Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. standing in the blue suit behind Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce
Lawyers in Arizona for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department plan to meet for the first time Monday to try to resolve federal accusations of civil rights violations against the local law enforcement department.
The meeting would come nearly two months after the Justice Department released a scathing Dec. 15 report accusing Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office of racially profiling Latinos, basing immigration enforcement on racially charged citizen complaints and pushing Hispanic jail inmates for speaking Spanish.
Joseph Popolizio, one of the lawyers representing the sheriff’s office, wrote in a letter Wednesday to a DOJ official that the meeting was scheduled but it wasn’t immediately clear whether it’ll be in Washington, Phoenix or somewhere else. Federal officials have said they’re willing to negotiate ways to reform the sheriff’s office in Arizona’s most populous county.
