Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks to the press about the U.S. Justice
Department's decision to end the criminal investigation into allegations of
criminal conduct by current and former members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's
Office in Arizona.
By
NBC News staff and wire services
The federal government
has closed a criminal probe of alleged financial misconduct by Arizona lawman
Joe Arpaio, who styles himself as "America's toughest sheriff," and
no charges will be filed, the U.S. Attorney's Office said on Friday.
Spencer Platt / Getty Images file
Maricopa
County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio is shown attending Republican National
Convention on Wednesday in Tampa, Fla.
A separate federal
investigation relating to allegations of civil rights abuses by Arpaio's office
is continuing.
The announcement on
Friday marked the end of an investigation that began in November 2010 at the behest
of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to examine alleged financial
improprieties by the county sheriff and his deputies.
A federal criminal
inquiry into several of those matters was concluded last summer with the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Arizona declining to initiate criminal charges.
Maricopa County
authorities were informed on Friday that federal prosecutors had likewise
declined to bring charges in connection with allegations that the sheriff's
office had misused county credit cards or misspent money from jail facilities
excise taxes.
In addition, the U.S.
Attorney's Office declined to prosecute two former officials of the county
attorney's office who were accused of wrongfully prosecuting a local judge.
Assistant U.S.
Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel said in a statement that her office "is
closing its investigation into allegations of criminal conduct by current and
former members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the Maricopa County
Attorney's Office."
Arpaio, who returned
from the Republican National Convention on Friday night, said he was "very
happy" with decision.
"I send my
appreciation to the federal government for their hard work in clearing my
office," he said in a news briefing.
Arpaio, 80, who is
seeking re-election to a sixth term as sheriff in November, has been under a
separate federal inquiry since 2008 over allegations that he and his deputies
engaged in an extensive pattern of civil rights abuses.
Arpaio denied any
wrongdoing, and said he would cooperate with investigators.
Assistant U.S.
Attorney Ann Birmingham Scheel, acting on behalf of the United States due to
the recusal of U.S. Attorney John S. Leonardo, commended the joint investigative
efforts of the prosecutors and the FBI special agents who conducted the
investigation.
Scheel said her office
advised Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery of the decision.
Arpaio, first voted
into office in 1992, has been elected five times and is seeking a sixth term.
The federal government today sued Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio and
the state's most populous county, accusing them of racial profiling directed at
Latinos. Pete Williams reports.
In July, Arpaio
said that volunteer investigators working for him concluded that President
Barack Obama’s birth certificate is not legitimate.
"At the very
least," he said at a news conference, "I can tell you this, based on
all of the evidence presented and investigated, I cannot in good faith report
to you that these documents are authentic."
Also in July, Arpaio
denied in testimony in a class-action lawsuit that his deputies targeted people
because of the color of their skin.
He was
testifying whether police can target illegal immigrants without racially
profiling Hispanic citizens and legal residents.
"I am against
anyone racial profiling ... today as in my 50 years in law enforcement,"
Arpaio told the court during cross-examination.
Arpaio is also known for
outfitting county jail inmates in pink underwear, claiming the pink
shorts are less likely to be smuggled out of jail and sold on the black market,
and for housing inmates in a Tent City jail in Phoenix, even when Sonoran
Desert summer temperatures soar to 115 degrees.
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