Sheriff Joe Arpaio reaches out to public to help cover legal fees
May 26, 2015, 12:46 PM | Updated: 12:46 pm
PHOENIX — As his trial regarding his response to a 2011 court order continues, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is asking the public for help.
The sheriff sent out an email last Thursday to his supporters and asked for money to cover his legal fees, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“In some instances I have to personally pay for attorneys to represent me in these cases,” Arpaio wrote. “I do not have the personal wealth or the wherewithal to keep up with the costly demands of paying for attorneys to defend me.”
Arpaio also wrote he feels targeted by various immigration rights groups that have sued him for using policies to specifically target Latinos.
Controversial policies enacted by Arpaio have always opened the doors to criticism, but some of his more recent actions have run him under hot water.
U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow is deciding whether or not Arpaio broke the law by failing to carry out a 2011 court order that aimed to refrain from bias against minorities.
In 2013, Snow ruled that the sheriff’s office had racially profiled Latinos in its regular traffic and immigration patrols.
Arpaio is scheduled to appear before Snow again in June.
