An Arizona sheriff accused of launching a secret investigation into a judge in a failed bid to get him booted from a racial profiling case insisted in court Friday that the judge wasn't the target of the examination.
TIMELINE: Sheriff Joe contempt of court case
Sheriff Joe Arpaio testified that his investigation focused on allegations that someone stole bank account information from thousands of people and that someone wiretapped his lawyers' phones.
The sheriff for metropolitan Phoenix said U.S. District Judge Murray Snow, who has dealt the toughest legal defeats in Arpaio's 22-year tenure, was a victim in the theft of bank information.
"My concern is the 150,000 people who live in Maricopa County who were victims. I don't care who they are or where they came from," Arpaio said. He was responding to questions about why the racial profiling case was mentioned in documents from the investigation.
The sheriff, who is scheduled to continue his testimony on Thursday, spoke in hushed tone during much of his testimony, unlike his usual booming voice in public appearances. He answered many questions by saying he delegated the investigation to subordinates.
When asked if he attended meetings where the probe was mentioned, Arpaio said he didn't recall.
Snow has said the investigation was intended to prove that the judge and U.S. Justice Department were conspiring against the sheriff.
Arpaio said a confidential informant who provided the tips that led to the investigation was eventually deemed unreliable. Still, the agency's investigators continued pressing the informant for proof.
Arpaio disputed his former attorney's testimony that several sheriff's employees and lawyers thought the tips were unreliable. "I didn't hear that," the sheriff said.
His lawyers cited the investigation earlier this summer when they tried unsuccessfully to get Snow removed from the case.
Arpaio said perhaps he should have provided more information about the judge's role in the investigation when Snow questioned him about it during an April hearing. The sheriff said he also feels as though the informant deceived him.
"I am sure not happy by the whole situation," Arpaio said.
The disqualification attempt was made after Snow launched a contempt-of-court case against Arpaio for flouting his orders. Arpaio could face civil fines, for instance, for his acknowledgment that his officers conducted immigration patrols 18 months after Snow ordered them stopped.
The six-term sheriff has been accused in the past of retaliating against critics. He was confronted in court Friday about documents in his possession that were related to the investigation, including a November 2013 note that Arpaio wrote on his typewriter.
In it, Arpaio said another tipster had alleged that federal authorities put wiretaps on the phones of the sheriff and his wife. The document also contained a handwritten notation by Arpaio that said the judge's sister-in-law worked for a law firm that was pressing the profiling case in court.
Arpaio explained that the tip was bizarre but said he couldn't ignore it. In the end, the sheriff acknowledged the tipster's information couldn't be verified.
"I took it serious," Arpaio said. "On the other hand, it's just one of those things that comes up. I didn't send the Army to check it out."
On Thursday, a lieutenant in Arpaio's office testified that the sheriff personally spent $10,000 to help pay for some travel expenses in the investigation.
Arpaio disputed that claim.
"There is no way I ever paid my personal funds," the sheriff said. "Never have."
