A federal judge referred Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and three of his aides to the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Friday, requesting that they were to be prosecuted for criminal contempt of court.
The landmark decision came after U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow found that Arpaio intentionally violated various orders rooted in an 8 years old racial-profiling case.
The judge's order also referred to the Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, Arpaio's former defense attorney Michele Iafrate, and Capt. Steve Bailey, for prosecutors to consider criminal contempt charges against them as well.
The sheriff and Sheridan already had been held in civil contempt of court. Potential penalties were steeper in a criminal case, and criminal contempt could only result in incarceration.
Snow wrote in his Friday order, "Criminal contempt serves to vindicate the Court's authority by punishing the intentional disregard for that authority,"
Snow’s decision, announced in a federal court filing, answered the key question that emerged over more than a year of contempt proceedings that “ Was the sheriff's disregard of orders a criminal or civil contempt-of-court violation?”
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By Prakriti Neogi
