It was February 2009, and Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s deputies were the talk of the Phoenix area. Nido’s relatives avoided parts of town when they swept through, wary of being stopped for something as minor as jaywalking and asked for immigration papers.
The deputy followed Nido, a U.S. citizen, to his home in Tempe. When Nido got out of his car, he said, the deputy ran him over.
Without naming Nido, the Justice Department detailed the incident in a scathing report last week accusing Arpaio’s agency of bullying Latinos under the guise of immigration enforcement. Justice Department officials are expected to ask a federal judge to order changes in Arpaio’s department, and the Homeland Security Department has stripped county jail officers of their authority to detain people on immigration charges.
Arpaio has derided the federal actions as part of a political witch hunt, and staged a media event this week when his detention officers turned in their Immigration and Customs Enforcement credentials. “We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration,” he said at a recent news conference.
The Justice Department report omitted the names of victims of harassment by deputies. But by matching incidents in the report to lawsuits and other complaints, The Times was able to identify some victims.
Many people said Arpaio inspired paranoia, even among Phoenix’s elite. Among those hassled and indicted were critics — a group that included judges, lawyers and Maricopa County supervisors.
One critic, Republican Supervisor Don Stapley, was arrested — twice. None of the charges, which involved Stapley’s fundraising and financial disclosure forms, stuck. Democratic Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox was indicted on a host of similar white-collar charges. All were dismissed.
Wilcox claimed the sheriff also had deputies camp outside her downtown Mexican restaurant, El Portal, to convince patrons it was bugged — a factor that contributed to the restaurant’s closure, she said in court papers.More at LA Times
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