www.towleroad.com/20 16/10/sheriff-joe-ar paio/
Arpaio is known nationally for pioneering local strategies for taking on illegal immigration. The criminal charge relates directly to his continued efforts to arrest suspected unauthorized immigrants even after a federal judge told him to stop.
The paperwork formally charging Arpaio was expected to be filed Wednesday.
The case will center on a federal judge’s earlier finding that Arpaio willfully disobeyed a court order to halt immigration arrests.
In 2011, US District Court Judge Murray Snow forbade Arpaio from arresting people solely for being in the country without lawful status because he said local police departments did not have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws.
Later it came out that Arpaio had continued making those arrests for at least 18 months after Snow determined they were unconstitutional and had to stop. In May, Snow concluded that Arpaio had purposely ignored court orders in an effort to maintain his hardline immigration reputation ahead of his 2012 election.
Criminal contempt of court is used to punish someone who has intentionally violated a judge’s orders, but these types of cases are unusual.
Meanwhile, Arpaio is in the midst of running for his seventh term as sheriff. The announcement that he will face a criminal charge came just a day before early voting begins in Arizona and four weeks before the Nov. 8 election.
While critics of the sheriff who oppose his immigration enforcement tactics were relieved to hear the criminal case would go forward, Arpaio called the announcement a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.
“It is clear that the corrupt Obama Justice Department is trying to influence my re-election as sheriff of Maricopa County,” Arpaio said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.