Supervisor Stapley seeks Obama support of federal investigation into Arpaio

[JonLP24]

During a trip to Washington, D.C., this week, Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley delivered letters to officials close to President Barack Obama and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, urging them to support the federal criminal investigation into Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, The Arizona Republic has learned.

The two-page letter was hand-delivered Tuesday during a summit at the White House with county leaders from across the nation. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other officials attended the conference.

At the direction of U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke and the FBI, a federal grand jury since December 2009 has examined allegations of abuse of power into Arpaio, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, and their employees. Stapley, county supervisors, judges, sheriff's deputies and others have cooperated with federal investigators as part of that probe.

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"While I am not privy to the internal workings of secretive State and Federal Grand Jury proceedings, I am a first hand witness to the crimes committed; having been falsely charged, subjected to staged media show arrest, publicly humiliated, damaged politically and nearly ruined financially," the letter to Obama said. "Your support of decisions made in Arizona regarding whether or not to indict some or all of these individuals is crucial. We need your help to rid Arizona and our nation of this modern day 'Bull Connor' and his corrupt cronies. Left unchecked, such corruption will grow like a cancer beyond the borders of Arizona."


Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/azelections/articles/2011/05/04/20110504supervisor-stapley-arpaio-criminal-probe-sought-brk04-ON.html#ixzz1LRIAHwK7