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WHY ARPAIO'S GOTTA' GO

Pink Underwear, Potato Chips, a Pension and a Penthouse Suite

Between 1995 and 1999 Arpaio’s deputies were reporting that tens of thousands of dollars in cash, raised from the sale of souvenir boxer shorts, were disappearing in the office of Arpaio’s Chief Deputy David Hendershott.  Hendershott, who was solely responsible for the management of this money, is Arpaio’s closest ally and second in command.  Arpaio refuses to investigate the allegations. 

But the 40,000 dollars in missing underwear money is small potatoes in comparison to the commissary budget.  For most prisoners a 2000 calorie a day diet (including ketchup packets) doesn’t hit the spot.  As a result Arpaio runs a commissary where inmates can purchase snacks and treats at highly inflated prices.  The inmate patronage creates profits in Arpaio’s commissaries to the tune of 6 million dollars a year.  This handsome sum goes entirely unaccounted for because Arpaio refuses to release the public records detailing the use of these profits despite laws requiring him to do so.  In September 2004 The Phoenix New Times filed suit against the MCSO.  But Arpaio apparently has the support of the local judges because in August 2005 Superior Court Judge Michael D. Jones ruled MCSO officials had not acted in bad faith when they refused to release the records.

Perhaps Arpaio and Henderschott spent all of their commissary and underwear income on real-estate.  This however, is impossible to prove, since all of Arpaio and Hendershott’s public real-estate records have also been sealed (with the exception of two properties worth approximately 690,000 which Arpaio purchased with cash).  Arpaio claims he seals his real-estate records because of all the death threats he receives, an unlikely but sufficient excuse. 

In 1999, Hendershott was retired and given a 51,000 dollar a year peace-officer pension.  Hendershott was then re-hired the same day for the same position, as a civilian, and was allowed to keep his retirement.  This impropriety scored Arpaio a scathing front page report in the Arizona Republic but this did nothing to deter him from the obvious act of favoritism. 

Add the estimated 80 plus million dollars in civil lawsuits to the 40,000 dollars from the pink underwear sales, the 6 million dollars a year from the commissary budget, the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on the purchase/maintenance of toys like a .50 caliber machine gun, an armored personnel carrier, a full sized tank, a 70,000 dollar armored Crown Victoria, and a lavish 800,000 dollar a year penthouse office atop the lofty Wells Fargo building (apparently the view from the county provided office isn’t sufficient) and you have a staggering sum; a sum that cannot be paid by further reducing the inmates’ caloric intake. 

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