Federal judge strips Arpaio of some internal affairs oversight

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered sweeping reforms over the Maricopa County Sheriff''s Office's internal affairs division, stripping its leaders of autonomy over disciplinary actions related to the long-running racial-profiling case against the agency. 

The order comes two months after U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow found Sheriff Joe Arpaio and three of his aides in civil contempt of court for violating three of his orders stemming from the class-action case.

The contempt hearings, which spanned 21 days in the spring and fall of 2015, were scheduled to address these violations, but often veered into internal-affairs policies. Plaintiffs' attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and others framed the agency's self-policing as a farce and said the professional-standards bureau worked only to excuse bad behavior. 

The order does not address two more issues left open by the contempt hearings: how much victims of illegal detention should be paid in compensation, and whether Snow would refer Arpaio and his aides for criminal contempt of court. 

Attorneys will make arguments for the latter Friday in a federal court hearing in downtown Phoenix. 

Wednesday's order applies to internal investigations relating to the underlying racial-profiling case and its many offshoots. It orders misconduct training for supervisors, a relinquishment of some internal affairs authority to an independent monitor, and gives an independent investigator and disciplinary authority to review internal investigations the court already found "inadequate or insufficient." 

Snow named the independent investigator as Daniel Giaquinto and the independent disciplinary authority as Daniel Alonso. 

In his order, Snow said Arpaio and his aides "manipulated all aspects of the internal affairs process to minimize or entirely avoid imposing discipline on MCSO deputies and command staff."

"The facts of this case are particularly egregious and extraordinary," he wrote. "The MCSO’s constitutional violations are broad in scope, involve its highest ranking command staff, and flow into its management of internal affairs investigations. Thus the necessary remedies — tailored to the violations at issue — must reach that far." 

Wednesday's order did not come as a surprise. Hearings and court filings in the past several weeks have outlined what both defense and plaintiffs' attorneys viewed as fitting remedies after the contempt finding.

Arpaio's attorneys did not explicitly object to relinquishing some control over internal affairs but asked that Arpaio have final say over terminations. Snow's ruling did not allow this exception; it said employees could appeal any serious disciplinary actions to the Maricopa County Law Enforcement Merit System Council.

The council, by law, is able to vacate discipline. 

Plaintiffs' and defense attorneys on Tuesday evening each filed their proposals for the victim compensation portion of the case's remedies. Victims were defined as Latinos who, after December 2011, were detained by sheriff's deputies for no other reason than suspicion that they were in the country illegally.

Snow banned the agency from enforcing immigration law in December 2011, but the contempt proceedings showed that this practice continued for at least a year and a half afterward. 

Plaintiffs' and defense attorneys largely have agreed on how to compensate the victims but still differ on the dollar amount.

Plaintiffs' attorneys are asking for $1,500 for detention lasting up to one hour, plus $200 for each additional 20 minutes. Defense attorneys argued those figures should be $500 up to an hour and $35 for each additional 20 minutes.