Ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio found guilty of criminal contempt of court

[GMDino]

Joe thought he was above the law?  Color me shocked.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/07/31/joe-arpaio-verdict/526253001/

Quote:The immigration policies that elevated former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio to fame were the same that would ultimately lead to his political demise, and now have made him a convicted criminal.



On Monday, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton found Arpaio, the former Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff, guilty of criminal contempt of court, finding that he willfully violated a federal judge's order. 


The sentencing phase will begin Oct. 5. Arpaio faces up to six months in confinement, a sentence equivalent to that of a misdemeanor.


Bolton’s ruling follows a five-day June and July trial, in which Department of Justice prosecutors argued that the 85-year-old had intentionally flouted a federal judge’s orders halting Arpaio’s signature immigration round-ups.

In December 2011, amid a long-running racial profiling case, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow ordered Arpaio’s deputies to stop holding individuals solely on the belief they were in the country illegally. They only were to detain those who were accused of a state crime.


But Arpaio’s deputies continued to do so for at least 17 months thereafter. During the bench trial, witnesses testified that 171 individuals were illegally apprehended and then turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or to the Border Patrol.

The verdict is a rejection of Arpaio’s defense: That the order was unclear and that, although mistakes had been made, the violations were unintended. Willful intent is required to prove criminal, rather than civil contempt.


"The evidence at trial proves beyond a reasonable doubt and the Court finds that Judge (G. Murray) Snow issued a clear and definite order enjoining Defendant from detaining persons for further investigation without reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is being committed; that Defendant knew of the order; and that Defendant willfully violated the order by failing to do anything to ensure his subordinates’ compliance and by directing them to continue to detain persons for whom no criminal charges could be filed," Bolton wrote in the ruling. "Because the Court finds that Defendant willfully violated an order of the court, it finds Defendant guilty of criminal contempt."