From an AZ Republic story regarding the Court's efforts to examine what happened and to prevent future escapes (emphasis mine) -
The Maricopa County Superior Court has hired an outside consulting firm to investigate last week's escape of a convicted child rapist while he was on trial, court officials said.
Adrian Cruz was convicted in 2005 of sexually assaulting his girlfriend's 9-year-old daughter in his ice-cream truck. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 35 years. But he was back in court on trial for two unrelated rapes.
On Feb. 17, he slipped out of handcuffs during a lunchtime break and evaded the Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies who were supposed to be guarding him. His escape was captured by surveillance cameras as he walked unchallenged out of the downtown Phoenix court complex.
{snip}
"I smell some politics involved in this," Arpaio said of the consultants. "If they're not happy with the service, maybe they can hold the Board of Supervisors in contempt for not giving us the money for hiring the necessary deputies."
Arpaio has had run-ins with the courts in the past, at times refusing to transport prisoners to their court appearances (he was slapped down quickly for that one, since that's a basic part of any sheriff's job), so it isn't surprising that the court felt it was appropriate to seek an objective analysis of what went wrong last week to ensure the safety of the public and court personnel in the future.
It's unfortunate in this time of budget crises at all levels of government that Arpaio and his lack of professionalism is causing the expenditure of more scarce resources.
And despite claims that he needs more deputies for court security, Arpaio has the option of transferring some from his anti-immigrant putsch squads.
Of course, that'll never happen - he doesn't get enough of a media coverage fix for mundane things like doing his job right.
2 comments:
I agree with the sentiment voiced above. If Sheriff Arpaio doesn't have enough deputies to guard convicts at the courthouse he needs to reign in his flashier efforts.
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