ARPAIO GUILTY OF RACIAL PROFILING!

ARPAIO GUILTY OF RACIAL PROFILING!
Arpaio's lawyer Tim Casey today threw in the towel, essentially agreeing to a $200,000 payout to Julian and Julio Mora, the RACIALLY PROFILED LATINO AND LEGAL -- father and son zip-tied and held for three hours during a 2009 MCSO raid of the Phoenix landscaping firm Handyman Maintenance Inc., where the elder Mora worked. Arpaio's masked men-in-beige were after illegal immigrants that day, but Julian Mora is a legal permanent resident. His son Julio is an American citizen.

But all that mattered to Arpaio's goons was the Moras' skin color. Because they were brown, sheriff's deputies pulled over their truck as the elder Mora drove to work. They were zip-tied and laughed at when they asked to use the facilities.

Mora senior, who suffers from diabetes, was finally allowed to make water behind a parked vehicle. The junior Mora was allowed to go to the bathroom, but deputies refused to remove his zip-tie, and mocked him as he struggled to relieve himself. The Moras had done nothing wrong, yet they were treated like criminals.

So they sued Arpaio and the other idgits involved, like the bigoted Barney Fife, MCSO Lt. Joe Sousa, the brain surgeon in charge of the sheriff's human smuggling unit, best known for telling elected officials critical of his jefe to "shut up" at a deputies' press conference in 2009.

Oh, if only the $200K could come from the pocket of an aggro idiot like Sousa. But, alas, as with all of the settlements and judgments that result from the misdeeds of Arpaio and his dull-witted minions, it's the county that has to pick up the tab for this Keystone-Koppery.

Interestingly, one reason the defense in this suit flopped on its face is that the MCSO's moronic administrators could not determine which MCSO goons in particular pinched the Moras. Flip to the word "incompetence" in Webster's Dictionary, and I can almost guarantee there's an illo of an MCSO badge.

In April, District Court Judge David Campbell ruled that the Moras' Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure had been violated.

"Julian had committed no traffic violation, and neither plaintiff was ever charged with a crime," Campbell wrote at the time.

"In short," he added, "the undisputed evidence shows that when the John Doe Deputies stopped plaintiffs, they had no suspicion, reasonable or otherwise, that plaintiffs were in violation of the traffic laws or engaged in criminal activity."

Campbell's April ruling practically guaranteed Arpaio's capitulation. On the Fourth Amendment claim, the defendants already knew they were going to lose.

Annie Lai, the ACLU's lead attorney on the case, warned the county that it will be on the hook for Arpaio's continued unconstitutional shenanigans.

"Sheriff Arpaio's deputies are not free to ignore the Constitution when they are enforcing immigration laws," Lai said in a statement released by the ACLU. "County officials should take heed that the Moras and hundreds of other Latino residents who have been detained in the raids without any evidence of wrongdoing have recourse in the courts."

Lai just left the ACLU this week, on her way to a teaching gig at Yale University. I interviewed her before she left, and she will be the subject of a future blog post.

Congrats to her, the Moras and all the lawyers at the ACLU and elsewhere who helped win this one. Occasionally, there's a little justice here in Sand Land, though I won't be satisfied till I see Arpaio suited up in stripes, working the side of the road, hopefully with all of his henchmen right beside him.

Arpaio Loses! District Court Judge David Campbell handed a victory to the Racially Profiled Mora Family!

District Court Judge David Campbell handed a victory to the Racially Profiled Mora Family! The Honorable Judge Campbell found Arpaio and his Goons Violated the Mora's Fourth Amendment right to be free of Unreasonable Search and Seizure. Maricopa County was found to be liable for damages.

"Julian, an American Citizen, (and his Father - a Legal Resident) had committed NO traffic violation, and NEITHER plaintiff was ever charged with a crime," Judge Campbell noted in his decision. He added: "In short, the undisputed evidence shows that when the Deputies stopped the plaintiffs, they had NO suspicion, reasonable or otherwise, that plaintiffs were in violation of the traffic laws or engaged in ANY criminal activity."

The Mora's attorney, Annie Lai said, "Arpaio has carried out these [immigration] raids with total disregard of people's constitutional rights. Today's decision should provide some comfort to the (Latino) citizens of Maricopa County that the MCSO is NOT above the law."

Long time readers may recall my earlier coverage of this Racial Profiling case.
The Moras were caught up in one of the many anti-Latino raids that Arpaio and his masked volunteer goons conducted in Latino neighborhoods in Maricopa County. This "suppression sweep" was conducted in February 2009, that of county contractor Handyman Maintenance Inc. (HMI)

Julian Mora, 66, and his son Julio, 19, were driving toward HMI in Phoenix when two MCSO SUVs cut them off about 100 yards from the business where Julian Mora (Julio's Dad) worked. For no reason (other than their being Brown) MCSO deputies zip-tied both father and son (like animals), transported them to the worksite and made them wait for three hours, without food or water (in zip ties). The zip-ties on Julio's wrists were so tight they left marks. At one point, Julian (the Dad), a Diabetic, needed to go the bathroom. Mr. Mora's requests and his son's, on his dad's behalf, were IGNORED until Mr. Mora finally told deputies he was about to wet himself. A deputy took Mr. Mora to the parking lot, where he was made to urinate (pee on the ground) next to a car.

When nature called on the younger Julio Mora, MCSO goons escorted him to the lavatory but refused to undo the zip tie. Handcuffed in front, as he struggled to unzip his pants, Sousa's bullyboys LAUGHED at Julio Mora, asking, "What's the matter, you can't find it?"

Arpaio and his masked volunteer goons were wrong for treating the Moras this way and the Judge agrees.