Today the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) will release a report of more than 10,000 pages that's been in the works for years. It's been well documented that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office neglected to investigate and prosecute more than 400 sex crimes in the county, some of them committed on children as young as two years old. Many of the assaults took place in Hispanic communities such as El Mirage.
Last year, an Arizona Republic investigation into the 400-plus reopened cases revealed the Sheriff's Office failed to adequately investigate reports of abuse and assault—in some cases never interviewing a suspect or running a background check. Some cases were ignored—the files were later found sitting in a drawer or in a deputy's garage. Those shortcomings, combined with lengthy delays in resolving cases, left alleged predators free to continue finding other victims, sometimes for years. Arizona Republic
Arpaio's office knew about the crimes, but he directed his deputies to other "important" matters, like rounding up aliens in his immigration sweeps, probing President Obama's birth certificate, and investigating mortgage fraud in Fountain Hills, the tony community where Sheriff Arpaio just happens to live. While MCSO was arresting Mexican burger flippers at McDonalds, perverts continued for years to rape their daughters, nieces, nephews and strangers.
The Sheriff's Office delayed for five years an investigation into an allegation against a convicted rapist. While the probe was on hold, another police agency received a report that the same suspect had allegedly assaulted a teenage girl. In another case, the agency ignored for a year one girl's allegation that her horse trainer had molested her. The suspect was accused of molesting three more girls before being indicted.
The botched investigations were central to Democrat Paul Penzone's campaign strategy last year when he ran against Arpaio, who, in addition to this clusterfuck, had piled up a mountain of misdeeds and outright crimes that led to
the firing of the sheriff's top aides. But Teflon Joe was not indicted or even implicated in the criminal underworld of MCSO, and the county's bigoted pinheads, many of them retirees in Sun City and other lily-white havens of bigotry, elected him to a sixth term, completely overlooking the fact that Arpaio has
cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits, at the same time he just isn't doing a good job of "protecting and serving" the citizens of Maricopa County.
The investigation into the bungled sex crimes has been ongoing for years, and journalists have been hounding MCSO for the report. As Stephen Lemons at New Times points out, attorneys for our local CBS station, KPHO, threatened to sue if the findings were not made available to the public. After months of stonewalling, MCSO will release the 10,000-page report today, but, as Lemons also notes, you have to bring an Evelyn Wood speed-reader with you, and open your wallet in order to get the full report.
Today's review begins at 3 p.m. So reporters will have two hours to read 10,000 pages (assuming the old office hours are in effect) and summarize the whole megillah for you the home viewer.
Allen is graciously allowing reporters to bring in their own scanners, or you can pick and choose among the 10,000 pages and pay for individual pages at .50 cents per page.
Keep in mind that these are public documents. They belong to the taxpayers, and the MCSO must cough them up, by law. New Times
Fifty cents a page! If you wanted the entire report, that would be $5,000 ... for a
public document that should be available as a PDF, CD or posted on MCSO's website. And even if you did have five large ones to shell out for the report, it's doubtful they could scan the entire thing in two hours.
Methinks the sheriff's office is not too keen on allowing reporters to digest the report and then make its findings available to the public. But here's one thing we know: Just like last year's investigation into the cronyism, fraud, vendettas and political crimes conducted by MCSO, Arpaio will likely escape prosecution, even blame. Other heads may roll, his will keep spewing noxious bullshit.
Respect Arizona: Recall Arpaio!