A federal judge on Thursday granted the Justice Department permission to intervene in a private lawsuit filed against Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joseph Arpaio to make sure he is implementing court-ordered reforms after his office was found to be involved in racial profiling.
A federal court held in May 2013 that Arpaio's department used racial profiling and illegal detentions to target Latinos with its traffic enforcement practices, violating the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, reports The Weekly Standard. The class-action suit was brought by Ortega Melendres, a Mexican tourist who said he was unlawfully detained for nine hours after a traffic stop in 2007.
"As a party in the Melendres case, the Department of Justice can now work together with the court, the plaintiffs and the independent monitor to ensure that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office meaningfully implements the court-ordered reforms so that the constitutional rights of all people of Maricopa County are protected," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Kappelhoff of the Civil Rights Division said in a statement released Thursday. "The Constitution guarantees that all people receive the equal protection of the law, and the department is now positioned to ensure that this important right is upheld."
The Board of Supervisors for Maricopa County agreed last month to settle part of a parallel Justice Department lawsuit against Maricopa County and Arpaio. The lawsuit alleged Arpaio acted unconstitutionally retaliating against public officials, punishing jail inmates for speaking Spanish, and conducting workplace raids targeting Latinos, according to UPI.
Meanwhile, Arpaio is petitioning an appeals court to have federal Judge G. Murray Snow removed from the case after Snow's wife admitted to friends that her husband "hates" Arpaio and wants him gone from office, according to The Washington Times.
Snow already rejected Arpaio's request to step down, so the Arizona lawman took the matter to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"The court, clearly angry over the suggestion that he hates the sheriff and would do what it takes to get him out of office, morphed from objective adjudicator into an advocate, giving his own testimony, asking leading questions, becoming argumentative with the putative contemnors when they testified, and taking 'evidence' from outside of court," Arpaio said in his filing, reports the Times.
The 82-year-old Republican, who calls himself "America's toughest sheriff," is currently running for his seventh term as sheriff.
