Birther Sheriff Joe Arpaio seems bound for a criminal referral based on remarks from federal judge G. Murray Snow in a hearing yesterday. The judge said that Arpaio had failed to convince him that he was not guilty of intentional defiance of court orders and perjury. Speaking of Arpaio and Sheridan, Judge Snow said “They lied to my face.”
Tries to throw Zullo under the bus
Part of the Sheriff’s troubles relate to the apparent attempt by Arpaio to investigate Judge Snow using a confidential informant, Dennis Montgomery, who spun conspiracy theories to Arpaio for cash, and even offered to prove Obama’s birth certificate was made by the CIA. In court papers filed Thursday, Arpaio points the finger of blame for investigating Judge Show at his Cold Case Posse commander, Mike Zullo, reports Morgan Leow of CBS 5. Arpaio’s attorneys wrote:
Finally, Sheriff Arpaio, neither himself nor through others, ever directed Dennis Montgomery to investigate the Court. Moreover, Mike Zullo’s apparent continued communication with Dennis Montgomery up to and during the pendency of the contempt proceedings were not directed by Sheriff Arpaio.
Read more at 12 News.
Arpaio was in court the day after his unscheduled speech before the Republican National Convention.
Let me anticipate what john will say: No doubt Benito Trumpolini will make Arpaio head of Homeland security as soon as he seizes power while former judge Snow will be reassigned to a Reeducation camp.
Indeed, it does appear that Montgomery matter will play a role in a criminal referral of Arpaio.
I love the smell of obstruction of justice in the morning.
Does anyone recall either Carl Gallups or Mike Zullo saying anything to suggest that Arpaio had closed any investigation? I don’t. I also don’t believe Arpaio told Zullo to cool it with Montgomery. Not for a minute. Remember when Sgt. Travis Anglin tried to warn Arpaio about Zullo and Montgomery last year? Apraio said “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about”.
The Arizona Republic has some more details, but nothing about Zullo.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2016/07/22/arpaios-attorneys-lawman-should-not-referred-criminal-contempt/87448098/
Not surprising. Arpaio really needs to change his name is “Clinton” and say he is distant cousin of Hillary Clinton. He will immediately be let off.
What is not surprising is john having no problem with Arpaio repeatedly violating the U.S. Constitution, and then lying under oath.
Hillary Clinton lied under oath and committed treason through gross negligence.
Assuming Snow rules for a criminal contempt prosecution, Arpaio only needs to delay for just over 6 months, because assuming Trump is elected, Trump’s DOJ administration will not prosecute Joe Arpaio unless some indepedent prosecution agency becomes involved.
Arpaio should use the “Skunk” defense to upset the Federal Court’s sensitive calendar. The night before or the morning of the hearing, Arpaio should get ahold of a skunk and get himself thoughly sprayed by one. (Remember Arpaio is not yet in custody.) There would be no way the court could have an open hearing with Arpaio smelling like skunk as skunk order is very very powerful. Arpaio would simply say to the court, that he went outside and accidently surprised a skunk in his yard and was repeatedly sprayed. It will take some time to remove the odor and until then, the court will reschedule, another couple months delay until Apraio can devise another scheme which will once again delay the court’s hearing.
Interesting, the article says the Arpaio got no sleep the night before. Could have his attorney’s made the argument that having the hearing was unfair because Arpaio had just come back the the convention, got no sleep and is 84 years old. They could have argued to the court that it needs reschedule because Arpaio would be unable to effectively assimilate the content of the court because of lack of sleep and fatigue.
I think not. Arpaio’s incapacity, such as it was, was of his own doing,
Uh, you can’t commit treason through negligence,
May be not. Arpaio was a delegate and therefore required to attend the convention. Since the hearing was the next day making his schedule extremely tiresome and burdensome, perhaps the argument could have been made.
He could have resigned like 9 other Arizona delegates.
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2016/06/17/delegates-resign-in-opposition-to-trump/
Didn’t john suggest that Zullo do something similarly stupid?
Bad news for john: the judge can appoint an independent prosecutor.
Since Arpaio is 84 years old, a possible solution to his problem could to effectively not seek reelection for health related reasons. If a criminal trial does come to being, Arpaio could cite a litney of health related problems (bad eye sight, bad hearing, bowell problems, low blood sugar problems, fatigue problems, heart problems etc, etc.. He just needs a good doctor to say all these things and have him fail the tests.) and therefore medical accommodations that could make a trial difficult to conduct since Arpaio now will be required full due process.
I think you don’t understand what treason is.
Federal courts….and prisons…..deal with those issues every day, john.
Take a moment to check out the current case of former Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca who has early Alzheimer’s disease but is still going to prison.
Maybe they can share a cell and swap stories.
Get use to the T word, John.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-putin-yes-it-s-really-a-thing
Hillary Clinton has not been charged with perjury and you obviously don’t understand what constitutes gross negligence.
Arpaio could have come back from the convention during the day on Thursday. Trump was nominated on Wednesday, so on Thursday there was nothing for delegates to vote on. Nobody forced him to stay in Cleveland on Thursday.
So you want Arpaio to weasel his way out of trouble, like some low-life mafioso (the Oddfather)? Isn’t he a brave hero, a fighter for right? Shouldn’t he face the judge like a man and stand firm and tell the world why he is doing this? Some hero you got there, johnnie boy.
Is it me or has John “jumped the shark”?
I think john is having some major rectal pain over his hero going down.
What about poor Mike Zullo? All that is left for him is being a mall cop? (I don’t mean to disparage mall cops.)
It seems that Judge Snow was getting irritated during the hearing. Isn’t that a violation of canon rules for a federal judge? They are supposed not to loss their temper. So now Judge Snow was getting angry in court and he was not being fair to Arpaio for rescheduling the hearing because Joe Arpaio couldn’t get sufficient sleep to be prepared for the hearing because Arpaio was a required delegate and keynote speaker at the convention. Judge Snow should have know better. Time to file a recusal or an official complaint.
No. Judges show irritation all the time, especially when one or more of the participating parties shows disrespect to the Court or lies.
Arpaio voluntarily chose to go to Cleveland. No law required him to do so. But the law did require him to show up in court the next day. He could have easily declined his opportunity to speak and stayed in Arizona. If his performance was lacking because his priorities were off-kilter that’s his problem, not the Court’s.
Allow me to get my tiny violin out of its pill box and play Old Joe a soothing lullaby.
A speaking invitation at a party convention does not override a court hearing. If Joe Arpaio cannot get his priorities straight, that’s his damn problem.
Arpaio asked for the hearing to be rescheduled to Friday. He knew his itinerary, including that he’d have to take a red-eye flight back to make the hearing. It’s his own fault if he wasn’t prepared. Of course, it’s only johnboy’s assumption that he wasn’t sufficiently prepared – Arpaio never said it was a particular hardship. He might very well have been asked whether he got any sleep – it’s not that unlikely a question to be asked by reporters, given his speech the night before.
You’ve never been in a court to see how things work, have you?
Judge Snow has been “irritated” with Sheriff Arpaio since the Sheriff ignored his orders in 2011.
In a December 2011 order, Judge Snow sanctioned Arpaio and the MCSO, for acknowledged destruction of records in the case. Judge Snow also stated:
“Sheriff Arpaio has made public statements that a fact finder could interpret as endorsing racial profiling, such as stating that, even lacking 287(g) authority, his officers can detain people based upon ‘their speech, what they look like, if they look like they came from another country.’… Moreover, he acknowledges that MCSO provides no training to reduce the risk of racial profiling, stating ‘if we do not racial profile, why would I do a training program?'”
Judge Snow expanded the complaint into a class-action lawsuit, including all Latino drivers stopped by the Sheriff’s Office since 2007, or who will be stopped in the future. He also enjoined the MCSO and all of its officers from “detaining any person based only on knowledge or reasonable belief, without more, that the person is unlawfully present within the United States, because as a matter of law such knowledge does not amount to a reasonable belief that the person either violated or conspired to violate the Arizona human smuggling statute, or any other state or federal criminal law.”
On December 23, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow enjoined Arpaio and the MCSO from “detaining any person based only on knowledge or reasonable belief, without more, that the person is unlawfully present within the United States,” halting anti-illegal immigration enforcement by MCSO in its current form.
Arpaio filed an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appellate court upheld Judge Snow’s injunction.–Wikipedia
And of course Judge Snow got even more irritated wiith Arpaio when Arpaio investigated the Judge’s wife. That’s never a good idea.
However, if there is a criminal referral, a different judge will be ruling and Arpaio will have the right to appeal.
John, once again, your comments are beyond ridiculous as well as uninformed. The 1pm, July 22, 2016 hearing was originally scheduled for July 21, 2016 at 9am. Out of consideration for Sheriff Arpaio’s trip to the RNC, Judge Snow changed the date of the of the hearing to accommodate Arpaio’s schedule. Judge Snow, also at Arpaio’s defense attorney’s request gave Arpaio an additional few days to turn in a supplemental brief, due on July 27, 2016 to explain why Sheriff Arpaio should not be referred for criminal contempt by Judge Snow. And, the truth is important John. Sheriff Arpaio was not scheduled to be the “keynote speaker” at the RNC. All four days, Arpaio was never listed on the official RNC Schedule of Speakers. Even when Arpaio spoke on Thursday at 8pm Eastern Time, the last day of the RNC, Arpaio was still not listed on the official schedule of speakers. I would speculate that the Arizona delegation and Sheriff Arpaio, begged to have Arpaio put on stage. Apparently it worked. The Trump Campaign will live to regret this error in judgment. It will not go unnoticed by the press that, Trump, the “Law & Order” candidate has accepted the endorsement of a dishonest cop, who is facing the prospect of criminal referrals in U.S. District Court. When that happens, it will put the Trump campaign in a very awkward, hypocritical position. A criminal referral for “perjury” looks to be high on Judge Snow’s criminal referral list. If charged with perjury, Apriao can kiss his position as sheriff goodbye.
So far, the only reason that Arpaio’s defense attorney can come up with for not referring Arpaio criminally, is that the court has overburdened Arpaio with required systemic corrections and that he is 84 years old. Well, that means he is too old to be sheriff if he can’t do the job.
John, your hero is in a very bad situation.
Arpaio’s biggest problem is that he doesn’t tell the truth while under oath. Age has nothing to do with telling the truth about material facts while under oath. If he can’t tell the truth while under oath, he becomes worthless as a law enforcement official. Then again, there is always the failing memory defense. Or the, “I thought I was claiming the 5th defense.” Also not a good thing for continuing in a law enforcement career.
John, Arpaio’s attorney made no such argument.
Nope. According to them, it’s still ongoing. (Carl Gallups’ show and Arpaio’s recent interview elsewhere.)
Yes, John is now recommending that his hero Arpaio double down by engaging in obstruction of justice and lying about physical ailments which he doesn’t have.
It’s not unprecedented for an elderly person to be sentenced to prison. Lucille Keppen of Minneapolis was 88 when she was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 2002. She spent more than four years behind bars before she was paroled when she was 93.
Anthony D. Marshall, the son of socialite Brooke Astor, was sentenced to prison in New York when he was 89 years old after he was convicted of stealing millions from his mother – and he was confined to a wheelchair when he began to serve his sentence.
Let’s be precise here. Gallups and Zullo, and fairly recently Arpaio himself, have said that the birth certificate investigation is ongoing. They have not said that a relationship with Dennis Montgomery was ongoing,
So long as the conduct that a judge is pissed off about is part of the record in the case, he can get as pissed off as he wants.
Somewhat off-topic here, but… are the good folks over at BR in hiding? Summering in Rio? Undercover for Oily Taitz? What?!?! Cus there’ve been no new posts since 7/1
Maybe BR is on another round the world trip with a stop in Kenya?
I wonder what happen to Orly? I thought Scott Tepper was suing her for everything she owns. Fortunately Orly was able throw some static to the judge and I guess the sanctions never happend.
The choice of whether or not to pursue sanctions against Orly would have belonged not to Mr. Tepper but to his client, who most likely had more important issues on his mind.
Considering whose court this was in, they’d have all died of old age before he got around to holding a hearing on the matter.
Precisely.
True but for the last two years it appears the birth certificate investigation consisted almost entirely of working with Montgomery. Only recently has Zullo said something vague about hiring an outside laboratory.
Wouldn’t it be funny of this laboratory told Zullo that the LFBC PDF file was a scan on a Xerox? If they are reputable and know what they are doing that is precisely what they would conclude.
We would never see such a report however. It would be buried deeper than Reed Hayes’ report.
John,
“So now Judge Snow was getting angry in court….”
The court transcript will show Snow’s “disappointment not anger.” In context, Judge Snow is displeased that the civil remedies have not changed Sheridan’s and Arpaio’s behavior. “They lied and continued to lie.” Defense attorney McDonald said of his clients, that they, Sheridan and Arpaio, are “apologizing to the court and asking for the court’s forgiveness.” I think Sheridan and Arpaio will not be seeing any mercy from the court, given that Judge Snow said, “I’m through putting up with that kind of stuff.” The brazen lies and lack of court compliance by defendants Arpaio and Sheridan are shocking. It’s about time that they are held legally accountable for their reprehensible actions.
In last week’s hearing Judge Snow used a phrase that is interesting; “direct contempt.” Direct contempt is contempt that is observed by the Court directly, not relying on other evidence or testimony. Direct contempt can be punished summarily,
The plaintiffs in the Melendres case have filed a Bill of Costs totaling $88,662.74.
https://www.scribd.com/document/319051586/Melendres-1754-Plaintiffs-Bill-of-Costs
What was the context?
I am not sure I would agree with the title of this post. What does “almost inevitable” mean in terms of odds? I think the odds are better than 80-20 for criminal referrals for at least Arpaio and Sheridan. I wouldn’t go 90-10. I am more comfortable with very likely but not inevitable.
Sheridan’s criminal defense attorney was arguing with Judge Snow why Sheridan should not be held in criminal contempt. Sheridan’s attorney continued to argue against Snow’s Findings of Facts. Judge Snow said his Findings of Facts were not open to argument. Judge Snow expressed his displeasure with being continually lied to by the defendants. Snow brought up the possibility of “direct contempt” and the arguments from the attorney stopped.
Arpaio, 100% criminal referral. Sheridan, 100% criminal referral.
It means I don’t see how it can be avoided.
But wouldn’t that be inevitable not “almost inevitable”? ;
Just kidding. I suppose I am being a pessimist.
I try very hard not to speak in certain terms when I cannot be certain. Despite what folks say, this is not (at least not intentionally) a propaganda site.
Sheriff Arpaio’s address to the RNC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMlWK9hC_-g
Good speech. No one knows the problem we have with the border better than Arpaio. Fixing our border is essential for putting in place one our most important population control mechanisms. (In fact the US has very few population control mechanisms in place like punitive birth laws, disease, or war. An insecure border merely adds to growing problem of population growth in this country.)
Net traffic across the US-Mexico border these days is ZERO. If anything, more people are returning to Mexico than coming to the US. However, should Trump attempt to ruin the Mexican economy with trade sanctions, that would likely change.
The solution to people coming to the US from Mexico or Central America is:
1. Economic development there.
2. Americans either stop taking drugs or they legalize them, so drug cartels go out of business and people buy their drugs from Merck and Pfizer.
But we don’t have a population growth problem in the United States, far from it. Population growth in the US is less than 1% per year, and has been for the last 14 years, and the growth rate is steadily declining. The estimated growth rate for this year is 0.77% (all figures include net immigration).
If current trends continue, the US population would start to decline without immigration. And what, pray tell, is going to happen if Trump gets elected and all the college-educated white people leave for New Zealand?
See: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states
As it has already in Japan.
And who will care for us doddering old fools when we need care? Our kids? Don’t make me laugh-they didn’t get expensive educations so they could change adult diapers. Look at who’s providing care to the elderly. At least in the Northeast, it’s largely West Indian immigrants.
Do you have an Arizona map in your coloring book?
If not take a look at this one http://geology.com/county-map/arizona.shtml
Notice that Maricopa county is separated from the border by four other Arizona counties…..all of which deal with the same problem and, in many cases, with far fewer resources.
When I visited Germany a few years ago we were told that Germany had to rely on immigrants or guest workers because of population decline.
Someone said that the three strengths of America that set us off from most of the world were our ability to assimilate immigrants, our higher education system, and the rule of law. Trump is attacking at least 2 of those.
I really think they should make people like John take the citizenship test.
I usually score about 98 on those things, at least partly due to this blog.
BTW, I think Bill Clinton made one of the best party convention speeches ever tonight,
John probably doesn’t realize that it’s about 180 miles from Phoenix to Nogales. And far more undocumented people cross the border in California and Texas than in Arizona. In fact, North Carolina has more undocumented immigrants than Arizona. Arizona ranks #9.
Sure, but he hasn’t even passed the Turing Test yet.
Good, good. Let the butthurt flow through you.
I think you’re being far too generous, he is pretty much anti all three, particularly if it doesn’t put money in his pocket.
If you mean to imply that he hasn’t attacked higher education yet, how do you explain Trump “University”?
John is probably referring to what he perceives as growth in a particular demoghraphic. He is not complaining about population growth caused by immigration from Eastern Europe.
I couldn’t tell. There are web sites with alarmist predictions of population growth due to immigration. Read this, for example:
“By the year 2020, if current population trends continue, the U.S. will add enough population to create another New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, Indianapolis, San Jose, Memphis, Washington D.C., Jacksonville, Milwaukee, Boston, Columbus, New Orleans, Cleveland, Denver, Seattle, and El Paso – plus the next 75 largest cities in the U.S. – if we don’t act now to stabilize U.S. population.”
http://www.susps.org/overview/immigration.html
The US Census population clock says the US population increases by one every 11 seconds. January 1, 2020 is 1253 days from now, for about 9.8 million additional people, which is a little more than the population of New York City, but less than NYC + LA.
The susps site cites another page that claims that the US Census is hiding the crisis.
And, of course, no one out there notices all those extra people running around. Sheesh.
Interesting to consider how the population has actually grown: At the end of WWII (when most of us were just kids or being born) the population was 140-million. Today, of course, it’s almost two and a half times that many at 325-million and we’re doing just fine.
I think it’s hilarious that they tried to throw Zullo under the bus.
And he thought Arpaio was his friend?
Many have questioned the law enforcement credentials of Cold Case Posse Volunteer, Mike Zullo. Here are some interesting tidbits from the September 22, 2015, deposition of MCSO Captain Steve Bailey. The questions were asked by Attorney Wang, for the plaintiffs in the Melendres v. Arpaio case. This is Supplemental Document 1771-1, filed July 27, 2016, filed on behalf of Michelle Iafrate.
https://www.scribd.com/document/319521666/Melendres-1771-Iafrate-Supp-Memo-re-Criminal-Contempt
Wang: “What were the credentials that Mike Zullo spoke of defending his–his work in the investigation?” [investigation referring to the Seattle Operation with Dennis L. Montgomery.]
Cpt. Bailey: “That I recall, he said he had been a police officer for five years in the ’80s or early ’90s, I believe he said.”
Wang: “And what was your assessment about whether those credentials did in fact give rise to his validity on the investigation?”
Cpt. Bailey: “My opinion is being a police officer for five years over 25 years ago didn’t make you equipped to investigate a case such as this.”
Wang: “…Were you in a better position than Mike Zullo to assess the validity of the information from Dennis Montgomery?”
Cpt. Bailey: “I think I’m a more experienced investigator than Mike Zullo, if that’s what you’re asking me.”
Wang: “Right. And you would stand by what you said to Sheriff Arpaio at the outset of the meeting in terms of the flow chart being nothing?”
Cpt. Bailey: “Yes.”
Wang: “Was there any discussion during the meeting where counsel were present of public information that Dennis Montgomery had defrauded federal government agencies? Did anyone bring that up during the meeting?”
Cpt. Bailey: “Not that I remember.”
No, the problem here is different. Illegal crossers (both immigrants and smugglers) are trying to get in and out of here as quickly and unobtrusively as possible. Either to get north if they’re immigrants, or to get back south if they’re coyotes or mules. There’s virtually zero violence except for coyotes raping their clients and occasional robberies of immigrants and smugglers, but even that is done where they’re confident no Americans are around. The biggest visible problems in the eastern part of the border region are littering, fence cutting, and car crashes during pursuits. To the west, it’s people getting killed by the weather.
South of here there are horrible problems with the various gangs warring over the much-reduced routes into the U.S. North of here there are horrible problems on a smaller scale with warring over distribution channels, and illegals being held for ransom when they get to drop houses. Since Phoenix is a hub for transportation out of the state, they see a lot more of the violence than we do.
The border counties are kind of like the eye of a storm of smuggling-related crime.
Actually, that’s when most of our parents were “just kids or being born”: the median age in the U.S. is about 37.
A friend of mine who’s about 10 years older than I am looked it up the other day, and discovered that he’s older than about 98% of the population (although he didn’t mention whether that’s the U.S, or the worldwide, population).
WND has an article on the Arpaio trial:
http://www.wnd.com/2016/07/sheriff-joe-to-court-no-evidence-of-willful-failure/
I guess we’re down to waiting for the Whack-a-Mole hammer to fall on Sheriff Joe’s head?
The WND article failed to mention:
* Arpaio lied while under oath.
* Arpaio admitted, under oath, to being in contempt of court.
* Montgomery, according to court documents, defrauded the MCSO.
* Montgomery, according to court documents, was declared a fraud.
* Montgomery had Zullo’s full confidence, according to court documents.
* The personal items stolen by the MCSO from its victims.
* The previous WND report about Mrs. Snow standing up in court and screaming about Sheriff Arpaio. (This didn’t happen and was pure fantasy concocted by Unruh.)
* Grissom’s story was determined by a private investigator, Vogel and Arpaio’s attorney Casey, to be not credible.
* The finding by the court of Arpaio’s willful subversion of the court.
* The botched internal affairs investigations by the MCSO that will have to be redone.
* The Court Monitors will oversee the MCSO Internal Affairs investigations for at least the next 3 years.
Once again, don’t expect accurate reporting from WND.
The Arizona Republic has endorsed Arpaio’s opponent in the Republican primary, Dan Saban. The money quote:
Joe Arpaio has made a mockery of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2016/07/31/dan-saban-endorsement/87683836/
The worm is turning against Arpaio. People in Arizona are fed up with McCain and Arpaio from what I hear. It’s about time.
Lots of people in Maricopa County are, but the last poll I saw (a couple of months ago) shows he’s still slightly net-favorable (on the order of 5%) in the rest of the state. And his net negative at home isn’t as high as one might expect after all the scandals (I think it was about 10%).