Penzone to challenge Sheriff Arpaio

Former Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone is next in line to challenge Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the title of Maricopa County sheriff, winning the Democratic primary Tuesday over his counterpart, John Rowan.

Penzone led Rowan by more than a 2-to-1 ratio with fewer than 5 percent of precincts left to count Tuesday night. Penzone will face the Republican Arpaio and former Scottsdale police Lt. Mike Stauffer, an independent, in November.

In a roomful of supporters Tuesday night, Penzone delivered a message to Arpaio: "He can pile up his tank, his green bologna, his pink underwear and his tents, and we will go through it, over it and around it ? whatever we need to do to restore integrity to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office."

Penzone enjoyed the support of the Democratic Party and the financial base that comes with it.

Rowan, former assistant to the Goodyear police chief, struggled to generate momentum with his self-styled grass-roots campaign.

Penzone raised more than $220,000 through early August. Rowan, who was fired from the Goodyear Police Department in December for insubordination, raised more than $2,500 from donors and loaned his campaign more than $12,000 to stay active in the race.

Rowan's campaign took a hit last month when he helped to bail assault suspect Kolton Clark out of jail. Clark claimed sheriff's detention officers beat him, but the Sheriff's Office later accused Clark of making a false report.

Penzone now faces Arpaio, the five-term incumbent whose national support remains high even as polls show his popularity in Maricopa County has waned.

Penzone has already created one ad attacking Arpaio over the handling of sex-crime investigations in the Sheriff's Office. He said he will continue to focus on how the agency lost focus under Arpaio by pursuing initiatives not directly related to the sheriff's statutory responsibilities to operate the jails, bring inmates to court and patrol unincorporated areas.

Arpaio has raised more than $7.5million in his re-election effort, with most of those funds coming from out-of-state donors.

Arpaio had about $4.2million on hand as of early August, launching new television ads that hit the air this week. Penzone had a fraction of that -- about $72,000 -- available for his campaign at the end of the most recent reporting period, but last week he made a trip to the Bay Area to generate support at an event hosted by former Mesa Police Chief and current San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Sheriff hopeful bails out inmate <nbsp/>

The tip came in like so many others, with a distraught family member claiming a relative had been beaten by detention officers in Maricopa County's Fourth Avenue Jail.

That information was enough to persuade John Rowan, a Democratic candidate for sheriff, to bail 18-year-old Kolton Brian Clark out of jail last week.

But the Sheriff's Office denies Clark's claim. And video that captures Clark's entire time in custody raises questions about whether the assault took place. A Phoenix police report shows that the injuries Clark attributes to sheriff's detention officers may have been suffered in the fight that landed him in jail.

The same report indicates that Clark blacked out during his time with police and repeatedly asked officers why he was in jail.

Clark now faces assault and disorderly conduct charges. He has pleaded not guilty, and a pretrial conference is scheduled for Aug.10, according to court records.

For Rowan, a grass-roots candidate with no support from the Democratic Party and scant financial backing, the notion of bailing a Hispanic inmate out of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's jail after the inmate alleged abuse by detention officers was a narrative that was too good to pass up. Rowan was alerted to the allegations after Clark's father contacted him.

Rowan faces former Phoenix police Sgt. Paul Penzone in the Aug.28 Democratic primary. The winner will go on to face Arpaio and independent Mike Stauffer in the November general election.

The Sheriff's Office denies that any detention officer hit or stomped on Clark, as he alleges, and the County Attorney's Office this week informed the Sheriff's Office that prosecutors would review false reporting charges against Clark if they were submitted.

"We haven't made that decision yet," said Capt. Brian Lee, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office. "All the videotape for his whole time in custody was reviewed. They didn't see anything indicating he was assaulted or there was any incident involving our detention officers or another inmate."

Rowan's communications director, Terri Woodmansee, said the decision to bail Clark out of jail was not a political ploy but an act of benevolence. However, Rowan twice related the story in speeches last weekend at a state Democratic Party meeting in Payson.

"We didn't go out to the press with this at all. He did this because a distraught parent contacted him," Woodmansee said. "Given the fact that they're Hispanic, did he make a predisposed decision based on other cases? But again, what side do you err on? It's about the side of taking a human being, given the pattern."

Two sheriff's detention officers pleaded guilty last year to aggravated assault and were sentenced to probation for their roles in a 2010 assault where an inmate was punched, kicked and stepped on. Earlier this year, the family of a Phoenix man filed a $20million notice of claim against Phoenix police and the Sheriff's Office, claiming that excessive force and a series of failures by medical professionals contributed to the death of Ernest "Marty" Atencio after a struggle with police and sheriff's officers.

Audiotapes of Clark's telephone calls out of the jail indicate he and his family were also aware of prior instances of inmate assault and abuse in Maricopa County jails. The Arizona Republic requested audio and video related to the incident last week after a family member contacted the newspaper to disclose what they believed was an assault on Clark inside the jail.

In one audiotape, a woman who identifies herself as Clark's mother tells him of the Rowan campaign's involvement in his case, saying: "They're trying to prove a point. ? You're not the only victim."

Clark ended up in jail after Phoenix police responded twice to an apartment complex in the 2000 block of West Indian School Road. According to police reports, Clark was involved in two fights at the complex. The first fight took place between Clark and a man he had been drinking with, according to police. That fight left Clark badly beaten, but the other man did not want to press charges and police left.

Phoenix firefighters were unable to treat Clark for his injuries because of his aggressive behavior, according to police, and he was taken to another apartment in the complex where he passed out.

A short time later, a friend of Clark's woke him up, prompting another confrontation between Clark, two men and a security guard at the complex. The guard sprayed Clark with mace and police arrested Clark after the other two men requested prosecution and the apartment complex asked that he be cited for disorderly conduct, according to police.

Phoenix police also have no record of any officer using force against Clark. Clark's allegations are squarely against the sheriff's detention officers.

A police report describes injuries on Clark's head when he was taken to jail.

"He remained agitated and the officers attempted to calm him and Kolton was telling them he had no idea what had taken place and was asking the officers to explain why he was in jail," according to the report.

Video from the Sheriff's Office shows Clark initially being put in an isolation cell where a Phoenix officer directs him to a sink so he can wash his eyes. Clark later refuses contact with medical staff and is put into one of the sheriff's rubberized safe cells with a blanket.

Clark's conversations from jail would put the detention officers' assault around that time, but jail video shows no officers making contact with Clark. He remains alone in the safe cell from about 1:15a.m. to about 10:15a.m., when he is let out of the cell and dresses in the sheriff's standard-issue jail attire.

During the phone calls Clark made early in his jail stay, audiotapes show, he indicates that the assailant injured his eye and was wearing rings. He also indicates that sheriff's detention officers sprayed him with mace and shot him with a stun gun. Detention officers are required to fill out a use-of-force report when a stun gun is deployed, and there are no use-of-force reports related to Clark, according to the Sheriff's Office.

But after a woman named Maria visited Clark, the story began to change. The tapes indicate that Maria told Clark's mother that Clark was assaulted by detention officers. Clark's mother then begins instructing him on how to hold his head when he leaves jail to accentuate his injuries.

Clark wonders in the call what Rowan will want in return for securing his release. "He did all this (expletive) for me?" Clark asks. "He must really want to win against Arpaio then."

The phone calls also indicate that Clark and his mother were anticipating a large payout for the alleged assault.

Clark has yet to file a grievance with the Sheriff's Office or a notice of claim against the county.

His stepmother, Kimberly, said Friday that her husband was frustrated when he was trying to find out more information about his son from the Sheriff's Office. Clark did not return several messages left this week about the incident.

Rowan did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

Copyright 2012 The Arizona Republic|azcentral.com. All rights reserved.For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

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Immigration Policy at Issue in Primary for Sheriff in Travis County, Texas

Sheriff Greg Hamilton, first elected in 2004, is coming under increasing fire from his Democratic primary challenger, John Sisson, a retired Austin Police Department lieutenant, for his use of Secure Communities. The program, administered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and in place statewide, compares the fingerprints of arrested individuals to a federal database to determine whether those individuals are eligible for deportation. If a person is found to be in violation, ICE requests that a detainer be placed on the individual for 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays.

The federal government says the program is needed to ferret out violent immigrants or repeat immigration violators for deportation. But critics say that the system focuses on lower-level offenders rather than the more violent criminals. Mr. Sisson said Sheriff Hamilton grants detainers on every immigrant who is booked.

“I was appalled to see what it was doing to the Hispanic community and the immigrant community here,” Mr. Sisson said. “I felt like it was very inhumane to be lazy and not do the research and say, ‘We’ll just hold everybody for deportation and not even mess with the particulars.’ ”

Sheriff Hamilton said that he is merely following the law.

“The only one that can deport and put an immigration detainer on an individual is an ICE agent, not us,” he said. “At the Travis County Jail, we follow the law, and the law says that when an ICE detainer is put on, the law enforcement agency shall maintain that individual for 48 hours.”

From June 2009 to September 2011, Travis County submitted 80,731 fingerprint sets and removed 2,269 immigrants, including those who left voluntarily.

More than 900 were Level 3 offenders, convicted of misdemeanors that include traffic violations and drunken driving. There were 420 Level 1 offenders and 437 Level 2. Level 1 are aggravated felonies, including murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor and drug trafficking. Level 2 offenders are convicted of any lesser felony or three misdemeanors.

Travis County’s number of removals surpasses that of Bexar County, where about 105,600 submissions were processed, resulting in the removal of 1,479 immigrants. Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, has a population of about 1,715,000, compared with Travis County’s population of 1,024,000.

But Sheriff Hamilton said deputies release immigrants if ICE agents do not take them and they are otherwise releasable on bond.

“Secure Communities identifies the individuals that are in our community that have run afoul of law enforcement,” he said. “And I think it’s very important that somebody knows who is in the community.”

But Sheriff Hamilton also cited his sensitivity toward the immigrant community, legal or otherwise, most of whom he said are in search of a better life. His wife is a naturalized citizen from Honduras, he said, and his department delivers aid to Austin’s Casa Marianella immigrant shelter.

“I have never asked a question, are they here legally or illegally,” he said. “I just want to help out.”

The winner of the May 29 Democratic primary will face Raymond Frank, a former sheriff and admitted underdog Republican candidate who identifies himself as an independent in the mold of Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Lake Jackson.

Mr. Frank has vowed to do away with the program if he is elected because it separates families. “A lot of Republicans are pretty outspoken about immigration,” he said. “And I don’t share their views at all.”

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