Joe-Joe Left His Home In Mesa Arizona For Some Prison Yard Grass

Looks like everyone's favorite law and order Sheriff type has been possibly cooking the books.

To the tune of $80 million dollars.

A hidden computer database recently discovered in the course of a racial profiling investigation shows Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio misspent up to $80 million in funds intended for jail operations, according to Maricopa County supervisors and budget officials.

The hidden database contained payroll logs that detailed staff assignments and payments which were different than the staff assignments and payments reported in the official county-run database, they said.

"They've developed a system that basically tracks where they are working versus where they are being paid, and they did not update the official database, which led to the potential problems," Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson told The Arizona Republic. "I think they deliberately hid this info from us."

A spokesman for the Sheriff's Office denied any intention of hiding information from the county and blamed the duplicate payrolls on a lack of compatible technology between the Sheriff's Office and county agencies. In September, Maricopa County officials reported that Arpaio's office misspent up to $80 million in funds over five years to pay his employees working in patrol, human-smuggling operations and investigative units. 

The voter-approved money was restricted by law to detention operations such as food, detention officers' salaries, and equipment.

"It appears that [the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office] violated the intent and explicit language of the voter approved jail tax when they used that money to fund activities not related to jail operations," a press release said. "Maricopa County will have to pay back the restricted funds to the detention fund. This is a misuse of public funds."

A good ol' boy County Sheriff for life who set himself up as king of Maricopa County, who made national news with his near military treatment of Latinos in Arizona, a man who treated criminals in his county as animals meant to be humiliated, and arguably one of the nastiest, bigoted, snake-mean people on Earth...and you're surprised he defrauded the taxpayers out of some 80 million dollars over the years to pay his anti-Latino goon squads, to hunt them down like vermin in order to "protect the people".

And now law-abiding Maricopa County taxpayers are on the hook for the money.  Twelve years worth of cooking the books.  Assholes like this are all the same.  They abuse their power whenever possible and take the money and run.  Con men to the last.

I hope this guy does a long stint in his own county jail.

With Maricopa County's new Latino Sheriff.