the beloved tough sheriff, joe arpaio, opens investigations and sends out his deputies against politicians, judges, mayors and even civil servants, anyone who gets in his way. the sheriff s office says the investigations are all legitimate. that investigators had probable cause and the duty to investigate. others call it intimidation. abuse of power. here s why. don stapley faced two sheriff s department investigations. 118 counts in all. he was handcuffed, put in jail. it was a painful ordeal. but all of it, all of it was dismissed. his defense cost him personally more than $1.5 million. when mary rose wilcox got into court, every charge against her, all 44, thrown out. and grand jury records released this year show an investigation launched against county director
jerry, did he abuse his power? did he send out underlings to check on these. to destroy their careers? absolutely not. you were involved in those decisions? no i was not. i ve been here for 32 years. i know the intering workings of i know the interworkings of the office. the sheriff was not involved in any of those things he was accused of. but in the chase of don stapley, the sheriff is not done. even though all 118 counts against stapley were thrown out, the sheriff is appealing. it s unbelievable. it s the kinds of thank you wouldn t think could even happen wouldn t think could even happen in the united states of america in the 21st century. the grand jury now investigating the sheriff, could report its findings any day. whether this sheriff, acclaimed for being tough, went too far. drew griffin, cnn, phoenix. serious charge also continue
which he has thrown out the window. reporter: when the county s budget director, sandy wilson, tried to enforce countywide budget cuts on the sheriff s department, she, too, had sheriffs investigators knocking on her door. who would have believed the way they would go about stopping us from doing our job would have been to go against individuals within my office, myself included, the county manager, criminally. many say behind the scenes the beloved tough sheriff, joe arpaio, opens investigations and sends out his deputies against politicians, judges, mayors and even civil servants, anyone who gets in his way. the sheriff s office says the investigations are all legitimate. that investigators had probable cause and the duty to investigate. others call it intimidation. abuse of power. here s why. don stapley faced two sheriff s department investigations.
and grand jury records released this year show an investigation launched against county director sandy wilson ended because the grand jury said there was no case. paul charleston is a former u.s. attorney for arizona. he s now in private practice and represents don stapley. if i believe it to be true, the abuse of authority is when you mess with my budget, when you mess with my issues, i m going to look into your past. there might be no evidence of a crime that occurred but i ll bring charges against you anyway? that s exactly right. i take it a step further. if you re a judge who is sitting on a case that i have and you rule against me, that very ruling can be evidence of a crime and you will be charged and that s exactly what happened to one of our city criminal judges here. and that is also true. a sitting judge who ruled against sheriff arpaio in multiple cases was then
us from doing our job would have been to go against individuals within my office, myself included, the county manager, criminally. many say behind the scenes the beloved tough sheriff, joe arpaio, opens investigations and sends out his deputies against politicians, judges, mayors and even civil servants, anyone who gets in his way. the sheriff s office says the investigations are all legitimate. that investigators had probable cause and the duty to investigate. others call it intimidation. abuse of power. here s why. don stapley faced two sheriff s department investigations. 118 counts in all. he was handcuffed, put in jail. it was a painful ordeal. but all of it, all of it was dismissed. his defense cost him personally more than $1.5 million.