 4.
No matter the outcome, I just don’t see Shurfjoke walking away from this intact. It’ll either cost him his freedom, his health, his career, his reputation or any combination of.
The Arizona Republic has picked up the story as well. If Sheriff Joe gets cited for contempt it will national news. The good Sheriff is about to become a pariah even among members of his own party.
IANAL, but if you request that the court assign counsel, doesn’t the good Sheriff have to give a complete accounting of his assets and show that he cannot afford one?
Shurf Joke hearing December 4, facing possible contempt of court. Ten days later, December 14, the world cable television premiere of the film documentary, The Joe Show. December is shaping up to be tough month for the toughest Shurf in America. Will there be a “Snow” storm tomorrow in Arizona?
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Yes. FYI, here is the financial affidavit form that must be completed/submitted, under oath, when seeking appointment of counsel. http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/FormsAndFees/Forms/CJA/CJA23.pdf
Arpaio has spent several decades wiggling out of one tight spot after another but I agree with you. This is not going to end well for him….professionally and personally.
It’s fun to consider a criminal contempt citation producing an Arpaio mugshot but the truth is a personal citation for civil contempt could actually cause him a lot more pain. Federal judges have incredible powers to enforce their will and Arpaio is no match for them.
You mean, like Eric Holder did?
Reaction will be extremely mixed, ranging from moral outrage at his not strictly following the law to hailing him as a hero for suffering persecution by the feds. My guess is that one of the most widespread reactions will be ambivalence: not liking the legal shortcuts Arpaio has taken in trying to do his own immigration enforcement, but sympathizing with his frustration that the feds are doing such a lame job of it. And, since Americans (like most humans, I think) have a tradition of not worrying about other people’s rights being infringed as long as we don’t think it will affect our own, I foresee a _lot_ of people leaning more toward the sympathy than the disapproval.
It’d be very different if he were, say, taking bribes to make evidence disappear, or to allow people to traffic drugs into his jails. Or something else universally regarded as “corrupt”. But, if his abuse of the justice system to wage war on his political enemies didn’t make him a pariah, I don’t see this doing it.
I’m inclined to agree. Arpaio will morph into just another Victim of the Greatest Conspiracy of All Time, ready to cash in on the lecture circuit and peddle ghost-written books.
Another fascinating piece of cognitive dissonance from your right-wing is how people to constantly criticize minorities for heir so-called “victimhood” always proclaim themselves victims.
‘I don’t understand’ if he is being charged with contempt of court?
And he calls himself a lawyer? Here’s an idea – ask the judge.
“You mean, like Eric Holder did?”
Eric Holder was found “in contempt” by a partisan Congress with little credibility, not a federal judge with the power to fine and confine.
Republicans are working hard to court the Hispanic vote and they don’t need nor will they want the endorsement of a County Sheriff who has been found in contempt of a federal court attempting to purge the MCSO of discriminatory practices against law abiding Hispanics in Maricopa County.
Looking forward to see what today’s events will bring. If Sheriff Joe is as street smart as they say he surely knows that a finding of contempt by a federal judge will not go well for him.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/steve-benson/2014/12/03/joe-arpaio-judge-snow-judgment/19873793/
🙂
And the perception on the right, increasing in intensity the farther out toward the fringe you go, will be that Arpaio was found in contempt as part of a partisan persecution for not getting with the amnesty program.
Arpaio’s already taken a big hit in the centrist part of the GOP, and a contempt charge or citation would make that worse, but not as much as you think.
it’s amazing how fast the birthers can switch from “no one is above the law!” to “joe’s not afraid to break the rules!”
I agree with just about everything you say. This will make Arpaio a martyr in some circles (like the Bundy Ranch standoff). I can even hear Arpaio telling the tea party gatherings about how he’s being persecuted but no one will look at his document fraud case. And that may be the only thing that comes out of it – the entertainment value of watching birthers’ heads explode as they complain that the Federal judge is going after Arpaio but not the forger/usurper.
Zero hour…..1:30PM.
http://www2.azd.uscourts.gov/azd/callive.nsf/3890c29c313bc38b07257afe00796cc1/5f51eaed1fd0b8a807257d6c00343470?OpenDocument
In the 1930s, a German artist created a photo-montage called “Adolph the Superman Swallows Gold and Spouts Junk.” The same montage would work for Arpaio.
http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=22573
ha ha Sheriff Joe!
That will teach you to sue Obama! Ha!
Federal judge sets table for Arpaio contempt hearing
A federal judge gave attorneys until Jan. 8 to submit written arguments on why or why not Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and some of his commanders should be charged with contempt of court.
Arpaio, who listened intently for an entire 50-minute hearing in U.S. District Court Thursday, could face fines, jail or both. (QUELLE DOMMAGE)
Arpaio, uncharacteristically, declined comment on the case.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/12/04/arpaio-criminal-contempt-hearing-abrk/19915657/
I anticipate that Arpaio will retire early due to “health reasons”. Of course, his supporters will protest and say that President Obama somehow forced him to retire because of his alleged investigation into the b.c.
Then again, I could be dead wrong and this old fool will try to run again for Sheriff at the age of 84!
Arpaio showed up with attorney Melvin McDonald. McDonald is an outstanding attorney (and not cheap — easily $500/hour) and can probably keep Joe out of prison for contempt. However, even McDonald can’t make this whole thing go away for Joe.
I predict that before this is over, McDonald will file a motion asking to be relieved of his duty of representation due to irreconcilable “differences” with his client.
Phoenix New Times has its story up on the hearing:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2014/12/arpaio_may_face_civil_and_criminal_contempt_charges.php
But I found this other story by Stephen Lemons about dog deaths in Gilbert, Arizona kinda interesting.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2014/12/joe_arpaios_deputies_misled_grand_jury_in_green_acres_dog_case_says_dennis.php
After a three-month investigation (more than many human victims get from the MCSO), Sheriff Joe Arpaio asked Maricopa County Prosecutor Bill Montgomery to indict both couples.
Montgomery sent the case to a grand jury, which hit the Flakes with 21 felony and seven misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, and 23 felony and seven misdemeanor counts against the Hugheses[sic].
The Flakes that are mentioned are the son and daughter-in-law of Arizona Senator Jeff Flake. There are allegations that the MCSO deputy perjured herself before the grand jury and that prosecutors were aware of it.
D.A. Bill Montgomery is quoted,
“If it was a very glaring error,” said Montgomery, “and the prosecutor was aware that there was a mistake of fact that was being presented…I don’t know, standing here in front of you, if it was just a simple oversight or if the witness knew affirmatively what the data showed and gave a different characterization.”
Montgomery said his office now will “take a hard look” at the motion and see if “mistakes were made.”
Sounds political.
Is AZ a “community property” state?
“With all due respect, Mr. McDonald, file a notice of appearance,” Snow said.
I guess that answered the question by the MCSO spokesman wondering if Arpaio would even need a lawyer. 😆
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Interesting prediction. Especially, since his civil attorneys recently withdrew based upon unspecified ethical concerns… I suspect that Arpaio is the client from hell. If he’s so willing to overstep his legal boundaries on the job, and to overstep the boundaries/orders of the court, then I suspect that he makes it pretty impossible for his own attorney to get him to agree to a legitimate legal strategy they both can live with …
Yes.
Can you imagine trying to represent/manage that ego?
Payday!
Barely mentioned in local media in Phoenix.
A horribly timed police shooting of an unarmed man is getting a passing mention.
Not sure what you are looking at but I just checked the websites of the major media outlets in Phoenix and both stories are there with extensive coverage.
The Republic and AZCentral covered the story but I wouldn’t call it “extensive”. The shooting was mentioned briefly on the Fox affiliate (Channel 10 news) but the Arpaio hearing was not.
I used the word “extensive” to describe the breadth of coverage.
The AZCentral story ran 750 words and I suspect it will be longer when it appears in print tomorrow.
Channel 10 ran the Arpaio story on its 5 o’clock show as the graphic demonstrates in this screen shot…………..
http://www.fox10phoenix.com/clip/10918165/sheriff-arpaio-attends-federal-contempt-hearing
And the shooting story is the top story on Channel 10’s website as I type this and from the following screen shot it appears to have been the lede story on the 10 o’clock news………….
http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/27552024/2014/12/04/daughter-of-man-killed-by-phoenix-police-speaks-out
And then there are channels 3, 5, 12 and 15 plus the The New Times…..all of which have both stories.
Other than all those……not much, I guess.
That’s probably the closest thing they could have said to mean “he wanted us to do illegal things”.
Why not? He reminds me a lot of João Havelange (FIFA) and Juan Antonio Samaranch (IOC). Always the same problem when someone has an elected position for decades (we had similar issues of stubbornness at best and corruption at worst when Helmut Kohl was chancellor for 16 years).
GR has an article up about the case and, little surprise, they believe that the judge is retaliating for the cold case posse investigation.
The question I have for them is, what are they going to do if the Sheriff is sent off to jail and Zullo no longer has the backing of the MCSO? This could all happen before they can have a news conference and they would never find out what the “Universe-shattering” evidence is. Birdbrain better get on it! 😆
Oh yeah! The judge is just terrified of Zullo.
if joe goes to jail ( or more likely steps down ) i’d expect zullo to continue on with CCP even without a direct connection ( altho he’d then need to get a new address and actually file financials ).
Prediction: Joe won’t go to jail. May get cited for civil contempt and will wiggle around until he makes a deal and announces he will not run or resigns from office.
Zullo will continue to tilt at the birther windmills until the money stops flowing.
If Arpaio got de-sheriffed, he could go all-out crazy.
And that would be different than what we’ve got now?????
Yeah, I think so. I think he’s operating under limitations now that he wouldn’t be subject to were he not in or seeking office. And I don’t think he’d be content with growing obscurity and undeniable irrelevance.
But honestly, I think his bag-o’-marbles is getting lighter every month. It’s really not going to matter whether he’s still sheriff or not.
Since there is no longer an open thread because the comments are closed – is there a reason why comments are closed there and in the other Sheriff Joe thread that only has 66 posts?
But without Shurfjoke there to go “Oh yeah, he’s totes one of my officers!”, that jig wouldn’t stay up.
It’s been two weeks. Time flies, don’t it? Doc put up another open thread.
wrecking ball
December 5, 2014
“GR has an article up about the case and, little surprise, they believe that the judge is retaliating for the cold case posse investigation.”
A case that began back in 2007 because of Arpaio’s actions and what he is now going through because of those actions is payback from the Obama Administration? The people over at GR are absolutely batsh*t crazy!
The story made in on the front page of the Arizona Republic this morning and I was shocked. Usually any mention of Joe gets buried, not this time.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/12/04/arpaio-criminal-contempt-hearing-abrk/19915657/
Hey Birthers, wouldn’t you agree that now would be a good time for Arpaio to release all the evidence he’s gathered regarding Barack Obama’s birth certificate?
All comments are closed two weeks after an article is published.
from comments on the GR article:
“Gee… Sheriff Joe… maybe it’s time to fight back?
Answer this by releasing your info…. tell the world what you say you know. ”
– Mike
“we should be delivering Christmas gifts of warrants and jail for them all.”
-fed up
“I agree with Mike that Sheriff Joe MUST fight back by releasing what he knows.”
-drdebdrdeb
It may have to do with the fact that Arpaio’s son-in-law, Phil Boas, is no longer the Editorial Page Editor. His title now is “News Director/Strategist Community Leadership” (whatever that means).
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/newsroomphone/byname.php
I would think a new sheriff would want to clarify the relationship between the MCSO and the posses……especially the Cold Case Posse.
I don’t know. Without the platform the office provides him I’m not sure what he could do, besides howl at the moon in the middle of Central Avenue, to avoid the obscurity and irrelevance he so richly deserves.
That’s pretty much what I had in mind.
The way this is beginning to go it is entirely possible that the state may have to step in and do a complete audit and cleanup of the MCSO before the Feds do, and I would suspect that there would either be a mass of resignations, and/or indictments of the upper echelon as the graft and overweening incompetence comes to light. It sounds like right now that the judge is convinced that they haven’t been following guidelines or actually doing what they were supposed to, and have certainly been hindering or outright ignoring his court orders, and if that is the case, it probably goes a lot deeper. I know of one case where the state eventually had to go through an entire big city police department, and the end result was that most of the upper echelon and a good deal of the rank and file went to jail and the department basically started over from scratch. I would say that Kommandant Zullo had best start thinking to his future grift as his days of protection may be nearing an abrupt end.
Remember! Obots have access to TARDISES (or is it SIDRATs?) That’s how we were able to go back & plant these pesky birth notices in the HI newspapers!
Since Ole Joe is now havingbto pay for a criminal lawyer himself….one wonders
Is Joe paying his bills with the campaign war chest money he raised and did not spend
Is he legally allowed to use that money for this purpose
AZ REP EDITORIAL: Sheriff Joe may eat his own green bologna 😀
Well Joe, looks like menacingly pointing your finger, slightly off camera, can’t help you now!
Mark Gillar decided to show up again on the KPHO article.
kpho.com/story/27170194/birther-posse-chief-i-accepted-10000-gift-from-source
Anyone else notice a pattern that emerges every time Shurfjoke gets a legal beat down, or at the very least a judge promising him one? Gerbil Report goes into full blown panic/self-reassurance mode, then posts a bunch of “new” articles that don’t really say anything, that doesn’t amount to “Look! A distraction!” Oh, and promises of more Shurfkits being mailed out/delivered.
Their latest drivel amounts to: This thing happened in Puerto Rico. Something about faked birth certificates. Therefore, Obama is lying!
This would be an opportune moment for someone with a Facebook account to repeat the taunt from a couple of weeks ago about his “orange jumpsuit” prediction. Except that, now that the deadline has passed, you can chuck the knife in a power drill to twist it 😈
I think they do that pretty much every time there’s a lack of something they can pretend is “good news” (like Klayman’s “deportation petition”), but they do put out extra effort when some well-deserved misfortune befalls their Great White Supremacy Hope. Not surprising, since he’s the only remaining birther god who hasn’t publicly toppled when some court doused his/her feet of clay.
Speaking of which, d’ya think Shrimpton will petition to serve his sentence in Arpaio’s jail?
I think the Shrimp Chip doing time at MC jail would be a hoot, but he’d have to get in the country first, and they generally don’t grant visas to lunatic felons.
Yeah, he immediately goes into “victim” mode to excuse his failure to investigate the birth certificate issue. Gotta find a way to keep all of that scammed #Birther money.
It looks like ShurfJoke has had his wings clipped. Is this the same ShurfJoke?
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2014/12/10/maricopa-county-sheriff-arpaio-14-million-2015-budget/20207657/
A birther gets his first job- bouncer at a bar.
Three men- an Irishman, a Texan and an African American attempt to go into the bar.
The Birther says to the African American- “patrons are required to show me ID- oh you other guys can go right in”
would be interested to hear from our legal experts on this one. it would seem to me that this could be seen as an admission that, to date, arpaio hasn’t been in compliance with the court order and be detrimental to him in next month’s hearing. on the other hand it could appear that he’s doing what needs to be done to be in compliance.
any thoughts?