Contempt of court hearings against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will go forward. On Monday, the federal judge in charge of the case shot down another attempt to delay the proceedings.
Lawyers for Arpaio tried and failed to get Judge Murray Snow thrown off the case. Now they plan to appeal. That is still being considered by a federal appeals court, but in the meantime the case will not stall anymore, said Snow, and hearings are slated to resume in September.
Judge Snow has also ordered the sheriff’s office to turn over documents to the Department of Justice that the sheriff’s informant supposedly claimed had classified information taken from the CIA. There are allegations that same informant was hired by Arpaio’s office to discredit the judge by proving the judge was involved in a conspiracy with federal officials.
Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union have raised yet another concern. They believe the sheriff’s office may have been trying to use the informant to access the ACLU’s communications with its clients.
Dan Pochoda with the ACLU said, "Obviously, that’d be a great concern to us if information that was work product and confidential is being listened into by the operatives for the defendants.”
The ACLU unexpectedly brought up the allegations to the court. Attorneys for Arpaio denied them but said they would follow up.
