Department of Justice faces deadline over Arpaio’s pardon legal action
Sep 21, 2017, 8:37 AM | Updated: 11:23 am
(AP Photo)
(AP Photo)
PHOENIX — A judge in Phoenix was waiting for federal prosecutors to meet a Thursday deadline to make clear why former Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s pardoned criminal contempt case and rulings should be voided.
U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton set the cutoff point last week, saying that government prosecutors hadn’t sufficiently addressed why the criminal history record should be expunged.
President Donald Trump pardoned the 85-year-old former Maricopa County sheriff in August. It was the first pardon of the Trump Administration.
The ex-lawman’s attorneys want Bolton to throw out the case and her 14-page ruling that explained the reasoning behind his misdemeanor conviction.
If the ruling is tossed, Arpaio’s name would be cleared, his attorneys said.
The Department of Justice agreed the ruling should be tossed.
In a court filing, the department said, “The President’s decision to grant Defendant a ‘[f]ull and [u]nconditional [p]ardon [f]or [h]is [c]onviction’—and Defendant’s decision to accept it—ends this prosecution,” the DOJ said in a court filing Monday. “The presidential pardon removes any punitive consequences that would otherwise flow from Defendant’s non-final conviction and therefore renders the case moot.”
The presidential pardon kept Arpaio from serving a possible jail sentence for disobeying a 2011 court order to stop his immigration patrols that targeted immigrants.
Arpaio maintained he did not ignore the order on purpose.
Bolton found Arpaio guilty of criminal contempt in July.
He was sheriff from 1993-2016.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
