Sheriff Joe - Genius At Misdirection. Who Knew?

Perhaps knowing that the EV Trib was planning to publish a damning story about him on Sunday, Joe Arpaio spent a good part of Good Friday leading hundreds of his deputies on a highly-publicized immigrant hunt in North Phoenix.

Most people just figured it was just "Joe being Joe," getting in a little fear-mongering and race-baiting for the cameras before celebrating the holiday.

Then Sunday rolled around, and the East Valley Tribune published an expose of one of Arpaio's financial shenanigans meant to reward his political loyalists in the MCSO, and to have the taxpayers pick up the tab.

From the story, written by Dennis Welch -

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is using a loophole in state retirement rules to keep his most loyal deputies on the payroll after they've retired and accepted lucrative pensions and bonuses.

In just the past year, Arpaio has rehired four top-level chiefs into civilian jobs. The four received retirement bonuses that paid them nearly $300,000 to more than $500,000 apiece.

The sheriff says the men were the most qualified for the jobs. But critics say Arpaio, who is running for re-election, is keeping on key people who have helped him in previous campaigns.

The article goes on to detail Arpaio's stunning abuse of a retirement program that allows his deputies to retire as sworn officers, receive their pensions, a large one-time cash payout, *and* come back as highly-paid civilian employees.

You've gotta admire Arpaio's consistency though - he pulled this same stunt years ago for his Chief Deputy (and Chief of Honduran Junketing) David Hendershott.

Guess he figured that if it worked the first time...

An EV Tribune table with the info on four of the biggest current 'double-dippers' is here.

To sum up what it all means:

Saban for Sheriff in 2008.