PHOENIX (AP) — There were no TV cameras, no scrum of reporters, no protesters — and there was no swagger inside the courtroom when the typically brash Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio took the stand to face critics who say he and his deputies racially profile Hispanics.
Under questioning from lawyers representing a group Latinos who are suing him and his department, Arpaio spoke in a hush, offering that he was suffering from the flu.
He was asked: Why did you call illegal immigrants "dirty?"
The Maricopa County sheriff responded quietly, clearing his throat often, and saying the statement was taken out of context. He added that if a person were to cross the U.S.-Mexico border on foot over four days in the desert that person "could be dirty."
"That's the context on how I used that word," he said.
The case represents the first time the sheriff's office has been accused of systematic racial profiling and will serve as a precursor to a similar yet broader civil rights lawsuit filed against Arpaio by the U.S. Justice Department.
Arpaio has long denied racial profiling allegations and said Tuesday, "We don't arrest people because of the color of their skin."
Letters in the sheriff's immigration file took center stage during his more than five hours of testimony — as did his previous statements, which critics say show prejudiced thinking on his part.
Lawyers in court asked Arpaio: What about your statement on a national TV news show saying you considered a 2007 comparison between your department and the Ku Klux Klan "an honor"?
Arpaio responded that he doesn't consider the comparison an honor, adding that he has no use for the KKK.
The plaintiffs' attorneys also turned to Arpaio's famous practice of putting county jail inmates in pink underwear, using statements he made during a 2009 speech to an anti-illegal immigration group in Houston.
"I always have an official reason so I can win the lawsuits," Arpaio said, after stating the pink shorts are less likely to be smuggled out of jail and sold on the black market.
"And then I have my reasons," he went on. "And my reason is they hate pink. They do. They may like it in California, but they don't like it in Arizona."
He was asked whether he says one thing in court and does another when he leaves.
"This is in humor," Arpaio said. "I make sure we do things properly in case I get sued."
The group of Latinos who say they have been discriminated against say Arpaio launched some immigration sweeps based on emails and letters that don't allege crimes, but complain only that "dark-skinned people" are congregating in a given area or speaking Spanish.
During the sweeps, sheriff's deputies flood an area of a city — in some cases, heavily Latino areas — over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders.
Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by Arpaio's office since January 2008, according to figures provided by the sheriff's department, which hasn't conducted any such patrols since October.
Arpaio was asked whether a white person was ever arrested on an immigration violation during the first two years of such sweeps, to which he replied, "I can't recall."
The plaintiffs aren't seeking money in the suit. They are seeking a declaration that Arpaio's office racially profiles Latinos and an order requiring policy changes.
If Arpaio loses the case, he won't face jail time or fines. If he wins, it would be likely to severely undercut the government's case against him.
The plaintiffs say deputies conducting Arpaio's sweeps pulled over Hispanics without probable cause, making the stops only to inquire about the immigration status of the people in the vehicles.
The sheriff maintained that people are stopped only if authorities have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of the people stopped are illegal immigrants.
Plaintiff's lawyers say Arpaio endorsed calls for racial profiling with the sweeps by passing along the ambiguous and racially-charged complaint letters to aides who planned his immigration enforcement efforts and carried out at least three patrols after receiving the letters.
They also point out that Arpaio wrote thank-you notes to some who sent complaints.
Arpaio's attorneys denied that the letters and emails prompted the sheriff to launch the patrols with a discriminatory motive. His lawyers called the complaints racially insensitive and said aides to the sheriff — not Arpaio himself — decided where to conduct the patrols. They also said there was nothing wrong with the thank-you notes.
"He sends thank-you letters because he is an elected official," Tim Casey, the lawyer leading Arpaio's defense, said during opening arguments.
In an August 2008 letter, a woman wrote about a Sun City restaurant: "From the staff at the register to the staff back in the kitchen area, all I heard was Spanish — except when they haltingly spoke to a customer." The letter ended with a suggestion that the sheriff investigate.
Arpaio made a handwritten note in the margins saying, "letter thank you for info will look into it" and that the complaint should be sent to aide Brian Sands, who selects locations for sweeps, with a notation saying "for our operation." The sheriff's office launched a sweep two weeks later in Sun City.
Arpaio said in response to a question about the letter Tuesday that speaking Spanish is not a crime and that he sent the note to Sands for "him for whatever he wants to do with it."
Arpaio also said he generally passed along the letters that called for immigration enforcement in a particular area to his subordinates, but didn't do the planning for the sweeps.
"I just send this info to my subordinates so they could ask for it. I don't agree with every letter I receive," Arpaio said.
"We should never racially profile," Arpaio said. "It's immoral, illegal."
Dale Whiting posted at 6:23 am on Wed, Jul 25, 2012.
Perjury = lying under oath. When Arpaio says the "dirt" comment was taken out of context, we all know he's lying. If illegal aliens have become contaminated by soil while crossing the boarder, they are not "dirt." They are "dirty!" Those of us who came to know Sheriff Joe early on in his elected career know him well. It's he who is dirt!
Centrist posted at 6:28 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
Brittanicus,
Your comments are scary. If you knew how "anti-American" they truly are, I doubt you would be voiceing them. I am sorry someone lead you so astray. Good luck finding your way home.
Brittanicus posted at 6:14 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
This court action is nothing but a Witch Hunt, that is aimed at anybody or state that dares to conflict with their Liberal-Marxist agenda. Arizona is flooded by people from South of the border, so it just is going to happen when they are raided by the police. Americans have to remember also that the ACLU was founded by a Communist and has been one of the principle invaders of our freedoms. Isn’t it time the politicians living the high life in Washington, do something for the American taxpayers? Isn’t it time we stopped being scammed by illegal aliens for over $100.000.000.000. Isn’t it time we enacted the ‘Legal Workforce Act and the Birthright citizenship Act? Isn’t it time that the state of Arizona gets to keep its money, instead of forced by unfunded mandates to pay for illegal aliens and their children? All those who genuflect to the 20 million plus illegal aliens will be under an attack themselves, when the TEA PARTY becomes a overall majority in the Republican Party.
Brittanicus posted at 6:14 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
Both political party pro-illegal immigrant supporters will be seeing the exit to their seats as Senators and House Congressman in November or even earlier. You cannot even count how many TEA PARTY there are now, as they are from every skin color, religion and party affiliate. These are the millions of Americans who have seen enough incompetence, greed and power. The TEA PARTY will clean Washington of all the lawmakers who do the bidding of campaign contributors, the special interest organization, radical ethnic groups, church, unions and a whole slew of entities. Better be very aware in any election as illegal aliens will be voting if Obama’s czarist get their way.
Brittanicus posted at 6:12 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
I am a TEA PARTY person and I am sick of paying for people want don’t want to work collecting welfare and catering to anybody who can smuggle themselves through airports or access the border into this sovereign country. The U.S Attorney General Eric Holder is nothing but a heavy duty Socialist and he will be quickly removed from office. Under Obama we are becoming a nation of dependents, as with Europe—spending money we no longer have. Now the Obama miscreants are driving up the U.S. Treasury deficit, by offering illegal aliens food stamps.
IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHO THE REAL CROOKS ARE IN CONGRESS, JUST GO TO THE JUDICIALWATCH DOT ORG SITE.
Accuracy posted at 4:38 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
Joe Arpaio has been Maricopa County sheriff since 1992. Sheriff Joe took the stand Tuesday to defend his deputies against allegations of racial profiling . . . and if the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office loses this civil trial case, Sheriff Joe won't face jail time or fines.
It was Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Justice Department that filed the lawsuit against the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office over allegations of civil rights violations, including the racial profiling of Latinos. Obama Administration Lawyers say that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Office disproportionately singled out Latinos in the patrols.
The trial is expected to close next week, and it will be decided by U.S. District Judge Murray Snow.
fd123456789 posted at 4:34 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
It not racial profiling if you stop everyone commiting a crime during the sweep.
Keep up the good work Joe, You have my vote again.
downtownresident posted at 3:48 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
Joe's a bigoted old man. Senile, too.
I don't know how any intelligent person could vote for him.
He's guilty.
a small voice in the back of the room posted at 3:46 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
pawzza: 99.9% figure. Not sure where you get your information but according the Dept. of Homeland Security there are 4,160,000 illegal immigrants from nations outside of Mexico. In fact the influx of Candadian illegal immigrants is rising as well as the asian immigrant.
The thing of it is that when you have a state in which the mass majority of the population are American-Mexicans, you cannot base your search for illegals on apparence alone and that is exactly what Arpio is doing. It also has led him to neglect other very important issues such as sexual crimes being committed. Now the brainiac thing your going to say is that those sexual crimes are beign committed by illegals, and again you would be incorrect. The majority of sexual crimes are committed by white males between 19 and 35.
I suggest next time you post something you first grow a brain and do the research.
Centrist posted at 3:36 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
arizonaboy, turn in your hate card...No need to be so upset. I watch people of different races doing those things you discuss above. It is not their color of skin or country of origin that is causing them to act this way. Open your mind and you will be set free from the ignorance-driven hate you currently are controlled by. In short, try to understand how investigating/arresting someone merely because law enforcement objects to their color of skin or chosen spoken language is a violation of one's civil rights. It is good to enforce laws, but it is bad to enforce them poorly.
chuckles3 posted at 3:36 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
'Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by Arpaio's office since January 2008'
Umm, yea. Seems like what he is doing is getting adequate results.
What percentage of illegals are Hispanic?
If only he would raid the 'White'ares of the city, we could nab all those illegal Irish immigrants....
arizonaboy posted at 2:04 pm on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
Sheriff Joe still has and always will have my vote. I for one dont have much use for mexicans. I watch them destroy neighborhoods, including mine, drop their trash on the ground and keep walking, they're loud, dirty, ignorant drain on the USA. I would love to see the Aisan people move in and the mexicans go back to mexico.
pawzza posted at 9:02 am on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
Since 99.9% of the illegals in AZ are Hispanic and speak Spanish kinda explains why the Sheriff and any law enforcement officer might have an inclination as to who might be here illegally. If someone is here working and cannot speak a word of English, pretty much says it all. You think if I being white went to mexico and tried to work and use all their social services they might not suspect I was Illegal?
phxvato1202 posted at 7:03 am on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
So is this in the courts or at the movie theatre?? And is the title of the Movie LIAR? LIAR? starring sheriff joe arpaio.
Are there any bets on how many I don't recall answers there will be?
SethCold posted at 7:03 am on Tue, Jul 24, 2012.
We are so use to having wimpy people run this country, and are afraid to say the truth. Truth is that the government in office right now would love to have the Latino vote. They are good at counterfeiting documents, and we know this, but rather turn our heads and deny the truth.