Contempt hearing: MCSO sergeant undermines Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s testimony

This week, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio swore under oath that a federal judge’s name kept appearing in an investigation because the judge was an alleged victim of bank fraud.

The defense was meant to counter a more nefarious suggestion by plaintiffs: That Arpaio was leading the charge in a probe meant to discredit U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow, who ruled against Arpaio's agency in a racial-profiling case.

On Friday, a sergeant who was once a key player in the investigation — dubbed the “Seattle Operation” — testified he never heard Snow’s name mentioned as part of the 150,000 Maricopa County residents whose bank accounts were allegedly hacked by the Central Intelligence Agency.

It was these victims that Arpaio claimed prompted him to employ a Seattle-based confidential informant named Dennis Montgomery as part of the investigation.

Montgomery said he was once a contractor for the CIA, and that he had stolen information from the agency that would validate his claims.

But the information Montgomery provided to the Sheriff’s Office at times seemed to stray from this mission.

He submitted various versions of timelines and flowcharts, each purporting collaboration between Snow, a law firm representing the plaintiffs and the Department of Justice, which had filed their own racial-profiling case against Arpaio.

The question is did Montgomery introduce the Sheriff's Office to Snow-related documents in a futile attempt to squeeze more funds from the agency? Or were the documents products of an assignment encouraged by the six-term sheriff?

On Friday, Sgt. Travis Anglin took the witness stand in the ongoing civil-contempt case against Arpaio and a handful of his aides.

For a few months in early 2014, Anglin was asked to join a Sheriff’s Office detective and a cold-case posse member to oversee the Montgomery investigation. While Arpaio’s testimony downplayed his interest in the operation, Anglin said his boss was calling posse member Mike Zullo almost daily for updates.

Anglin said he was skeptical of Montgomery’s credentials from day one, and his distrust of the confidential informant only deepened in the months they worked together.

But Anglin painted a picture of a sheriff who was deaf to attacks on Montgomery’s character. He favored the opinion of a posse member who championed an investigation into President Barack Obama's birthplace over the opinions of Anglin, the 18-year veteran said.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio has always done it his way

Anglin said he told Arpaio the case wouldn’t pass the “headline test,” and that he should cut ties with Montgomery. Zullo disagreed.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Michelle Morin asked how Arpaio responded.

“Well, we continued with the case,” Anglin said.

In early 2014, Anglin, Zullo and Det. Brian Mackiewicz were sent to Washington state two or three times a month. They were to oversee Montgomery as he reportedly worked to unearth proof of the CIA scandal buried in various hard drives.

Anglin said he met with Arpaio before and after each trip, at times for more than an hour. At one point during this time, Arpaio spotted Anglin in the office and asked why he was there and not in Seattle.

“I said I still had a unit to run,” Anglin said in court Friday. “He said, ‘This is more important than your unit.’ ”

Anglin testified that he and Mackiewicz sometimes would walk out of the room when Montgomery began talking about information other than the banking investigation, such as the Obama "birther" investigation, leaving Zullo alone with the informant.

Anglin said he eventually advised Arpaio to distance himself from both Zullo and Montgomery.

“He asked me who the f--k I thought I was,” Anglin said.

The sheriff then went on explain that Zullo actually had solved the Obama birth-certificate case, and that Anglin had no right to criticize him.

Within weeks, Anglin was advised by Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan that he was off the case.

Throughout the plaintiffs’ examination, Morin attempted to illuminate how Snow factored into the equation.

Morin touched on Arpaio’s assertion that Snow was reportedly one of the 150,000 victims whose bank accounts were compromised.

“I don’t ever remember hearing his name as part of the bank accounts,” Anglin said.

Plaintiffs additionally introduced screen shots taken from Anglin’s phone, which showed text conversations between him and Zullo near the end of 2013.

In one, Zullo wrote:

“Sgt. Received this from OZ (alias for Dennis Montgomery) just a little while ago. He’s mapping out cellphone calls and then line calls back to 2009 involving Judge Snow. This stuff looks promising.”

But Anglin’s testimony also indicated he truly believed the investigation was about the CIA scheme, rather than a front for a retaliatory investigation against Snow.

Anglin said he was ordered in clear terms by Sheridan not to investigate Snow or Obama's birth certificate.

Arpaio did ask about two or three times throughout the investigation whether Snow’s name came up, Anglin said, but Anglin would quickly shoot down this line of inquiry.

“That’s not the information we’re seeking, subsequently that wasn’t the information we were getting,” he said.

During defense’s examination, attorney Joe Popolizio attempted to mitigate Anglin’s testimony that raised doubts about Snow being on a list of bank fraud victims.

Anglin admitted that he did not see every name on the list of 150,000 names.

Civil-contempt hearings will resume Tuesday.