Pardoned Arpaio begs me (and you) for money

Taxpayers have been footing the legal bills of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio for more than 20 years. He doesn’t want us to stop. In an email blast reaching what I’d guess to be thousands of individuals (one wound up in my computer’s “clutter” bin), the sheriff is begging us for more cash.

The ink wasn’t even dry on his presidential pardon when Arpaio — or the guy soliciting money on his behalf — wrote in part: “While I am humbled and incredibly grateful for this very good news, I can’t help but be concerned about a bit of bad news I received recently. I am still facing tens of thousands in legal bills from my fight to clear my name… Remember Friend, I am just a retired local law enforcement officer. The only reason you now my name is because the liberal media decided to launch a national campaign to paint me as a monster for my hard belief in upholding the Constitution and against illegal immigration...” Then he asks for money. Nerve. He violated a legal court order, committing a crime that was also a violation of his oath of office. And Trump, violating his oath, pardoned him.

I’ve covered Arpaio since he was first elected in 1992. I thought over time that his policies should have cost him his job more than once.

I believed Arpaio was done in the late 1990s when the county paid out an $8.25 million settlement to the family of Scott Norberg, who died after being strapped in a restraining chair while in the sheriff’s jail.

I thought Arpaio was done after the death of Charles Agster, who also died in jail after a struggle with detention officers in a restraint chair. A jury awarded Agster’s estate $9 million.

I thought for sure the lawsuits, the investigations, the incompetence would have ended the sheriff’s reign any number of times.

Prior to one of Arpaio’s six elections, the attorney Michael Manning, who had represented Norberg’s family and many others, told me, “You hope that people, voters, will see what is going on under this sheriff’s watch and see what the victims went through. You hope that speaks to people. Wakes them up.”

That didn’t happen until this past November. Arpaio lost the election, but won the future. Trump was elected.

Arpaio supported Trump from the moment Trump announced his candidacy. They’d been comrades in the Obama birther conspiracy business.

When the sheriff officially endorsed Trump, in January 2016, I wrote: “There is no way to decipher exactly why the sheriff is doing this. Perhaps he actually believes in Trump. Perhaps he wants something in return. Say, a future presidential pardon.” Damned if he didn’t get it. It was a huge slap in the face to Latinos, and to the rule of law, and to the U.S. Constitution. But to Arpaio ... a gift. Something even better than winning the lottery. The gift of freedom.

Who among us would ask for anything more?

Him.