Free Arpaio? Yes, the feds should drop their case

Isaid online this week that federal prosecutors should drop their case against former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. You didn’t react well. READER: How would justice be served if this arrogant man is let off the hook? He would just brag that he was right all along and did nothing wrong.

Perhaps, but prosecutors already have won. It’s over.

Arpaio is out of office. He is out of the public eye. His legacy is being systematically dismantled — literally — with the elimination of Tent City.

The continued pursuit of the criminal contempt charge against Arpaio, a misdemeanor case with a maximum jail term of six months, is a waste of time and taxpayer money.

Even worse, a trial would give Arpaio what he’s always loved most — attention. Lots of it. TV. Internet. The works. And for what?

READER: Great points, but ... no. He’ll play victim either way. If charges are dropped: “I was victim of a smear campaign!” The people deserve a trial.

READER: Your point is solid. Rational. Makes perfect sense. I want to see him die in jail or worrying over going to jail. That’s his only justice.

Arpaio’s attorneys have successfully delayed the start of the trial until late June, by which time for the former sheriff will have turned 85.

Let’s assume the trial goes forward and he is found guilty of purposefully ignoring a federal judge’s order to stop his odious immigration-enforcement operations. Something I believe to be true. Do you think for a minute an 85year-old Arpaio would be sent to jail? And what about a possible appeal?

READER: Arpaio would stomp on the rights of an elderly immigrant in a heartbeat. He wasted millions in taxpayer money settling lawsuits, pursuing justice to the full extent of the law for his wrongdoings will not be money wasted.

The trial could be a circus, as evidenced by Arpaio’s new lawyers putting Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the witness list.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Arpaio’s pal Donald Trump commented on the prosecution. Tweeted on it. I’d be surprised if he didn’t.

When Arpaio’s case was sent to prosecutors with a criminal contempt referral it was the final nail in Arpaio’s political coffin.

Getting him out of office was a win. It was the win.

READER: Over the 35 years, I have been reading what you write; this is the dumbest thing you said. Arpaio should be held to the same level as those he has put into his jails over the years. No free rides.

I understand the desire for justice, for punishment, for retribution, but continued prosecution doesn’t help the victims of Arpaio’s policy. Not really. It helps Arpaio. It gives him the public platform he lost in the last election.

And if in the end, Arpaio actually were to land behind bars — an old man with an ailing wife — it would transform him from perpetrator into a kind of … victim.