Arpaio speech played federal probe for laughs

PHOENIX - An audio recording has surfaced of Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio playing his refusal to cooperate in a racial profiling investigation for laughs at a fundraiser for an anti-illegal immigration group in Texas. He ridicules politicians who sought the probe and displayed contempt toward federal authorities who were - and are still - investigating him on two fronts.

The dismissive comments in 2009 by Arpaio came as the U.S. Justice Department had already launched a civil rights probe of his trademark immigration patrols and the FBI already was examining abuse-of-power allegations for the sheriff's investigations of political foes.

In the September 2009 speech in Houston, Arpaio boasted that he arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants after politicians and federal investigators started to pick apart his patrols. He said he wouldn't cooperate with the inquiry, but said he would tone down the patrols - if he was proven wrong.

"But I'm not. After they went after me, we arrested 500 more just for spite," the self-proclaimed "America's toughest sheriff" said, pausing for laughter and applause.

In an interview Thursday, Arpaio defended his comments before Texans For Immigration Reform as a collection of humorous off-the-cuff remarks intended merely to show that he wasn't going to back down to critics.

"These are not official, under-oath speeches," Arpaio said. "It's strictly a speech that when I'm talking to certain groups, they like to hear what I have to say, because they know I'm under the gun."

The sheriff awaits a lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department has promised to file over its civil rights allegations. Arpaio's office is accused of racially profiling Latinos and retaliating against critics of its immigration patrols.

Talks to settle the case before going to court fell apart earlier this month when Arpaio balked at a proposal to let a court-appointed official monitor his operations to make sure his office isn't making unconstitutional arrests.

The status of the criminal investigation against Arpaio's office is unknown. The FBI declined to provide an update on its investigation. Federal prosecutors didn't respond to a request for an update.

The recording of the Texas speech was given to The Associated Press recently by Joel Robbins, a Phoenix attorney and longtime Arpaio critic who said he bought a copy from the group after reading about it in a newspaper.

At the time of the speech, only Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley had been criminally charged, though the sheriff was investigating other county officials.

"We have already indicted one, so I am not their favorite guy," Arpaio said in Houston, drawing laughter. "The county has cut my budget $35 million just for spite. But I'm still locking them all up. I have ways to get the job done."

Paul Charlton, an attorney who represented Stapley and has listened to portions of Arpaio's speech, described the comment as "close to a confession as you may ever get."

"He is drawing the nexus himself between the budget cut of $35 million and an investigation of the Board of Super­visors. A threat to lock them up, which in fact he did," Charlton said.

Arpaio said his only regret in making the speech was that he used the wrong figure for the number of illegal immigrants arrested after the civil rights inquiry began. "It was wrong," he said. "It wasn't 500. It was thousands."