Joe Arpaio: Difference between revisions

Joe Arpaio
Arpaio speaking in Phoenix on February 26, 2011
Maricopa County Sheriff
Incumbent
Assumed office January 1, 1993
Preceded by	Tom Agnos
Personal details
Born	Joseph M. Arpaio (1932-06-14) June 14, 1932 (age 92) Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ava Arpaio
Occupation	Sheriff

Joseph M. "Joe" Arpaio (born June 14, 1932) is the five-time elected sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. First voted into office in 1992, Arpaio is responsible for law enforcement in Maricopa County. This includes management of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, county jail, courtroom security, prisoner transport, service of warrants, and service of process. Arpaio styles himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff."^[1][2] He is well known for his outspoken stance against illegal immigration.^[3] Arpaio has become a flashpoint for controversy surrounding Arizona's SB1070 anti-illegal immigration act.^[4] He is also known for his cold posse investigation of President Barack Obama's birth certificate.^[5][6][7]

Arpaio was born Joseph M. Arpaio in Springfield, Massachusetts on June 14, 1932, to Italian parents both from Lacedonia, Italy.^[8] Arpaio's mother died while giving birth to him, and Arpaio was raised by his father, a grocery store owner. Arpaio completed high school and worked in his father's business until age 18 when he enlisted in the United States Army.^[9]

Arpaio served in the Army from 1950 to 1954 in the Medical Detachment Division and was stationed in France for part of the time as a military policeman.^[10]

Following his discharge in 1954, Arpaio moved to Washington, D.C. and became a police officer, moving in 1957 to Las Vegas, Nevada. He served as a police officer in Las Vegas for six months before being appointed as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which later became part of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).^[11] During his 25-year tenure with the DEA, he was stationed in Argentina, Turkey and Mexico, and advanced through the ranks to the position of head of the DEA's Arizona branch.^[12]

In 1992, Arpaio successfully campaigned for the office of Maricopa County Sheriff. The voters of Maricopa County re-elected him in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008.^[13]

Arpaio married his wife Ava in 1958. Together, they have two children and four grandchildren.^[14] They currently reside in Fountain Hills, Arizona.^[15]

As elected Sheriff, Arpaio is the top law enforcement officer in Maricopa County.^[16] He is personally responsible for law enforcement in Maricopa County, including running the county jail, providing courtroom security, prisoner transport, service of warrants, and service of process.^[17][18] Arpaio delegates responsibility to deputies and other employees of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO).^[19]

Arpaio has, throughout his tenure as Maricopa County Sheriff, sought out media coverage. He has been featured and profiled thousands of times by worldwide news media, and claims to average 200 television appearances per month.^[20]

In late 2008 and early 2009, Arpaio came out in Smile...You're Under Arrest!, a three-episode Fox Reality Channel series in which persons with outstanding warrants were tricked into presenting themselves for arrest.^[21]

On June 9, 2011, Arpaio was interviewed on Fox News on KSAZ-TV about a song on iTunes called "F#@K Sheriff Joe" by Contraband, describing him on his deathbed battling his own mortality.^[22]

Arpaio's practices include serving inmates surplus food^[23] and limiting meals to twice daily.^[24] He has also banned inmates from possessing "sexually explicit material" including Playboy magazine after female officers complained that inmates openly masturbated while viewing them or harassed the officers by comparing their anatomy to that of the nude models in the publications. The ban was challenged on First Amendment grounds but upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.^[25]

In February 2007, Arpaio instituted an in-house radio station he calls KJOE.^[26] Arpaio's radio station broadcasts classical music, opera, Frank Sinatra hits, patriotic music and educational programming. It operates from the basement of the county jail for five days a week, four hours each day.

In an ongoing case, federal judge Neil V. Wake ruled in 2008 and 2010 that the Maricopa County jails violated the constitutional rights of inmates in medical and other care related issues.^[27][28]

Arpaio set up a "Tent City" as an extension of the Maricopa County Jail.^[29] Arpaio has described Tent City as a concentration camp.^[30] Tent City is located in a yard next to a more permanent structure containing toilets, showers, and an area for meals.^[31] It has become notable particularly because of Phoenix's extreme temperatures.

On July 2, 2011, when the temperature in Phoenix hit 118 °F (48 °C), Arpaio measured the temperature inside Tent City at 145 °F (63 °C). Some inmates complained that fans near their beds were not working, and that their shoes were melting from the heat.^[32] During the summer of 2003, when outside temperatures exceeded 110 °F (43 °C), Arpaio said to complaining inmates, "It's 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents, have to wear full body armor, and they didn't commit any crimes, so shut your mouths."^[33] In 1997, Amnesty International published a report on Arpaio's jails which found that Tent City is not an "adequate or humane alternative to housing inmates in suitable ... jail facilities."^[34] Tent City is criticized by groups contending that there are violations of human and constitutional rights.^[35] Those critical of Arpaio also point out that the vast majority of inmates within Tent City have not been convicted; rather, they are merely awaiting trial.^[36]

In 1995, Arpaio reinstituted chain gangs. In 1996, he expanded the chain gang concept by instituting female volunteer chain gangs.^[37] Female inmates work seven hours a day (7 a.m. to 2 p.m.), six days a week. He has also instituted the world's first all-juvenile volunteer chain gang; volunteers earn high school credit toward a diploma.^[38]

One of his most visible public-relations actions was the introduction of pink underwear, which the Maricopa County Sheriff's website cites as being, "world-famous."^{[citation needed]} Arpaio subsequently started to sell customized pink boxers (with the Maricopa County Sheriff's logo and "Go Joe") as a fund-raiser for Sheriff's Posse Association. Despite allegations of misuse of funds received from these sales, Arpaio declined to provide an accounting for the money.^[39]

Arpaio's success in gaining press coverage with the pink underwear resulted in his extending the use of the color. He introduced pink handcuffs, using the event to promote his book, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, America's Toughest Sheriff.^[40]

In 2001, he was the first sheriff to require all inmates aged 18 and over to register for the Selective Service System. (Registration is required by federal law for all U.S. males between 18 and 26 years of age, as well as for resident aliens of the same age, regardless of their immigration status.) Since 2001, a total of 28,000 inmates (including 9,000 aliens) have registered for Selective Service.^[41][42]

Arpaio also started the "Have a Heart" program in which inmates may volunteer to be organ donors.^[42]

Building upon Maricopa County's 50-year-old program, Arpaio expanded the all-volunteer citizen posse through heavy recruiting. The volunteers perform many duties for the sheriff's office:

• Search and rescue
• Emergency communications
• Prisoner transport
• Traffic control
• Backup for sworn deputies
• Office administrative duties
• Holiday Mall Patrol (which provides motorist assistance and security for shoppers during the holiday shopping season)
• Deadbeat parent details targeting men and women with outstanding arrest warrants for failure to pay child support
• Assisting in immigration sweeps
• Current investigation of President Barack Obama's birth certificate

In November 2010, Arpaio created an armed illegal immigration operations posse, to help his deputies enforce immigration law. Members of this posse include celebrity actors Steven Seagal, Lou Ferrigno, and Peter Lupus.^[43]

Arpaio has been a controversial sheriff. His practices have been criticized by government agencies such as the United States Department of Justice, United States District Courts, and organizations such as Amnesty International,^[44] the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Arizona Ecumenical Council, the American Jewish Committee,^[45] and the Arizona chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.^[46] The editorial board of The New York Times called Arpaio "America's Worst Sheriff".^[47] Controversial issues surrounding Arpaio have included allegations of racial profiling, in which the ACLU has sued the sheriff.^[48][49]

Federal Judge Neil V. Wake ruled in 2008, and again in 2010, that the Maricopa County jails violated the constitutional rights of inmates in medical and other care related issues.^[27][28] This ruling was a result of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, which alleged that "Arpaio routinely abused pre-trial detainees at Maricopa County Jail by feeding them moldy bread, rotten fruit and other contaminated food, housing them in cells so hot as to endanger their health, denying them care for serious medical and mental health needs and keeping them packed as tightly as sardines in holding cells for days at a time during intake."^[50]

In a ruling issued in October 2010, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Arpaio to follow Judge Wake's 2008 ruling, which required Arpaio to end severe overcrowding and ensure all detainees receive necessary medical and mental health care, be given uninterrupted access to all medications prescribed by correctional medical staff, be given access to exercise and to sinks, toilets, toilet paper and soap and be served food that meets or exceeds the U.S. Department of Agriculture's dietary guidelines.^{[51][52][53][54]}

Under Arpaio, the MCSO may have improperly cleared as many as 75% of cases without arrest or proper investigation.^{[55][56][57][58]}

The sheriff's office failed to properly investigate serious crimes, including the rape of a 14 year old girl by classmates,^[59][60] the rape of a 15 year old girl by two strangers,^[61][62] These cases were "exceptionally cleared" without investigation or even identifying a suspect in one case which are not in accordance with the FBI standards for exceptional clearance.^[61][63] In the case of the 15 year old girl, the case was closed within one month and before DNA testing was even complete, the 13 year old's because her mother did not want to "...pursue this investigation," and the 14 year old's because a suspect declined to come in for questioning.^[59][61] In a statement to ABC15, the Sheriff's Office claimed, "The Goldwater Institute’s report cites the FBI’s Uniform Code Reporting handbook, which is a voluntary crime-reporting program to compile statistical information and reports. The UCR is not intended for oversight on how law enforcement agencies clear cases...The Sheriff’s Office has its own criteria for clearing cases."^[60]

In an interview on the ABC Nightline news program, when asked to explain why 82 percent of cases were declared cleared by exception, Arpaio said "We do clear a higher percentage of that. I know that. We clear many, many cases – not 18 percent." Nightline contacted the MCSO after the interview and was told that of 7,346 crimes, only 944, or 15%, had been cleared by arrest.^[64]

During a three-year period ending in 2007, more than 400 sex-crimes reported to Arpaio's office were inadequately investigated, or not investigated at all. While providing police services for El Mirage, Arizona, the MCSO under Arpaio failed to follow-through on at least 32 reported child molestations, even though the suspects were known in all but six cases. Many of the victims were children of illegal immigrants.^[61][65]

In December, 2011, responding to continuing media coverage of the controversy, Arpaio stated, in a press conference, "If there were any victims, I apologize to those victims."^[66]

Over the two years prior to September 2010, feuding between Arpaio and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas on one side, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on the other side cost at least $5.6 million, most of which was paid to private attorneys. Arpaio and Thomas filed several lawsuits against the Board of Supervisors, including a federal civil-racketeering suit against the supervisors, four judges and attorneys who work with the county. Arpaio and Thomas lost every case, either by ruling of the courts, or by dropping the case.^[67]

In early 2010, Arpaio and Thomas sought to have a grand jury indict a number of Maricopa County Judges, Maricopa County Supervisors, and employees of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. The grand jury, in an unusual rebuke, ordered the investigation ended. This action has been described as meaning that "...the case is so bad, there's no further evidence that could be brought [to substantiate it]". Legal experts agree this is a rare move.^[68] Thomas and a subordinate attorney on his County Attorney staff faced a hearing later in 2011 before the Ethics Committee of the Arizona Bar, the result of which was a number of possible sanctions up to permanent loss of their law licenses. Thomas was ultimately disbarred.

In November and December 2010, lawsuits naming Arpaio were filed by Judge Gary Donahoe, retired Maricopa County Superior Court judges Barbara Mundell, Anna Baca, and Kenneth Fields, County Supervisor Don Stapley, Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson, and Susan Schuerman, executive assistant to Supervisor Don Stapley.^{[69][70][71][72][73][74]} Conley Wolfswinkel (a business associate of Stapley) filed suit in January, 2011.^[75][76] Other targets of Arpaio's investigations, including Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox,^[77] and Maricopa Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson^[68] have filed notices of claims (the precursor to filing suit) totalling about $56 million dollars.^[68]

In February 2010, Judge John Leonardo found that Arpaio "misused the power of his office to target members of the (Board of Supervisors) for criminal investigation".^[78]

In 2008, a federal grand jury began an inquiry of Arpaio for abuse of power, in connection with an FBI investigation.^[79][80] On August 31, 2012, the Arizona US Attorney's office announced that it was "closing its investigation into allegations of criminal conduct" by Arpaio, without filing charges.^[81]

Arpaio was investigated for politically motivated and "bogus" prosecutions, which a former US Attorney called "utterly unacceptable".^[79][80] Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon has called Arpaio's "long list" of questionable prosecutions "a reign of terror".^[80]

The targets of Arpaio's alleged abuse of power have included:

• Phil Gordon, Phoenix Mayor^[79]
• Dan Saban, Arpaio's 2004 and 2008 opponent for the office of Sheriff of Maricopa County^[79]
• Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General^[79]
• David Smith, Maricopa County Manager^[79]
• The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors^[79]
• Barbara Mundell, Maricopa Superior Court Presiding Judge^[79]
• Anna Baca, former Maricopa Superior Court Presiding Judge^[77]
• Gary Donahoe, Maricopa Superior Court Criminal Presiding Judge^[79]
• Daniel Pochoda, ACLU attorney^[79]
• Sandra Dowling, former Maricopa County School Superintendent^[80]
• Mike Lacy, Editor, Phoenix New Times^[80]

As of July 2010, only Sandra Dowling has been successfully prosecuted.^[80] Indicted on 25 felony counts, Dowling eventually pled guilty to patronage for giving a summer job to her daughter, a single class-2 misdemeanor which was not among the original counts, although as part of the plea bargain she also agreed to recuse herself from the Maricopa County Regional School District. Dowling has since filed suit, alleging negligence, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and several constitutional violations.^[82]

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on August 29, 2012 that the Mike Lacy, Editor, of Phoenix New Times and other executives can sue the Maricopa County sheriff's office for their 2007 arrests.^[83]

During the month of July 2010, a committee established by Arpaio, the Campaign to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2012, funded advertisements critical of Rick Romley, a candidate in the Republican Primary for Maricopa County Attorney and Arizona Attorney General candidate Tom Horne, despite the fact that Arpaio is not currently running for re-election (his term does not expire until the end of 2012).^[84]

An order issued on the behalf of the Maricopa Elections Department on August 24, 2010, found that one of the advertisements, a direct mailer, advocated the defeat of Romley, and was an in-kind contribution to Bill Montgomery (Romley's primary election opponent), in violation of Arizona election law. The order stated that the Campaign to Re-Elect Joe Arpaio 2012 will be fined three times the amount of money that was spent on the mailer.^[85] In September, 2010, Arpaio's campaign was fined $153,978 in this matter.^[86] Montgomery ultimately defeated Romley in the primary election, with Romley stating Arpaio's ads "hurt" his results.^[87]

An analysis by the Maricopa County Office of Management and Budget, completed in April 2011, found Arpaio had misspent almost $100 million over the previous 5 years.^[88][89][90]

The analysis showed that money from a restricted detention fund which could only legally be used to pay for jail items, such as food, detention officers' salaries and equipment, was used to pay employees to patrol Maricopa County.^[88] The analysis also showed that many Sheriff's Office employees, whose salaries were paid from the restricted detention fund, were working job assignments different from those recorded in their personnel records. Arpaio's office kept a separate set of personnel books detailing actual work assignments, different from information kept on the county's official human-resources records.^[89]

Arpaio used the detention fund to pay for investigations of political rivals, and activities involving his human-smuggling unit.^[88][89]

The analysis also showed a number of inappropriate spending items, including a trip to Alaska where deputies stayed at a fishing resort, and trips to Disneyland.^[89][91]

Separate investigations by The Arizona Republic uncovered widespread abuse of public funds and county policies by Arpaio's office, including high-ranking employees routinely charging expensive meals and stays at luxury hotels on their county credit cards.^[92]

The Republic also found that a restricted jail enhancement fund was improperly used to pay for out-of-state training, a staff party at a local amusement park, and a $456,000 bus, which was purchased by Arpaio in violation of county procurement rules.^[88][93]

In September 2010, a 63 page internal memo, written by Maricopa Deputy Chief Frank Munnell, was made public. The memo alleged years of misconduct and mismanagement by Arpaio's second in command and other top MCSO officers, including the use of a public-corruption task force to conduct politically motivated probes into political opponents. The memo alleged that top officials in the MCSO "willfully and intentionally committed criminal acts by attempting to obstruct justice, tamper with witnesses, and destroy evidence."^[94] Arpaio forwarded the memo to the Pinal County Sheriff's Office, requesting they conduct an administrative investigation. Former top MCSO staffers claimed that Arpaio knew of the acts alleged in the Munnell memo, but took no action to stop them.^[95] Arpaio has not commented publicly on the allegations.

In October 2010, the US Attorney for Arizona confirmed that the FBI and Department of Justice had received copies of the Munnell memo, and were conducting criminal investigations into its allegations.^[96]

As of December 2011, a federal grand jury had been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009 and was specifically examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad.^[97]

On August 31, 2012, federal authorities said they’re closing their abuse-of-power investigation into Arpaio in Arizona without filing charges against him.^[98]

In 2005, Arpaio began focusing on illegal immigration enforcement, after Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas was elected with a campaign slogan of "Stop illegal immigration."^[99] Arpaio has stated that, prior to 2005, he didn't view illegal immigration as a "serious legal issue."^[100]

Since 2005, Arpaio has regularly conducted saturation patrols and immigration sweeps, targeting Latino neighborhoods.^[101][102] Some of these sweeps have targeted day laborers.^[103]

Arpaio has run a large number of employer sanction operations targeting business employing Latinos, and arresting employees who are illegal aliens for identity theft. According to Arpaio, 100 percent of the persons arrested for using stolen IDs in 57 raids conducted up until March, 2012, were illegal immigrants.^[104]

Arpaio maintains an immigrant smuggling squad which stops cars with Latino drivers or passengers, to check their immigration status.^[105]

Arpaio has said, of his anti-illegal immigration efforts, "Ours is an operation where we want to go after illegals, not the crime first...It's a pure program. You go after them, and you lock them up."^[106]

In 2007 Manuel De Jesus Ortega Melendres, a Mexican tourist who was a passenger in a car stopped in Cave Creek, Maricopa County, filed a lawsuit (Melendres v. Arpaio^[107]) against the Sheriff Arpaio, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, and Maricopa County, claiming to have been detained unlawfully for nine hours as a result of racial profiling. The lawsuit was expanded when several individuals joined in with similar complaints.

The lawsuit charges that Sheriff Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) have unlawfully instituted a pattern and practice of targeting Latino drivers and passengers in Maricopa County during traffic stops, that MCSO’s practices discriminate on the basis of race, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and have resulted in prolonged traffic stops and baseless extended detentions, in violation of the Fourth Amendment.^[108]

In a December 2011 order in the case, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow sanctioned Arpaio and the MCSO, for acknowledged destruction of records in the case. The sanctions are in the form of “adverse inferences” against Arpaio and the MCSO that he may consider when deciding the case’s facts. In a subsequent order, Judge Snow found that the Plaintiffs would be entitled to inferences that MCSO officers did not follow a "zero tolerance" policy requiring them to stop all traffic offenders, that documents would have included a higher number of immigration arrests than records documenting ordinary patrol activity, that MCSO maintained a file of citizen complaints making requests for special operations, that MCSO received citizen complaints requesting that MCSO officers conduct special operations to enforce immigration-related law in areas where MCSO later conducted such operations, and that some of the citizen communications complained about "Mexicans," "day laborers," or "illegal immigrants" but did not provide a description of any criminal activity.^{[109][110][111]}

In his December, 2011 order, Judge Snow stated "Sheriff Arpaio has made public statements that a fact finder could interpret as endorsing racial profiling, such as stating that, even lacking 287(g) authority, his officers can detain people based upon 'their speech, what they look like, if they look like they came from another country.'... Moreover, he acknowledges that MCSO provides no training to reduce the risk of racial profiling, stating 'if we do not racial profile, why would I do a training program?'" Judge Snow expanded the complaint into a class-action lawsuit including all Latino drivers stopped by the Sheriff's Office since 2007, or who will be stopped in the future. He also enjoined the MCSO and all of its officers from "detaining any person based only on knowledge or reasonable belief, without more, that the person is unlawfully present within the United States, because as a matter of law such knowledge does not amount to a reasonable belief that the person either violated or conspired to violate the Arizona human smuggling statute, or any other state or federal criminal law." ^[112]

The plaintiffs in the case are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and the law firm of Covington & Burling. The case is being heard in US Federal Court in Phoenix, in a six-day bench trial, which started July 19, 2012.^[113]

Arpaio has repeatedly denied racial profiling, although the MCSO does not have a policy specifically barring the practice, nor any reliable internal method of ensuring it is not taking place.^[114][115]

In June 2008, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division began an investigation of Arpaio amid accusations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures. The investigation was conducted under the authority of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination related to programs that receive federal funds.^[116]

On July 7, 2009, Arpaio held a press conference, and announced that he would not cooperate with the investigation, either by providing documents, or permitting interviews with personnel. On September 2, 2010, the Department of Justice filed suit against Arpaio,^[117] to compel his cooperation with the investigation. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department stated that it was unprecedented for an agency to refuse to cooperate with a Title VI investigation, and that this is the first time the Justice Department has sued to compel access to documents and facilities.^{[118][119][120]} The suit was settled in June 2011, after Arpaio allowed federal officials to interview Sheriff's office employees, and review hundreds of thousands of documents for the investigation.^{[121] [122]}

On December 15, 2011, the Justice Department released their findings after a 3-year investigation of Arpaio's office amid complaints of racial profiling and a culture of bias at the agency's top level. The report stated that under Arpaio, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has "a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos" that "reaches the highest levels of the agency."^[123]

The Justice Department accused Arpaio of engaging in "unconstitutional policing" by unfairly targeting Latinos for detention and arrest, and retaliating against critics.^[124] In the report, a Justice Department expert concluded that Arpaio oversaw the worst pattern of racial profiling in U.S. history.^[125]

Based on the Justice Department report on discriminatory policing practices within the MCSO, on December 15, 2011, the United States Department of Homeland Security revoked the MCSO's federal authority to identify and detain illegal immigrants.^[126]

In a separate action on December 23, 2011, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow enjoined Arpaio and the MCSO from "detaining any person based only on knowledge or reasonable belief, without more, that the person is unlawfully present within the United States," halting anti-illegal immigration enforcement by MCSO in its current form.^[127]

On May 10, 2012, the United States Department of Justice filed suit against Arpaio, the MCSO, and Maricopa County, alleging that "The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) and Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio have engaged and continue to engage in a pattern or practice of unlawful discriminatory police conduct directed at Latinos in Maricopa County and jail practices that unlawfully discriminate against Latino prisoners with limited English language skills."^[128] A DOJ representative said that the agency was left with no choice but to file suit after Arpaio's attorneys balked at a demand for a court-appointed monitor to ensure the Sheriff's Office complies with any settlement terms. Arpaio has rejected the notion of a court-appointed monitor, and denied that the MCSO engages in racial profiling.^[129][130]

On March 1, 2012, Arpaio and members of his Cold Case Posse held a news conference announcing their contention that President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate, released by the White House on April 27, 2011,^[131] is a computer-generated forgery. Additionally, the Posse’s six-month-long review included an examination of President Obama’s Selective Service card and contended that it, also, is a forgery. Their claims were presented at that press conference, and at a second press conference held on March 31, 2012.^[132][133] The allegations regarding the birth certificate were repeated at a July 17, 2012, news conference, where Arpaio stated that his investigators are certain that Obamas' long-form birth certificate is fraudulent.^[134] In response to Arpaio's claims, Joshua A. Wisch, a special assistant to Hawaii’s attorney general, said in a statement, “President Obama was born in Honolulu, and his birth certificate is valid. Regarding the latest allegations from a sheriff in Arizona, they are untrue, misinformed and misconstrue Hawaii law.”^[135] Arizona state officials, including Governor Jan Brewer and Secretary of State Ken Bennett, have also dismissed Arpaio's objections and accepted the validity of Obama's birth certificate.^[136][137]

In November 2007, a group calling itself Arizonans for the U.S. Constitution and Recall of Joe Arpaio filed the paperwork to begin an effort to recall Arpaio and County Prosecutor Thomas from office for allegedly disobeying and violating the United States Constitution and abuse of power.^[139] Their petition to get a recall question for the two officials onto the next general election ballot failed when the group was unable to collect the more than 200,000 registered voter signatures required.^[140] In a survey taken by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, while the petition was in circulation, nearly three out of four respondents opposed the recall, and 65 percent of the respondents held a positive opinion of Arpaio.^[141]

• Joe Arpaio and Len Sherman, America's Toughest Sheriff: How We Can Win the War Against Crime, (1996). Summit Publishing Group, ISBN 1-56530-202-8
• Joe Arpaio and Len Sherman, Joe's Law: America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs, and Everything Else that Threatens America, (2008). AMACOM, ISBN 0-8144-0199-6

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joe Arpaio.

• Official Bio
• Official Election Website
• Local News Coverage of Arpaio from KPHO.com and CBS 5 News (KPHO-TV)
• Local News Coverage of Arpaio from azfamily.com and KTVK-3TV

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