Sheriff Joe Arpaio almost attends fundraiser in Elkhart County, cancels because of “extraordinary event” in his jurisdiction. Pink underwear sale goes forward as scheduled.
I haven’t had occasion to write here yet about the recent string of crazy in Maricopa County, Arizona sprayed by its Sheriff-King, Crazy Joe. It all started with the pilfering of a document from a criminal defense attorney’s file by one of Crazy Joe’s deputies, Adam Stoddard, as caught on camera in this video.
This video deserves to be featured on an upcoming episode of “World’s Dumbest Criminals.” Yet unbelievably, Crazy Joe stood by his man, insisting Stoddard was just doing his job and ensuring courtroom “security.” Maricopa County’s understanding of courtroom security must be very “special,” because around here it’s not the job of courthouse deputies to peruse documents in attorneys’ files. But you just never know. Maybe, as Joel Rosenberg speculated, the document stolen by Crazy Joe’s henchman might have said: “fold along the indicated lines here to make an origami knife. Paper cuts can be very dangerous.”
Things went rapidly downhill from there, with a judge conditionally holding Stoddard in contempt unless he apologized to the defense attorney he stole from, Crazy Joe insisting there would be no such apology, and the County Attorney with Crazy Joe at his side announcing at a press conference this week the filing of (supposedly unrelated) criminal charges against the judge. Scott Greenfield’s latest on the story is here. Matt Brown, a Phoenix-area attorney who practices in Maricopa County, rounds up his posts on the story here. Jeff Gamso’s latest is here.
As Jeff observes, “One of the most remarkable things about the Maricopa Macarena is that the mainsteam press around the country has pretty much totally ignored it.” Well, local folks here got an inkling of what Crazy Joe has been up to lately from this story in the Elkhart Truth. Crazy Joe was scheduled to attend a fundraiser Wednesday for Bill Wargo, candidate for Elkart County Sheriff, and another Republican candidate for state office. But on Monday Crazy Joe cancelled, citing an “extraordinary event” in his jurisdiction, and instead spoke to attendees via teleconference. As Wargo explained in a press release on his campaign website:
According to Sheriff Arpaio and published reports in the Phoenix and Sonora newspapers it was reported that Sheriff Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas have filed Racketeering and Corrupt Organization (RICO) charges against the County Board of Supervisors, several county judges and a private Arizona law firm.
. . .
Sheriff Arpaio has made items available for purchase at the event, the proceeds from which would go to the Sheriff’s Youth Foundation. The Sheriff’s most recent book; Joe’s Law, America’s Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs, and Everything Else that Threatens America, as well as “pink boxer underwear” and commemorative coins will be available for sale at the Matterhorn. Arrangements will be made to have Sheriff Joe personalize these items.
A follow up story in the Elkhart Truth reports that “Elkhart County candidates for sheriff have mixed opinions about Arpaio’s policies.” As well they should.
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Any candidate who would have Arpaio speak on his behalf represents a greater danger to Indiana than anything done to the Notre Dame football team by Charlie Weis.
1Convicting Arpaio of contempt of court is similar to busting Al Capone on tax evasion. It was merely the tip of the iceberg considering his numerous violations of the public trust.
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