PHOENIX — An Arizona sheriff known for crackdowns on illegal immigration is acknowledging he violated a judge’s order to stop detaining people based solely on suspicion they’re in the country illegally.
It marks a rare public expression of contrition for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. But it is also an attempt to head off hearings in April that would examine the violations and would likely provide details about the sheriff’s office.
Arpaio’s acknowledgment backs up what county officials and the judge have said for months. His managers never told members of his immigrant smuggling squad that a judge in December 2011 barred them from stopping people based on suspicions about immigration status, leaving officers to violate the order for 18 months.
Lawyers for Arpaio and top aide Jerry Sheridan said in papers late Tuesday that their clients agree they committed civil contempt of court.
The decision on whether to call off the hearings rests with US District Judge Murray Snow, who made a May 2013 finding that the sheriff’s office had racially profiled Hispanics in regular traffic and immigration patrols.
If the judge does not cancel the hearings, they would also address a botched effort by the sheriff’s office to gather videos of traffic stops that were supposed to be turned over but were withheld in the profiling case. Traffic stop videos are being reviewed to search for people harmed by the agency’s violation of the 2011 injunction.