Oops ... birth certificate now legally documented as fraudulent
Since when has 80 year old Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his "Cold Case Posse" become the self-appointed authorities in America to determine what contitutes a legitmate/fraudulent birth cirtificate in America?
Sheriff Arpaio would be well advised to be spending his time deciding how he is going to avoid crimminal prosecution and jail time. He is by any standard the most corrupt sheriff and probably the most corrupt politician in America!
Highlights of County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's career
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1995 - Arpaio reinstituted "volunteer" chain gangs
1997 - Amnesty International reported the the "Tent City," an outdoor extension of the Maricopa County Jail, was not an "adequate or humane alternative to housing inmates in suitable ... jail facilities."
- other groups contending that there are violations of human and constitutional rights pointing out that most inmates had not been convicted but were awaiting trial
- Arpaio has described the "Tent City" as a "concentration camp"
2001 - first sheriff to require all inmates aged 18+ be registered for the Selective Service System.
-total of 28,000 inmates (including 9,000 aliens) have registered
Summer 2003 - outside temperatures exceeded 110 °F (43 °C),
- Arpaio told complaining inmates, "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents, have to wear full body armor, and they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths." (most immates were there awaiting trial and had not been convicted either)
February 2007 - Arpaio operates his own "in-house" radio station, KJOE, from the basement of the Maricopa County Jail
- it provides classical music, opera, Frank Sinatra and patriotic music 4 hours a day, 5 days a week
June 2008 - Department of Justice Civil Rights Division began an investigation of Arpaio based on accusations of discrimination, unconstitutional searches and seizures
- investigation was conducted under the authority of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibiting discrimination for programs receiving federal funds.
July 7, 2009 - Arpaio holds a press conference announcing that he would refuse cooperate with the investigation, not provide documents, not permit interviews with Maricopa County personnel
September 2, 2010 - Department of Justice filed suit against Arpaio to force him to comply
- Justice Department states that its "unprecedented" for any government agency not to cooperate with a Title VI investigation
June 2011 - Arpaio finally allows federal officials to interview Maricopa County Sheriff's office employees and access to relevent documents
2008, 2010 - Federal Judge Neil V. Wake ruled that the Maricopa County jails violated the constitutional rights of inmates in medical and other care related issues
- this was the result of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, which stated that "Arpaio routinely abused pre-trial detainees at Maricopa County Jail by feeding them moldy bread, rotten fruit and other contaminated food, housing them in cells so hot as to endanger their health, denying them care for serious medical and mental health needs and keeping them packed as tightly as sardines in holding cells for days at a time during intake."
October 2010 - U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals orders Arpaio to follow Judge Wake's 2008 ruling
- Arpaio ordered to end severe overcrowding, ensure all detainees receive necessary medical and mental health care, be given uninterrupted access to all medications prescribed by correctional medical staff, be given access to exercise and to sinks, toilets, toilet paper and soap and be served food that meets or exceeds the U.S. Department of Agriculture's dietary guidelines
November 2010 - Arpaio creates an armed illegal immigration operations posse to help his deputies enforce immigration law.
- members include celebrity actors Steven Seagal, Lou Ferrigno, Peter Lupus
July 2, 2011 - temperatures in Phoenix hit 118 °F (48 °C) and Arpaio measured the temperature inside Tent City at 145 °F (63 °C). - - inmates complained that the fans weren't working, their shoes were melting from the heat
December 15, 2011 - after a 3-year investigation of Arpaio's office concerning racial profiling and culture of bias by the Justice Department it concludes that there is "a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos" that "reaches the highest levels of the agency (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)"
- Arpaio accused of "unconstitutional policing," unfairly targeting Latinos for detention and arrest, and retaliating against critics
- Justice Department concluded that Arpaio operated the worst pattern of "racial profiling" in U.S. history
December 15, 2011 - United States Department of Homeland Security revoked the MCSO's federal authority to identify and detain illegal immigrants
December 23, 2011 - U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow prohibited 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," (halted anti-illegal immigration enforcement by MCSO in its current form)
December 2011 - federal grand jury had been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since December 2009- specifically examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad
Maricopa County Sheriff's website - markets customized pink boxers (with the Maricopa County Sheriff's logo and "Go Joe"), pink handcuffs and promotes Arpaio's book "America's Toughest Sheriff" as a fund-raiser for Sheriff's Posse Association - despite allegations, Arpaio has never provided an accounting for the money
Arpaio practices have been criticized by:
- United States Department of Justice,
- United States District Courts
- Amnesty International
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
- Arizona Ecumenical Council
- American Jewish Committee
- Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League
- editorial board of The New York Times called Arpaio "America's Worst Sheriff"
2008 - a federal grand jury began an inquiry of Arpaio for abuse of power, in connection with an FBI investigation
- Arpaio investigated for politically motivated and "bogus" prosecutions, which a former US Attorney called "utterly unacceptable"
- Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has called Arpaio's "long list" of questionable prosecutions "a reign of terror"
Targets of Arpaio's alleged abuse of power have included:
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- Phil Gordon, Phoenix Mayor
- Dan Saban, Arpaio's 2004 and 2008 opponent for the office of Sheriff of Maricopa County
- Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General
- David Smith, Maricopa County Manager
- The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
- Barbara Mundell, Maricopa Superior Court Presiding Judge
- Anna Baca, former Maricopa Superior Court Presiding Judge
- Gary Donahoe, Maricopa Superior Court Criminal Presiding Judge
- Daniel Pochoda, ACLU attorney
- Sandra Dowling, former Maricopa County School Superintendent
- Mike Lacy, Editor, Phoenix New Times
February 2010 - Judge John Leonardo found that Arpaio "misused the power of his office to target members of the (Board of Supervisors) for criminal investigation"
September 2010 - feuding between Arpaio and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on one side, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on the other side cost at least $5.6 million, most of which was paid to private attorneys.
- Arpaio and Thomas filed several lawsuits against the Board of Supervisors (federal civil-racketeering suit against the supervisors, four judges and attorneys who work with the county)
- Arpaio and Thomas have lost every case (court rulings, dropped cases)
2010 - Arpaio and Thomas sought to have a grand jury indict a number of Maricopa County Judges, Maricopa County Supervisors, and employees of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors
- in an unusual rebuke, the grand jury ordered the investigation ended
- "...the case is so bad, there's no further evidence that could be brought [to substantiate it]"
- Thomas and a subordinate attorney on his County Attorney staff faced a hearing later in 2011 before the Ethics Committee of the Arizona Bar which could result on sanctions, permanent loss of their law licenses
November/December 2010 - Judge Gary Donahoe, retired Maricopa County Superior Court judges Barbara Mundell, Anna Baca, and Kenneth Fields, County Supervisor Don Stapley, Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson, and Susan Schuerman have filed suits naming Sheriff Arpaio
January 2011- executive assistant to Supervisor Don Stapley, Conley Wolfswinkel (a business associate of Stapley) filed suits naming naming Sheriff Arpaio
Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, and Maricopa Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson have filed notices of claims (leading to filing suit) totalling about $56 million dollars naming Sheriff Arpaio
July 2010 - Sheriff Arpaio started the Campaign to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2012 despite the fact that Arpaio is not currently running for re-election (his term does not expire until the end of 2012
- funded advertisements critical of Rick Romley, a candidate in the Republican Primary for Maricopa County Attorney and Arizona Attorney General candidate Tom Horne
August 24, 2010 - Maricopa Elections Department found Sheriff Arpaio had violated of Arizona election law and fined $153,978
April 2011 - Maricopa County Office of Management and Budget found Arpaio had misspent almost $100 million over the previous 5 years
- a restricted detention fund which could only legally be used to pay for jail items (food, detention officers' salaries and equipment) used to pay employees to patrol Maricopa County
- many Sheriff's Office employees, whose salaries were paid from the restricted detention fund, were working job assignments different from those recorded in their personnel records
- Arpaio's office kept a separate set of personnel books detailing actual work assignments, different from information kept on the county's official human-resources records
- Arpaio used the detention fund to pay for investigations of political rivals, and activities involving his human-smuggling unit
- inappropriate spending items (trip to Alaska where deputies stayed at a fishing resort, trips to Disneyland)
- widespread abuse of public funds and county policies by Arpaio's office, including high-ranking employees routinely charging expensive meals and stays at luxury hotels on their county credit cards
- a restricted jail enhancement fund was improperly used to pay for out-of-state training, a staff party at a local amusement park, and a $456,000 bus purchased by Arpaio in violation of county procurement rules
September 2010 - internal memo by Maricopa Deputy Chief Frank Munnell alleged years of misconduct and mismanagement by Arpaio's second in command and other top MCSO officers
- use of a public-corruption task force to conduct politically motivated probes into political opponents
- top officials in the MCSO "willfully and intentionally committed criminal acts by attempting to obstruct justice, tamper with witnesses, and destroy evidence."
- former top MCSO staffers claimed that Arpaio knew of the acts but took no action to stop them
- Arpaio has not commented publicly on the allegations
- October 2010, the US Attorney for Arizona confirmed that the FBI and Department of Justice had received the Munnell memo, and were conducting criminal investigations
March 1, 2012 - Arpaio and members of his Cold Case Posse announcing their belief that President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate, released by the White House on April 27, 2011, is a computer-generated forgery.
December 2011 U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow expanded the complaint by Manuel De Jesus Ortega Melendres (a Mexican tourist) who was detained by the MCSO for 9 houts into a class-action lawsuit including all Latino drivers stopped by the Sheriff's Office since 2007
- will be heard in a federal court in Phoenix, in a six-day bench trial starting July 19, 2012
Department of Justice racial-profiling lawsuit
May 10, 2012 - United States Department of Justice filed suit against Arpaio, the MCSO, and Maricopa County, alleging that "The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio have engaged and continue to engage in a pattern or practice of unlawful discriminatory police conduct directed at Latinos in Maricopa County and jail practices that unlawfully discriminate against Latino prisoners with limited English language skills."
- Department of Justice stated it had no choice after Arpaio's attorneys balked at a demand for a court-appointed monitor to ensure the Sheriff's Office complies with any settlement terms.
- Arpaio rejected the notion of a court-appointed monitor, and denied that the MCSO engages in racial profiling
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Arpaio
