DOJ sues Arizona’s Sheriff Arpaio

From NBC’s Pete Williams In an atmosphere of tension between the federal government and Arizona, the Justice Department this day dialed it up some more, filing a lawsuit against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — accusing him, the county, and his office with failing to cooperate with a civil rights investigation of his office.

The Justice Department has been investigating allegations that the sheriff’s office has engaged in discrimination against Hispanics. As a recipient of federal funds, the sheriff’s office is required to cooperate with such investigations.

But today, the Justice Department stated it’s been trying to get the sheriff’s cooperation for more than a year without success. That makes his department “an extreme outlier,” given that no other local law enforcement organization has refused to cooperate with a civil rights investigation in the last 30 years, the government says.

“The actions of the sheriff’s office are unprecedented. It is unfortunate that the department was forced to resort to litigation to gain access to public documents and facilities,” states Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.

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Submited at Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 7:00 pm on Politics by steve
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