Justice Tuesday: Three of Arizona top law enforcers, Sheriffs Arpaio, Nanos and Babeu, may soon face their own demons in court

Three of Arizona’s largest Sheriff’s departments, with their news-seeking leaders, are under federal probes for wrongdoing that rises up to the top ranks.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio

“America’s most racist & expensive sheriff award” given to Sheriff Arpaio.

The “toughest Sheriff in America” finds it tough for himself to obey federal court orders.

His supporters, which include Donald Trump and some of the most conservative voters in the state, apparently find no inconsistency in spending $72 million to defend Joe Arpaio as he racially profiles Mexicans even though immigrants pay more in taxes than Donald Trump does.

Now it may be Sheriff Arpaio himself donning those pink underwear and pitching a tent in Tent City.

[Federal Judge] Snow also requested criminal charges against Arpaio and his second in command, Jerry Sheridan, for withholding 50 hard drives in a secret investigation that critics say targeted Snow.

The racial profiling lawsuit that Arpaio lost more than three years ago morphed into a contempt case after the sheriff was accused of violating court orders. It revealed deep flaws in Arpaio’s internal investigations, which Snow said had been manipulated to shield sheriff’s officials from accountability.

County taxpayers have shelled out $48 million so far in the profiling case, and the costs are expected to reach $72 million by next summer. That includes $17 million in spending ordered by Snow to make changes to the agency.

Arpaio would face up to six months in jail if convicted of misdemeanor criminal contempt and an unspecified sentencing range if such a conviction is deemed a felony.

Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos

Speaking of getting into trouble with your second-in-command, yesterday news broke that Pima Sheriff Nanos’ right-hand man will be indicted in a federal probe.

Chief Deputy Chris Radtke resigned from the second-highest post the the department, Sheriff Chris Nanos announced in a written statement issued shortly after 10 p.m.

“Earlier today I was informed by my Chief Deputy, Chris Radtke, that he had been indicted for the misuse of RICO funds. Chris Radtke has since submitted his resignation and I will not comment on another law enforcement agency’s investigation,” Nanos said in his statement.

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act funds, commonly called RICO, is money seized from criminals and given to law enforcement agencies for enforcement-related activities.

The indictment is linked to a situation first reported by the Star last November about Radtke’s niece taking over the operation of a café inside the department’s headquarters in 2012.

The department spent more than $10,000 on equipment for the space, and allowed Radtke’s niece to run her restaurant rent-free and without a county contract.

Officials initially said the equipment was paid for with RICO funds. Later they said the money came from the county’s general fund.

A public records request showed that the county spent more than $30,000 on equipment for the café as well as a similar eatery his niece, Nikki Thompson, opened in 2014 inside the Pima County jail.

It was not immediately clear Monday night what specific charges Radtke faces. Details are expected to be revealed later today.

The mention of Radtke’s niece in interesting,

since just recently there was an investigation by Sheriff Nanos into the “mansion parties” that were taking place where teenagers were taking over empty houses on the outskirts of town and throwing raves.

The investigation was immediately called off once it was discovered that Radtke’s nephew was one of the teenagers involved. The cops showed up to question him, he called his mom, who then called her brother Radtke, and then suddenly the cops backed off, allowed the suspects to destroy all evidence linking to them to these parties (some had pictures and messages on their phones regarding the raves).

Many of these teenagers have been caught, including one from Empire High School (Vail). When the detectives showed up to question the student, he immediately calls his mother, Patricia Radtke Cordona, who is the sister of Chief Deputy Radtke, the second-in-command of the Pima Sheriffs Department who has been part of this story since we first started covering it (see the first excerpt above).

After making the student made the phone call “the entire investigation is shut down by Sheriff Nanos. All the evidence is given back, all the cell phones are given back. The deputies that were involved, the SROs that were involved that were watching the Twitter feeds go across telling kids to factory reset their phone, delete pictures and everything else… the entire investigation that had been put together, that has caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage.”

The links raised between all these stories is very interesting. We have one Captain whose son was conducting an ecstasy-import ring from Germany out of his house, and it appears that the Captain himself dropped dirty when he had a drug test.

Now we have these mansion parties which involve the use of Ecstasy and one of the teenagers involved is the nephew of the #2 in command, so suddenly the entire investigation gets shut down…

In the KVOA story above, “Sheriff Nanos added, ‘We will catch you.’” It appears he did catch them, but when once again the people involved in the drugs and raves turned out to be family members of members of the Pima Sheriff’s Department, Nanos seems to have a “catch-and-release” policy which allows certain families in Pima County to be above the law.

What makes this story more horrific is that these are drugs being distributed to juveniles who are then causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage while partying on those drugs.

Now regarding those drugs… it turns out that a Captain with the Pima Sheriff’s Department just got busted after his house was being used for a massive drug-import ring from Germany of ecstasy, the popular drug used by ravers.

The audio excerpt above is from WakeUp Tucson on KVOI-1030AM, when they interviewed McClusky during their August 29th, 2016 show. They begin, as we will, with a recent story from the Arizona Daily Star:

• The son of sheriff’s captain is facing multiple felony charges after a federal investigation revealed he was having drugs shipped to his father’s home, court records show.
• Kevin Brent Anderson, son of Capt. Gary Anderson, who heads the Pima County Sheriff’s Department’s criminal investigations division, was arrested at a Marana residence May 13, according to a probable cause statement filed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
• Pima County property records show Capt. Anderson and his wife are the owners of the home where their son was arrested and drugs seized.
• Court documents indicate that Kevin Anderson was living in the house with his parents at the time.
• On May 6, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at JFK International Airport in New York intercepted a package containing more than 1,000 Ecstasy pills, addressed to Kevin Anderson at his Marana home, the probable cause statement says.
• On May 13, Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service agents arrested Anderson after he signed for the package, the court document says. While searching the house and Anderson’s car, agents found several different types and quantities of drugs, including Ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis oil, as well as digital scales, according to the document.

Shaun McClusky asks why Captain Anderson’s polygraph or drug test have not been released because his close insiders say that he actually failed the drug test after his son was arrested. Ecstasy was found in his system.

The PCSD has a strict no drug policy. If you drop dirty once, you are done.

At this point Lieutenant Anderson went to his superiors (PCSD’s #2) to resign after failing a drug test and with his son being arrested, he was instead promoted to Captain…

How far up does this go, and who knew about this?

This comes after just weeks after the one of their top-three group took his life right before the FBI investigated him.

[Shaun McClusky and Chris DeSimone] discussed the quandary that arises when a powerful person, the second most powerful person in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, then takes his own life while being under an FBI investigation.

One would think there would be a deeper investigation by the local media into this, at least something on the order of their interest into the Ally Miller story, which is also a county-related story.

McClusky mentions that there is no 911 call on record, and after deputies and the homicide unit show up, the #1 and #3 in command, Sheriff Nanos and Radtke, then arrive on the scene of the now-deceased #2 and dismiss those that had already arrived; the deputies and homicide unit.

Their conclusion was that a proper investigation was not conducted.

Pinal County Sheriff Babeu

Also getting caught with his pants down as the feds probe around is Pinal Sheriff Paul Babeu.

The FBI has also been investigating Sheriff Babeu for misuse of hundreds of thousands of dollars of RICO funds.

The FBI has issued a subpoena related to the use of RICO funds by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and his office, according to sources.

The sources, which include a county official, said the subpoena was recently sent to the Arizona Public Safety Foundation, a unique non-profit closely tied to the sheriff’s office that has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in seized criminal funds.

One source said he believed the subpoena was issued as part of a grand jury proceeding.

The Arizona Public Safety Foundation didn’t immediately return a call and email to ABC15.

In a short response, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Mark Clark sent the following email: “PCSO has not received any notification of a subpoena being served on our office by the FBI.”

ABC15 emailed PCSO to clarify if the sheriff’s office has been notified of a subpoena being served on the Arizona Public Safety Foundation or another county agency. So far, PCSO has not responded.

RICO seizures and spending by Sheriff Babeu, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and county attorney’s office have been heavily criticized by several watchdog groups during the past year.

In July, the American Civil Liberties Union and international law firm Perkins Coie jointly filed a lawsuit against the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and the Pinal County Attorney’s Office. The lawsuit claimed the county agencies were misusing RICO funds and funneling money through the Arizona Public Safety Foundation.

The Arizona Public Safety Foundation was once run out of the sheriff’s office. It has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from PCSO in recent years.

In February, the Goldwater Institute, a conservative Arizona watchdog group, echoed concerns over Pinal County’s RICO spending and requested files from the sheriff and county attorney.

Source: FBI issues subpoena for records tied to use of RICO funds by Sheriff Babeu, PCSO