PHOENIX – The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday released a report alleging that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office misled the public by massively inflating the costs of court-ordered reforms, falsely attributing unrelated expenses to a long-running civil rights case. According to the report, 72 percent of the costs billed to the county were entirely unrelated to Ortega Melendres v. Sheridan, a class action lawsuit that found the sheriff’s office engaged in racially discriminatory policing and immigration enforcement.
The ACLU said the court-ordered independent audit revealed widespread misuse of county funds and deceptive reporting practices. The report stated, “While records show the Sheriff’s Office has billed the County for $226 million for costs supposedly related to Ortega Melendres, the report reveals that over $16 million of that cost is improperly attributed to Ortega Melendres and that much of it was entirely unrelated to the case.” The purchases falsely charged to the case included golf carts, horses, tasers and jet fuel.
Victoria Lopez, executive director for the ACLU of Arizona, said, “Sheriff Sheridan has spent the last year assuring constituents that his leadership differs from his former boss, Joe Arpaio. But misleading the public about MCSO’s behavior is more of the same.”
Lopez told the ACLU that the sheriff’s office has been diverting taxpayer dollars to unrelated expenses and using inflated figures to claim that it is “too expensive” to stop...
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