America’s Toughest Sheriff Faces Prison for Enforcing the Law
PHOENIX, AZ – On Monday, June 26, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will face trial for criminal contempt of court charges stemming from Arpaio’s efforts to enforce existing illegal immigration laws and a “racial profiling” suit brought by the ACLU. The National Center for Police Defense (NCPD) recently hand delivered more than 40,000 petitions to U.S. Department of Justice to drop the charges against the former Maricopa County Sheriff. The organization has raised nearly $300,000 to help with Sheriff Arpaio’s legal defense costs.
NCPD will be onsite to monitor the trial as Arpaio’s fate will be solely decided by federal Judge Susan Bolton, unless the United States Supreme Court intervenes to allow Arpaio to have a jury trial. This case has been political from the beginning when the Obama DOJ filed their misdemeanor charges against Arpaio just two weeks before the election. This action by the DOJ was a break in longtime tradition and protocol wherein the DOJ typically refrains from taking legal action against an elected official so close to an election in order to avoid influencing the outcome.
Sheriff Arpaio maintains his innocence in this matter and looks forward to all the facts of this case coming out during the trial. The NCPD will continue to come to the aid of law enforcement officers, like the former Maricopa County Sheriff, who have been charged with a crime while following their training.
“With over 55 years of law enforcement experience, Sheriff Arpaio has always followed and enforced the laws on the books. Now, the DOJ wants to put him in prison for enforcing the very laws he swore an oath to uphold,” says James Fotis, President of NCPD. “During his 24 years as Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arpaio enforced existing illegal immigration laws. Now the Department of Justice wants to put him behind bars for six months while the very illegal immigrants he has arrested over the years walk free. If the DOJ is successful in prosecuting Sheriff Joe Arpaio, it will be a huge miscarriage of justice and a clear example of political assassination by our federal government against a sitting local elected official. That sets a dangerous precedent and one Judge Bolton should reject.”