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Internal memo accuses Sheriff Arpaio's department of wrongdoing
Says #2 man, others conducted politically motivated investigations & surveiled campaign rivals
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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio received a 63-page memo from a deputy chief.
- federal grand jury is examining whether Arpaio and allies in the local prosecutor's office abused their power |
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Internal memo accuses Sheriff Arpaio's department of wrongdoing
The Arizona lawman's No. 2 man and other top officials are accused of using the anti-corruption unit to conduct politically motivated investigations and to surveil campaign rivals.
by Nicholas Riccardi
Los Angeles Times
September 17, 2010
Reporting from Denver
Top officials in the office of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio used its anti-corruption unit to conduct politically motivated investigations, misled the public about a campaign fund that helped Arpaio win reelection and surveilled the Arizona lawman's campaign rivals, according to an internal memo from a high-ranking officer. |
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The 63-page memo (see MEMO here in PDF format), first reported Thursday by the Arizona Republic, blames Arpaio's longtime No. 2 man, Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott, for the alleged criminal wrongdoing.
It comes as a federal grand jury is examining whether Arpaio and allies in the local prosecutor's office abused their power by investigating and prosecuting political foes. Arpaio's department is also the subject of a separate federal civil rights investigation into whether it uses racial profiling while enforcing immigration laws.
The memo to Arpaio, written by Deputy Chief Frank Munnell, is a plea for the sheriff to retake control of the department from Hendershott. Munnell, a 30-year department veteran who oversees patrol operations, called for an outside investigation of his allegations.
The department has asked the neighboring Pinal County Sheriff's Department, run by an Arpaio ally, to look into the accusations.
Arpaio's office said that, as soon as the memo was brought to the sheriff's attention, he asked for an investigation. "We're bending over backward, trying to ensure everyone we're doing what we're supposed to do," department spokesman Lt. Brian Lee said Friday.
Lee said the department could not comment further. In an additional statement, the department urged the public not to "draw any conclusions" until the controversy could be investigated.
Arpaio is a popular and controversial figure in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, and nationwide. He has garnered widespread publicity for forcing jail inmates to wear pink underwear and sleep in tents in the desert sun, as well as for ordering his deputies to aggressively enforce immigration laws.
The wide-ranging memo levies various allegations against Hendershott, who is on medical leave following surgery. Two other top officials named in the document have been placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation.
In his Aug. 17 memo, Munnell states that he fears he has "fallen out of favor" with the sheriff and that he has no desire to see Arpaio removed from office. "These allegations are very serious and threaten the very stability and reputation of your great organization," Munnell wrote. "Although these individuals profess their loyalty to you, it is my belief that you will be outraged by their unethical and reckless behavior."
The most significant part of the memo concerns a search warrant that Hendershott allegedly directed to be served on the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, with whom Arpaio, also a Republican, has been embroiled in a lengthy feud. Arpaio and an ally, former County Atty. Andrew Thomas, filed conflict-of-interest charges against two supervisors that were quickly dismissed by judges as legally unsound.
Those charges, and investigations of the judges and other critics that followed, are believed to be at the heart of the federal grand jury probe.
Munnell wrote that, since the anti-corruption unit was formed in 2007, "it has been the pattern and practice of this unit to conduct politically motivated investigations at the implicit direction of Hendershott."
Munnell wrote that Hendershott ordered the department's anti-corruption team to write the search warrant to raid county offices. But team members refused, saying there were no legal grounds for such a search.
Munnell wrote that Hendershott threatened to "machine-gun" his staff to get them to write a warrant. The next day, a top aide to Thomas urged sheriff's investigators to use "creative writing" to justify the search. The leaders of the squad refused again. Munnell wrote that Hendershott soon replaced several of them.
Munnell also wrote that he, along with other top officials in the agency, donated to the Sheriff's Command Assn., a fund to help burnish Arpaio's image. He was startled to later hear the fund described as solely to promote the image of the department, rather than help Arpaio. Munnell called this an attempt to mislead the public. The fund paid for two ads attacking Arpaio's unsuccessful 2008 challenger, Dan Saban.
The state attorney general launched an inquiry, and Munnell said he spoke with investigators in that case, though he said Hendershott urged him not to. "Sheriff, just as Richard Nixon did not need the help of the Watergate conspirators to win his election, you did not need the ill-advised SCA-funded smear video to win yours," Munnell wrote in his memo.
Munnell also said that Hendershott asked two other sheriff's officials to surveil Saban's meetings in 2008 to see which department employees were supporting him. They refused. In 2000, Munnell writes, Hendershott directed several sheriff's officials to use a volunteer's vehicle to watch a meeting held on behalf of Arpaio's then-challenger to identify department employees who were supporting him.
Arpaio has said that his anti-corruption investigations were legitimate and that ongoing federal investigations into his department are politically motivated. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice sued his office, alleging that Arpaio was refusing to produce basic paperwork in the civil rights probe.
"I find it very unsettling that this office stonewalls all investigations targeting this office, claiming they are political," Munnell wrote. "However, when this office investigates public officials, we have the audacity to publicly criticize their failure to cooperate with our investigators."
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's another related article from another source:
Sheriff Paul Babeu |
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All the Sheriff's, Um, Men
Sheriff Paul Babeu Takes Reins of Sheriff's Office Investigation, Says David Hendershott Should be Put on Leave; What About Arpaio??
OPINION
by Ray Stern
Phoenix New Times
September 17, 2010
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu recommends paid leave for Sheriff Joe Arpaio's chief deputy, David Hendershott, while he investigates allegations of corruption in Arpaio's office.
In a news release e-mailed this evening, Babeu brushes off the claim today by Supervisors Mary Rose Wilcox and Don Stapley that he's not the right person to conduct the investigation. Babeu says Frank Munnell, the deputy chief who penned the damning memo with the allegations, agrees that the Pinal agency can handle the case fairly. |
In the meantime, Babeu says he told Arpaio that Hendershott, Deputy Chief Larry Black and Captain Joel Fox -- the key players in the SCA election scandal -- should be put on paid leave during the investigation. (Arpaio already put Fox and Black on leave.)
According to the news release:
| This leave includes no use of MCSO equipment including email and cell phones and no access to MCSO facilities. Sheriff Babeu further has asked today, that all individuals involved in the investigation be admonished. This means none of the parties involved are permitted to speak with anybody concerning this investigation with the exception of investigators or attorney's.
The Pinal County Sheriff's Office will be conducting the administrative portion of this investigation and all parties involved will be afforded complete due process. The investigation will be unbiased, professional and in the end will be based solely on facts.
To assist with this investigation, Sheriff Babeu will be hiring outside special counsel and other expert staff to assist him with this high level investigation. |
Here's the problem with all this: Babeu must suspect strongly, as anyone with half a brain would, that Arpaio knew all along what Hendershott was doing. That, in turn, means Babeu must know that Arpaio's decision to send Pinal the case is suspicious.
By giving Arpaio's decisions in this matter a shred of credibility, Babeu links himself to the corrupt regime described in Munnell's memo. So what if Munnell isn't accusing Arpaio directly? Obviously, Arpaio is implicated.
Yet Babeu doesn't seem to care.
The whitewash feared by Supervisors Wilcox and Stapley seems to be taking shape.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2010/09/sheriff_paul_babeu_takes_reins.php |
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