Arizona county settles 2 lawsuits vs. sheriff

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona's most populous county agreed Friday to pay more than $7 million to settle lawsuits by a former Maricopa County official and two newspaper executives accusing Sheriff Joe Arpaio of abuse of power.

In the first suit, former Supervisor Don Stapley agreed to accept $3.5 million to drop his case accusing Arpaio, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas and others of pursuing trumped-up criminal cases against him.

A separate $3.75 million settlement was reached with executives of the Phoenix New Times, who sued Arpaio's office after they were arrested in 2007 for publishing information about a secret grand jury subpoena demanding information on its stories and online readers.

Stapley's settlement brings closure to a string of lawsuits filed by numerous other high-ranking county officials and judges who claimed Arpaio and Thomas wrongfully targeted them in corruption investigations between 2008 and 2010.

In the newspaper executives' lawsuit, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin accused Arpaio's office of violating their constitutional rights.

"Who thinks you can arrest American journalists for what they write?" Lacey said Friday after the settlement's announcement. "It's just remarkable."

Lacey said that while the settlement was good news, he would like to see Arpaio held accountable for his actions.

"This guy has just run wild and the county has continued to write checks for his abuses without curtailing the abuses," he said.

Arpaio wasn't immediately available Friday for comment. But one of his aides, Deputy Chief Jack MacIntyre, said, "It was an economic decision by the county Board of Supervisors" and it made "better economic sense" than going to court.

Michael Manning, who represents both Stapley and the New Times executives, did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Thomas also didn't return calls.

A joint statement by the four county supervisors said, "We are convinced that settlement of Mr. Stapley's suit protects the taxpayers from even larger cost down the road, and hopefully closes the final chapter in what has been a very sad and damaging period in our county's history."

Officials and judges who filed the lawsuits say they were targeted because they were in legal and political disputes with the sheriff and Thomas over cuts to agency budgets, a plan to build a new court complex and other issues. Arpaio and Thomas contended they were trying to root out corruption in county government.

Between 2008 and 2009, criminal charges were filed against Stapley, Wilcox and a judge, but those prosecutions quickly collapsed in court. Thomas and another prosecutor were eventually disbarred. Arpaio's office was accused of shoddy police work that targeted political adversaries, including officials and judges who were investigated but weren't charged with crimes.