On Friday a federal judge ruled Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was in civil contempt of the court. On Monday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to tentatively approve another $13 million for the sheriff’s ongoing legal costs.
The board is set to tentatively approve the anticipated legal costs over the next year of a racial profiling case that was first filed eight years ago against Sheriff Arpaio and his department.
Maricopa County has already paid out $41 million over the past eight years in the case. The county must keep covering those legal costs until Arpaio's office is released from the supervision by the federal judge— a resolution that is years away.
A court-appointed monitor has told the court that Arpaio's office has been unacceptably slow in enacting changes to ensure officers aren't making any more unconstitutional traffic stops cited in the profiling case.
The Board of Supervisors is set for a final vote on the legal fees in late June.
