Racial profiling ruling to serve as findings in separate Arpaio case

PHOENIX — A 2-year-old court decision that concluded Maricopa County
Sheriff Joe Arpaio had racially profiled Latinos will stand as the findings of
fact on one of several claims in a separate case alleging a range of alleged
civil rights violations by the lawman, a judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge Roslyn Silver said her decision means the U.S. Justice
Department lawyers won’t have to re-litigate the already-settled allegation that
Arpaio’s officers had systematically profiled Latinos in their patrols.

“Instead, those issues will be given `conclusive effect’ here,” Silver wrote.

An Aug. 10 trial has been scheduled to settle the Justice Department’s
remaining allegations that Arpaio’s office retaliated against its critics,
punished Latino jail inmates with limited English skills for speaking Spanish
and discriminated against Latinos in business raids aimed at cracking down on
identity theft.

The sheriff has denied the allegations and called the Justice Department’s
civil rights case against him a politically motivated attack by the Obama
administration.

The Justice Department’s case is separate from a racial profiling lawsuit filed
against Arpaio by immigrant rights advocates. The sheriff lost that case two
years ago when a judge concluded his officers singled out Latinos in their
regular traffic and immigration patrols.