June 1

Long gets six years, Hounshell gets indicted, Arpaio gets re-elected
In light of welldocumented abuse of office, countless lawsuits and no accountability for an extraordinarily high body count

June 1, 2005

By Linda Bentley

PHOENIX – Last week, Charles F. Long, director of the Buffalo Soldiers toughlove youth camp, was sentenced to six years for reckless manslaughter in the death of 14-year-old Anthony Haynes, and five years for aggravated assault for holding a knife to the chest of Nicholas Conner, while threatening to “gut him like a fish.” Eight other counts alleging child abuse ended up in a mistrial. Long will be serving his terms concurrently.
    Last Wednesday, Apache County Sheriff Brian Hounshell was indicted on two counts of misuse of public money, a class 4 felony; one count of theft, a class 3 felony, a class 2 felony; and one count of fraudulent schemes and artifices.
    Although he maintains his innocence and attributes the charges to false accusations made by disgruntled employees during his 2004 re-election campaign, if convicted, Hounshell could spend up to 10 years in prison.
    An announcement issued by the Arizona Attorney General’s Office stated, “The charges stem from an investigation into allegations that Hounshell misappropriated from Apache County more than $8,000 in public monies and equipment for his own personal use or benefit between 2000 and 2004.” Then there’s Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America, and his close circle of thugs.
    They still walk free and unscathed after more than a decade of well-documented accounts of his abuse of power in office.
    Arpaio, who would be more fittingly dubbed America’s most sue-able sheriff, is named as a defendant in more than 1,600 U.S. District Court cases, a record no other sheriff in America can hold a candle to.
    Employees have been caught red-handed on video of wrongdoing, but Arpaio denies wrongdoing at every turn and simply dismisses it, even if it caused the death of an inmate.
                                                                                                                                                                                           Charles F. Long
Arpaio was recently interviewed by a British TV station.
    After viewing the video of Charles Agster, who died of positional asphyxia after being placed in a restraint chair while handcuffed, the reporter read to Arpaio from his own policy manual. It clearly stated inmates should never be placed in a restraint chair while handcuffed as it could cause positional asphyxia.
    Arpaio said, “I don’t know anything about that. All I know is we didn’t do anything wrong.” Agster’s parents are suing.
    Scott Norberg died the same way several years before and that lawsuit cost taxpayers over $8 million.
    Blind inmate Brian Crenshaw had a broken neck and broken toes, but died from a perforated intestine after he was beat up by three guards and then dragged to a cell where he was left isolated and ignored for days.
    Arpaio dismissed all that declaring, “The man fell off a bunk,” as the cause of Crenshaw’s death.
    When Long was being charged with eight counts of child abuse, Arpaio proclaimed, “Those kids didn’t get those bruises from falling off a platform.” Crenshaw’s family is suing Arpaio. A lot of people are suing Arpaio.
    Arpaio believes the high death toll comes with the territory. “You’re bound to lose some,” he says.
                                                                                                                                                                              Sheriff Joe Arpaio

    Arpaio’s abuse of office is flagrant, especially when it comes to political foes. He wreaked havoc on the lives of Tom Bearup, Dan Saban and their families, just for running against him, and Jim Cozzolino and his family because he was Bearup’s campaign manager the first time around and very vocal about his disdain for Arpaio.
    Cozzolino says he was “dogged by Leo Driving Hawk” from MCSO Internal Affairs, had deputies picking through his trash and had his Pantera wrongfully seized.
    Dan Saban recently filed a complaint against Arpaio and the ABC Channel 15 affiliate for their collusion in airing a story, while Saban was running against Arpaio in the primary election, about an un-credible allegation that Saban raped his stepmother some 32 years ago.
    Arpaio insisted on pursuing the investigation even though the seven-year statute of limitations had long run out.
    Reporter Rob Koebel received the sheriff’s report on a confidential and exclusive basis. So exclusive, Saban was not even able to obtain a copy of the report given to Koebel.
    When Bearup ran against Arpaio, Arpaio had Bearup and his family placed under surveillance.
    Bearup’s son Patrick is in jail facing a murder charge. Patrick has consistently held his innocence.
    While awaiting trial, Patrick has been housed in the mental ward at Madison Street Jail with the lights on 24 hours a day and instructions to wake him every 15 minutes, even though doctors noted Patrick was neither mentally disturbed nor suicidal.                                                                                                                               Sheriff Brian Hounshell
    Another notation in his file revealed Patrick was being housed in the mental ward by order of Arpaio.
    Patrick talked to a reporter about it.
    Arpaio doesn’t like political foes, “dime-droppers” and anyone who talks to the press. And, punishment was swift.
    The day after the article appeared in the paper, Patrick was swept out of his cell and transported, without telling Patrick or anyone else where he was going.
    He was transported to Navajo County Jail.
    In court, testimony revealed Arpaio requested the transfer for “political reasons,” arranged by a simple phone call. No paperwork, no explanation.
    Again, the specific procedures, as per MCSO’s policy manual for transporting inmates, requiring paperwork stating, at the minimum, the inmate’s name, classification and reason for the transfer, were not followed either.
    Court dates came and went for Patrick at Maricopa County Superior Court, while he sat in Navajo County Jail. He had no way to contact his attorney and neither county took responsibility for transporting Patrick to his court appearances.
    Judge Granville acknowledged Patrick’s sixth amendment rights had been violated, but he never found Arpaio or anyone else responsible.
    By court order, Patrick, held since November 2003, was transported back to Maricopa County Jail to await trial, which has now been given a “New Last Day” of Sept 9, 2005.
    Arpaio calls everyone in jail “crooks.” Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was granted emergency orders by U.S.
    District Court Judge Earl Carroll placing Driving Hawk, who still works for Arpaio in internal affairs, under a restraining order and receivership for his part in a nationwide $88 million investment scam.
    In its complaint the SEC states, “The Defendants directly or indirectly, singly or in concert with others, in the offer and sale of securities ... employed devices, schemes or artifices to defraud; ... obtained money or property by means of untrue statements of material fact or omissions and ... engaged in transactions, practices or courses of business which operate or would operate as a fraud or deceit.” Arpaio sees nothing wrong with Driving Hawk’s continued employment or assignment to internal affairs.
    After Arpaio totaled his county-owned Ford Crown Victoria in the Osco Drug parking lot in Fountain Hills on Saturday, April 2, the 72-year-old offered more denial.
    According to Maricopa County Risk Management Auto Loss Notice’s description of the accident, Arpaio was “attempting to park his vehicle in a parking space when the vehicle would not stop and subsequently hit the curb and ran over a large boulder and century plant.” Deputy R.T. Bierwalter’s narrative states, “... the front bumper was damaged along with the two front tires were flat, the radiator was leaking fluid, the driveshaft was broken in half, the front suspension appeared to be damaged and the rear driver side quarterpanel appeared to have been creased.
    Arpaio insists he did nothing wrong and the car was at fault, even though all evidence points to him stepping on the accelerator instead of the break pedal, catapulting the vehicle into the landscaping where a large boulder apparently stopped the car.
    Why hasn’t anyone questioned Arpaio’s use of a county-owned vehicle for personal use? Why hasn’t anyone held Arpaio accountable for using a county-owned vehicle and county employees to attend political events, not just locally but in Gila County as well? Why has no one held Arpaio accountable for the money he collects autographing his famous pink underwear? Are tax dollars used to silk-screen his name in gold on those boxers? Where is the cash deposited? Why has no one required Arpaio to provide an explanation as to how he was able to purchase over $750,000 in real estate with cash? Why is Arpaio immune to accountability while others are indicted or go to prison for far less serious offenses? How high does the inmate death toll need to be and how much taxpayer money needs to be converted to his personal use before the attorney general investigates Arpaio? And, why does the legislature lay dormant when impeachment is within their grasp?