Arizona Sheriff's Office

Globe has me thinking it is like a Gestapo headquarters down there.

"Ariz. sheriff quits congressional race" ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 12, 2012

PHOENIX - A conservative Arizona sheriff whose congressional campaign took a hit when he disclosed that he was gay amid allegations that he threatened a former Mexican boyfriend with deportation dropped out Friday, opting to run for reelection.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, a Republican, is known for his hardline stance on illegal immigration and border security and was considered a strong candidate in a three-way primary in the Fourth Congressional District, which covers most of northwestern Arizona.

His image took a beating in February when the boyfriend said the sheriff threatened him with deportation if he disclosed their relationship.  

Related: Babeu's Boo-Boo

After Babeu’s disclosures, he stepped down as cochairman for likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s Arizona campaign, and his fundraising dropped.

In announcing the end of his congressional bid, Babeu said he would seek reelection as sheriff because his chief deputy cannot run for the office. Babeu cited an earlier promise to constituents that he would maintain a continuity of leadership.

However, Republican political consultant Bert Coleman said the disclosures hurt Babeu.

“That’s why he decided to drop out. He knows he must mend a lot of fences on his home turf. But as far as a congressional race, he was a nonstarter,’’ Coleman said.

Babeu’s chances of reelection as sheriff are probably good, Coleman said.

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"Ariz. sheriff defiant in face of US rights suit; Office accused of racial violations" by Jacques Billeaud  |  Associated Press, May 11, 2012

PHOENIX - As defiant as ever, get-tough Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a federal court showdown over charges that deputies on his trademark immigration patrols in Arizona racially profiled Latinos in violation of civil rights law. 

Also see: Apathetic About Arizona Post

It's not just those, either. I'm apathetic about anything I find in a Boston Globe these days.

After months of negotiations failed to reach a settlement over the allegations, the US Justice Department took the rare step Thursday of suing.... 

Related: I Sued the Sheriff

Well, not that rare.

The main issue that caused talks to break down last month was federal officials’ insistence that Arpaio agree to a court-appointed monitor for the department. Arpaio objected, saying it would undermine his authority.

“I am not going to surrender my office to the federal government,’’ a visibly angry Arpaio said at an afternoon news conference. 

He's on solid legal ground there. Sheriffs are supposed to be sovereign.

The lawsuit means that a federal judge will decide the escalating, longstanding dispute.  

Looks like a stacked deck to me.

The Justice Department had filed another lawsuit against Arpaio that alleged his office refused to fully cooperate with a request for records and access to jails and employees. It was settled last summer after the office complied.  

But he's defiant the headline tells me.

The latest lawsuit comes as part of the Justice Department’s effort to enforce a law passed after the verdict in the Rodney King police brutality case and the Los Angeles riots. It bans police from systematically violating constitutional rights.  

Of course, this is the same Justice Department that declared torture legal and absolves its agents of violations all the time. That is not to absolve the local hand of tyranny; however, it is sort of a pot-hollering-kettle situation.

The Justice Department first leveled the allegations against Arpaio in December, saying a culture of disregard for basic constitutional rights prevailed at his office, which covers the Phoenix metropolitan area.  

Same in D.C.!!!!

Arpaio’s office is accused of punishing Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish and launching some patrols based on complaints that never reported a crime but conveyed concerns about dark-skinned people congregating or speaking Spanish.  

Now he's acting like an occupying army, isn't he?

The Justice Department has been trying to require Arpaio’s office to train officers in how to make constitutional traffic stops, collect data on people arrested in traffic stops and assure Latinos that the department is there to protect them.  

Yeah, thank the Lord the U.S. Justice Department is looking out for your rights, huh?

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"Arizona sheriff mocks inquiry in ’09 audiotape" April 23, 2012

PHOENIX - An audio recording has surfaced of an Arizona sheriff using his refusal to cooperate in a racial profiling investigation to get laughs at a fund-raiser for an anti-illegal-immigration group in Texas.  

Oh, is that what pissed off the federalis?

Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County sheriff, ridicules politicians who sought the inquiry and displayed contempt toward federal authorities who were - and are - investigating him.

The dismissive comments in 2009 came as the Justice Department had already launched a civil rights inquiry of his trademark immigration patrols and the FBI already was examining abuse-of-power allegations for the sheriff’s investigations of political foes....  

Yeah, the federal government has been after this guy for years.

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"Justices seem to side with Ariz. immigration law; Questions focus on whether state has power to act" by Adam Liptak  |  New York Times, April 26, 2012

WASHINGTON - Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared inclined to uphold a controversial part of Arizona’s aggressive 2010 immigration law, based on their questions Wednesday at a Supreme Court argument.

“You can see it’s not selling very well,’’ Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a member of the court’s liberal wing and its first Hispanic justice, told Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr., referring to a central part of his argument.

Verrilli, representing the federal government, had urged the court to strike down part of the law requiring state law enforcement officials to determine the immigration status of people they stop and suspect are not lawfully present in the United States.

“Why don’t you try to come up with something else?’’ Sotomayor asked Verrilli....

Most of the argument concerned requiring state officials to check immigration status in some circumstances. Several justices said states were entitled to enact such provisions.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the state law merely requires that the federal government be informed of immigration violations and leaves enforcement decisions to it.

“It seems to me that the federal government just doesn’t want to know who is here illegally or not,’’ he said.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer suggested that he would be prepared to uphold the provision if it were clear the process of checking immigration status would not result in “detention for a significantly longer time’’ than in the ordinary case.

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Related:  "A decision in the case is expected in late June."

Also see: Politics to test justices again with Ariz. illegal immigrant law

Any calls reporting crime?

"A man fatally shot four people, including a toddler, at a home in a Phoenix suburb Wednesday before being found dead, authorities said."

"Ariz. man with ties to militia groups believed to have killed 4, himself" Associated Press, May 04, 2012

GILBERT, Ariz. - Police said Thursday that they believe a former Marine with ties to neo-Nazi and Minutemen groups shot four people and then took his own life in a suburban Phoenix home.

Gilbert police Sergeant Bill Balafas said authorities believe Jason Todd Ready, 39, was the gunman in Wednesday’s shootings in a home in Gilbert.

Ready lived in the home with a woman who was among the dead.

Killed in addition to Ready’s girlfriend were the woman’s daughter and young granddaughter, and the daughter’s boyfriend, news reports said.

Ready was known in Arizona for organizing a militia with the goal of finding illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. Known as “J.T.,’’ Ready led an outfit known as the US Border Guard that dressed in military fatigues and body armor and carried assault rifles during patrols for illegal immigrants in the desert south of Phoenix....

Ready took offense at the term neo-Nazi, but acknowledged he had identified with the National Socialist Movement, an organization that believes only non-Jewish, white heterosexuals should be American citizens and that everyone who is not white should leave the country “peacefully or by force.’’

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"Man gets prison in Ariz. accident" Associated Press, April 28, 2012

WINSLOW, Ariz. - A Norwegian man who took a wrong turn onto a one-way street in an Arizona town and drove through a street festival has been sentenced to more than seven years in state prison.

John Kristoffer Larsgard, 33, was convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and six other charges in Navajo County last month. A reporter for Norway’s largest paper, VG, wrote about the trial in March, drawing international attention.

Larsgard’s lawyer said the case is a miscarriage of justice involving a confused driver....  

Larsgard and his mother, Liv Larsgard of Oslo, were driving across the United States when they had car trouble in Winslow, Ariz., last September, The Arizona Republic reported. They left the car there, got a rental car in another town, and returned to pick up their possessions.

When they arrived back in the northwestern Arizona city, they found an annual festival underway.

Faced with numerous street closures, the pair soon were lost, and John Larsgard turned onto a crowded one-way street headed the wrong way.

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"Despite wide search, no sign of missing Tucson girl; Police say parents are cooperating with investigators" by Terry Tang  |  Associated Press, April 23, 2012

TUCSON - Police kept a whole neighborhood block where a missing 6-year-old Arizona girl lives cordoned off Sunday for a second day, and scoured a wide area of the city for clues to her possible kidnapping.

The parents of Isabel Mercedes Celis asked their parish priest for prayers as volunteers passed out fliers across Tucson and more than 150 law enforcement officers tried to figure out whether she had been abducted.

Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villasenor said at a news conference that officers working on the case had served at least two search warrants but had no new clues in the disappearance of the first-grader.

He said the girl’s parents, identified by friends as Becky and Sergio Celis, were helpful as police worked to find their youngest child. He said police still were classifying the case as a “suspicious disappearance/possible abduction.’’

“We’re not ruling anything out of the investigation at this point because we really need to keep our minds open about all the information that’s been brought to us,’’ Villasenor said. “The family has been cooperating with us.’’

The Celises last saw their daughter in her bedroom at their Tucson home at 11 p.m. Friday and discovered her missing at about 8 a.m. Saturday, police spokeswoman Sergeant Maria Hawke said. The parents phoned 911 minutes later.

Investigators are looking into several theories, including the possibility Isabel wandered out of the home she shares with her parents and two brothers.

Hawke said Sunday the wandering off theory was becoming less likely as time passed.

After a fruitless day of searching Saturday, officials continued the hunt Sunday morning, Hawke said.

About 75 to 100 officers were taking part at any given time, including police, FBI agents, and deputy US marshals.

Teams combed a large swath of Tucson on Saturday into the evening using street patrols, dogs, and a helicopter. At one point late Saturday, communications operator Patrick Olea said the area encompassed “pretty much the entire east side.’’

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Friends said Becky Celis has not been allowed to join the search for her daughter.

Mary Littlehorn, who has worked with Becky Celis as a registered nurse at Tucson Medical Center for five years, said the couple have been together since they were teenagers and dote on their sons and daughter.

She said Isabel, whose nickname is Isa, loves to play baseball and dance; the girl was supposed to play in a baseball game Saturday....

In New York, investigators are digging up the basement of a building in the SoHo neighborhood in connection to the 1979 disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz. That search was halted for the day Sunday, partly because of heavy rain, but is expected to resume Monday morning.

Patz was on his way to his school bus stop when he disappeared. He would have passed the stairwell leading to the basement during his walk, and authorities launched the search after an FBI dog detected the scent of human remains in the room....

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UPDATES: Jackhammers used in search for long-missing NYC child

Agonizing search along Rockport’s Long Beach

Police end search for missing toddler in Rockport

Search in Rockport for missing toddler called off

Police have no evidence girl was abducted

What happened to our own Caylee?