Sheriff Joe Arpaio, veggie server, about to be roasted.

Only a marketing magician like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio could transform an all-vegetarian meal into a bunch of baloney.

But that's what he did last week, staging one last publicity stunt before he is scheduled to appear Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Murray Snow in a contempt hearing.

Arpaio tried to divert attention from his troubles with a made-for-the-media event featuring former "Bay Watch" actress Pamela Anderson, who serves as a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The idea was to provide a photo opportunity for Arpaio as well as a chance for him to speak about the cheap, meatless meals he's serving to those detained in the county's jail system.

Media outlets in town could not resist covering the event – although we should have.

It was harmless enough, I suppose, except perhaps to the sensibilities of those who believe they'd been targeted and discriminated against by Arpaio's department and wonder why the media still falls for his self-serving antics.

Even so, Arpaio went ducking for cover when reporters started asking questions about the contempt hearing and the multimillion-dollar cost of implementing a court order Arpaio's department has been under.

This week Arpaio will go from serving vegetables to inmates to getting roasted by Judge Snow.

In 2013, Snow found that Arpaio's deputies had disproportionately targeted Latinos during their traffic operations. The ruling extended to both regular and "saturation" patrols, where deputies would flood predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods. The federal appellate court largely agrees with that.

Now Snow will hold a hearing to determine the extent to which Arpaio and those in his office violated court orders.

The sheriff has tried to avoid the hearing. He and his second-in-command, Jerry Sheridan, have acknowledged the violations and offered to make a $100,000 donation from their own pockets to a civil rights group.

But the hearing will go on.

Cecillia Wang, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights Project, which represents the plaintiffs in the case said, "The evidence that we will be putting on in the contempt proceeding calls out for further remedies on internal investigations."

None of this is good for a sheriff who says that he plans to see a seventh term in office. For months he's been sending out e-mails soliciting contributions to the many "patriots" on his long list of supporters.

On the "Re-elect Sheriff Joe Arpaio" website a note from Arpaio reads in part, "It's going to take a lot of resources to combat the attacks and false allegations against me and my deputies. We anticipate the hardest campaign in Maricopa County history to remove me due to my unyielding stance on illegal immigration enforcement."

Arpaio is vulnerable to the right challenger. But in all the years since 1992 no such challenger has emerged.

The sheriff's most vehement critics hope one won't be needed. They'd like to see Arpaio dressed in prison stripes along with the other inmates in his jail, dining on a vegetarian meal.

I wouldn't count on that.

But he will be eating crow.