Friday, September 3, 2010

WHO SAID THIS? (Special legal-action-to-obtain-govt-records edition)

Who said this on the day legal papers were filed to “unravel a… records dispute”?


“No records were ever produced – not one single document in over one year. The courts have ruled against me in the past for not producing records in a timely fashion. I believe the law should be the same for them as for anyone else.” Link shortened so you can guess before clicking; answer and discussion after the jump, in case you do not want to click on the above link.

Did you correctly guess Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio? Congratulations! The Sheriff filed the petition with the Arizona Court of Appeals on January 29, 2009 to compel the Superior Court to turn over e-mails between the Court's presiding judge, her staff, and the Adult Probation administrator.

One of his Deputy Chiefs, Jack MacIntyre is quoted in the news release as saying "Arpaio is only looking for fair treatment - the same treatment he gets on public record court cases.  I cannot believe the court could not produce the e-mails and other correspondence in a few weeks.  Now it has been a year and we are asking the Appeals Court to make the largest Superior Court system in the State of Arizona obey the law they're appointed to enforce."

Arpaio concluded the press release with a thinly-veiled threat: "When this court administration blatantly ignores the law like this, it really fuels the fires of the people who want all judges elected. I know the records must still be collected over at the court.  No one would be so foolish as to destroy public records, especially with this open request pending."  (Last sentence included as bonus bit of irony.)

By the way, Arpaio's special action filed that day was denied by the Court of Appeals.  He made a new request for the e-mails and took that to the Supreme Court.  That court, too, rejected Arpaio's bid for the e-mails earlier this year.

(LATER: Sorry if I spoiled anyone's fun.  I did not realize that the "jump" would not work if you landed on the post's permalink page.)

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