Deputies block public meeting to discuss Arpaio

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies and county Protective Services personnel barred dozens of people from entering a county Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday during which the board terminated MCSO’s police services for Guadalupe.

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Deputies stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the county auditorium's main doors, mostly ignoring repeated questions and taunts by members of a citizens group, the Maricopa Citizens for Safety and Accountability, who had sought to be placed on the meeting's agenda.

Deputies refused admittance to people they believed to be affiliated with the citizens group, and most others.

However, they allowed in a few people they thought were not associated with the citizens group as well as some members of the media. The citizens group has attended the past three monthly supervisors meetings to plead for more oversight of the sheriff's office.

The supervisors continued official business for about 90 minutes, voting to end the county's contract with Guadalupe, while the protesters gathered noisily outside, shouting slogans and arguing with deputies.

Supervisors eventually were made aware that people were being kept out and took a 45-minute break, asking county legal counsel whether they were in violation of the state's Open Meetings Law, which requires access to public meetings. It was only after that did deputies open the doors and the supervisors resumed their agenda, but by then, the Guadalupe matter had been decided and most people affiliated with the citizens group had dispersed.

The meeting was sidetracked soon after it began when about 15 members of the citizens group, who were inside the auditorium, began shouting at the supervisors, seeking to be put on the agenda - after protesters and officials said the Pledge of Allegiance together. The group has petitioned for months to be able to discuss their concerns about Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Deputies ordered one of the group's leaders, Randy Parraz, to leave and escorted him out of the auditorium to an outdoor plaza. Other members of the group and some reporters followed. Once they were outside, deputies and Protective Services personnel blocked access to the meeting. Some people were allowed to remain in the building and a select few were let in through a side door.

About 30 uniformed and plainclothes lawmen watched the crowd from all angles.

Supervisor Don Stapley, R-Dist. 2, said he was unaware that access to the meeting had been barred for so long. He said he was told that members of the citizens group tried to "rush the door" to regain access after they left. "When they became violent with the sheriff's deputies and the security people, they locked the door, only after they became violent," Stapley said.

But no one had rushed the door, and there was no violence.

An aide to Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, D-Dist. 5, said Wilcox also did not know that the doors were barred.

It was not immediately clear who made the decision to close the meeting.

MCSO spokesman Paul Chagolla said deputies were working under the direction of Protective Services officials, who normally man the airport-style metal detectors in the lobby. Protective Services personnel on site declined to say more than that the building had closed, and later the agency's officials could not be reached for comment.

Guadalupe resident Francisco Lopez was turned away at the door.

"Several of us came over to find out what's happening and they won't let us in. This is not a democracy," said the retired federal mediator. "I'm a Vietnam vet. I fought for this country and I can't even go in to find out what's happening to my own community. That's ridiculous."