(©¿©) Crown King bar fly
2010-09-23 16:13:58 UTC
FROM:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-09-23/news/should-sheriff-joe-arpaio-get-a-pass-when-the-indictments-come-down-hell-no/
Should Sheriff Joe Arpaio Get a Pass When the Indictments Come Down? Hell,
No
Comments By Stephen Lemons
Thursday, Sep 23 2010
INDICTMENT TIME
I have a simple question for U.S. Attorney for Arizona
Dennis Burke and Arizona Attorney General Terry
Goddard: Where are the ever-lovin' indictments?
Indeed, you can be sure of one thing in the wake of
MCSO Deputy Chief Frank Munnell's 63-page memo
outlining the corruption and alleged criminal activity
in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office: Both the feds and the
AG have all this information and then some.
Munnell admits he's been talking to both federal and
state investigators about the Sheriff's Command
Association, the group funded by millionaires and
high-ranking deputies that paid for a sleazy TV ad
against Arpaio's 2008 foe, Dan Saban.
The deputy chief refers to the SCA as a "politically
motivated political-action fund," claims that he was
asked to contribute to it by Arpaio's chief deputy
David Hendershott, and alleges that Hendershott
encouraged him not to cooperate with investigators
and coached him on how to respond to their questions.
He also asserts that Hendershott threatened him with
retaliation because he spoke with the FBI and the
AG's Office. In fact, Munnell's putative reason for
writing the memo was that Hendershott was seeking to
remove him from his assignment as chief of patrol.
In blasting Hendershott and his two top cronies,
MCSO Director Larry Black and Captain Joel Fox,
Munnell observes that there's "more than enough
reasonable suspicion" of law-breaking.
Beyond the SCA scandal, the alleged intimidation of
witnesses, and cover-up of criminal activity,
Munnell lays out a blueprint for possible federal
indictments of Hendershott and others in regard to
MACE, the anti-corruption unit formed in 2007 by
Sheriff Arpaio and then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas.
MACE has mainly targeted Arpaio's enemies in what
Munnell refers to as "politically motivated
investigations." MACE probes have focused on the
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, specifically
Don Stapley, Mary Rose Wilcox, and Andrew Kunasek.
Stapley had been critical of the MCSO's budget woes
and ended up arrested twice on trumped-up allegations
of fraud. Wilcox, a longtime Arpaio critic, was
indicted on bogus forgery and perjury charges. In
both cases, the indictments were thrown out.
In July, the MCSO accused Kunasek of swiping $15,000
from the county. His apparent sin was questioning the
conflicts of interests in MACE inquiries into the
Board of Supervisors. Nothing came of the phony claim.
Then there's the racketeering case brought in federal
court by Thomas and Arpaio alleging a conspiracy
against everyone they'd been investigating and against
the judges who had ruled against them in various cases.
Thomas and Arpaio ultimately dropped this asinine
RICO suit.
Though Munnell never delves into the RICO stunt, if you
add it to the pyre, there's more than enough to begin
indicting culprits under two federal statutes, 18 USC
242 (depriving someone of his or her rights under the
"color of law") and 18 USC 241 (conspiring to deprive
someone of his or her rights).
About a year ago, KPHO interviewed former New Mexico
U.S. Attorney David Iglesias after he had reviewed all
the information available concerning Arpaio's possible
abuses of power in retaliating against his political
opponents.
Iglesias, a Republican and the model for Tom Cruise's
character in A Few Good Men, did not stutter when he
told KPHO what he would do if he were in Dennis
Burke's shoes.
"I would go to a grand jury," Iglesias said. "I would
work very closely with the civil rights criminal
division in Washington, D.C. And, based on the
information that I have, I would seek an indictment."
Remember, Iglesias made his statement in late 2009.
An FBI probe of the MCSO began in 2008, in the waning
months of George W. Bush's presidency.
A federal grand jury was impaneled in December 2009
and has, so far, questioned numerous county
employees, alleged victims, and MCSO staff, including,
according to my sources, Munnell himself.
The state Attorney General's Office began a probe of
the SCA scandal and other matters in November 2008,
and if we take Munnell at his word, the AG's Office
is still looking into MCSO wrongdoing.
So any way you shove it into the blender, indictments
are long overdue. And that's not even getting into
the numerous allegations - none of them news - of
Hendershott making bank as Arpaio's right-hand man.
Munnell has Hendershott profiting from the sales of
pink underwear - his son even gets a commission on
each pair of boxers for the logo, which Hendershott
Jr. designed, according to Munnell.
Munnell says Hendershott had a business interest in
the facial-recognition technology he was pimping in
Honduras and China. You remember all those treks at
county expense to Honduras to supposedly train the
police force there? I first revealed them in January
2008 in my Feathered Bastard blog ("Hendershott in
Honduras?" January 12, 2008).
The real reason behind the Honduran escapade, it
was later revealed, was to make it a test case for
the facial-recognition technology sold by Hummigbird
Defense Systems, whose CEO was good buddies with
Hendershott and traveled with Hendershott to China.
"In fact," Munnell writes, "Chief Hendershott was
quoted by [an] MCSO employee associated with the
project as stating that, upon their retirement
from the Sheriff's Office, they were going to make
lots of money."
...
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2010-09-23/news/should-sheriff-joe-arpaio-get-a-pass-when-the-indictments-come-down-hell-no/
Should Sheriff Joe Arpaio Get a Pass When the Indictments Come Down? Hell,
No
Comments By Stephen Lemons
Thursday, Sep 23 2010
INDICTMENT TIME
I have a simple question for U.S. Attorney for Arizona
Dennis Burke and Arizona Attorney General Terry
Goddard: Where are the ever-lovin' indictments?
Indeed, you can be sure of one thing in the wake of
MCSO Deputy Chief Frank Munnell's 63-page memo
outlining the corruption and alleged criminal activity
in Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office: Both the feds and the
AG have all this information and then some.
Munnell admits he's been talking to both federal and
state investigators about the Sheriff's Command
Association, the group funded by millionaires and
high-ranking deputies that paid for a sleazy TV ad
against Arpaio's 2008 foe, Dan Saban.
The deputy chief refers to the SCA as a "politically
motivated political-action fund," claims that he was
asked to contribute to it by Arpaio's chief deputy
David Hendershott, and alleges that Hendershott
encouraged him not to cooperate with investigators
and coached him on how to respond to their questions.
He also asserts that Hendershott threatened him with
retaliation because he spoke with the FBI and the
AG's Office. In fact, Munnell's putative reason for
writing the memo was that Hendershott was seeking to
remove him from his assignment as chief of patrol.
In blasting Hendershott and his two top cronies,
MCSO Director Larry Black and Captain Joel Fox,
Munnell observes that there's "more than enough
reasonable suspicion" of law-breaking.
Beyond the SCA scandal, the alleged intimidation of
witnesses, and cover-up of criminal activity,
Munnell lays out a blueprint for possible federal
indictments of Hendershott and others in regard to
MACE, the anti-corruption unit formed in 2007 by
Sheriff Arpaio and then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas.
MACE has mainly targeted Arpaio's enemies in what
Munnell refers to as "politically motivated
investigations." MACE probes have focused on the
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, specifically
Don Stapley, Mary Rose Wilcox, and Andrew Kunasek.
Stapley had been critical of the MCSO's budget woes
and ended up arrested twice on trumped-up allegations
of fraud. Wilcox, a longtime Arpaio critic, was
indicted on bogus forgery and perjury charges. In
both cases, the indictments were thrown out.
In July, the MCSO accused Kunasek of swiping $15,000
from the county. His apparent sin was questioning the
conflicts of interests in MACE inquiries into the
Board of Supervisors. Nothing came of the phony claim.
Then there's the racketeering case brought in federal
court by Thomas and Arpaio alleging a conspiracy
against everyone they'd been investigating and against
the judges who had ruled against them in various cases.
Thomas and Arpaio ultimately dropped this asinine
RICO suit.
Though Munnell never delves into the RICO stunt, if you
add it to the pyre, there's more than enough to begin
indicting culprits under two federal statutes, 18 USC
242 (depriving someone of his or her rights under the
"color of law") and 18 USC 241 (conspiring to deprive
someone of his or her rights).
About a year ago, KPHO interviewed former New Mexico
U.S. Attorney David Iglesias after he had reviewed all
the information available concerning Arpaio's possible
abuses of power in retaliating against his political
opponents.
Iglesias, a Republican and the model for Tom Cruise's
character in A Few Good Men, did not stutter when he
told KPHO what he would do if he were in Dennis
Burke's shoes.
"I would go to a grand jury," Iglesias said. "I would
work very closely with the civil rights criminal
division in Washington, D.C. And, based on the
information that I have, I would seek an indictment."
Remember, Iglesias made his statement in late 2009.
An FBI probe of the MCSO began in 2008, in the waning
months of George W. Bush's presidency.
A federal grand jury was impaneled in December 2009
and has, so far, questioned numerous county
employees, alleged victims, and MCSO staff, including,
according to my sources, Munnell himself.
The state Attorney General's Office began a probe of
the SCA scandal and other matters in November 2008,
and if we take Munnell at his word, the AG's Office
is still looking into MCSO wrongdoing.
So any way you shove it into the blender, indictments
are long overdue. And that's not even getting into
the numerous allegations - none of them news - of
Hendershott making bank as Arpaio's right-hand man.
Munnell has Hendershott profiting from the sales of
pink underwear - his son even gets a commission on
each pair of boxers for the logo, which Hendershott
Jr. designed, according to Munnell.
Munnell says Hendershott had a business interest in
the facial-recognition technology he was pimping in
Honduras and China. You remember all those treks at
county expense to Honduras to supposedly train the
police force there? I first revealed them in January
2008 in my Feathered Bastard blog ("Hendershott in
Honduras?" January 12, 2008).
The real reason behind the Honduran escapade, it
was later revealed, was to make it a test case for
the facial-recognition technology sold by Hummigbird
Defense Systems, whose CEO was good buddies with
Hendershott and traveled with Hendershott to China.
"In fact," Munnell writes, "Chief Hendershott was
quoted by [an] MCSO employee associated with the
project as stating that, upon their retirement
from the Sheriff's Office, they were going to make
lots of money."
...