A federal judge ruled Friday that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was in civil contempt of federal court on three counts, AZ Central reported.
U.S. District Judge Murray Snow found that Arpaio and three of his top aides violated a federal order intended to stop racial profiling in his jurisdiction, according to the newspaper.
“The hearings were based on three alleged violations: that the Sheriff’s Office failed to turn over video evidence that was required before the racial-profiling trial; that officials continued to enforce immigration law after Snow barred the practice; and that Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan failed to quietly collect evidence after the trial, as Snow had ordered him to do,” according to AZ Central.
Arpaio and Sheridan maintain that the failures occurred but denied that they intentionally violated the law.
According to AZ Central, the ruling makes Arpaio and his aides vulnerable to an array of sanctions.
The outspoken sheriff has been caught up in this case since 2013, when Snow first ruled that Arpaio and his officers systematically singled out Latinos during its immigration patrols.
