Arizona Court Finds Sheriff Too Slow In Handing Over Public Records

By: The Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office failed to comply with state public-records laws when it refused to provide public documents in a timely manner to a Phoenix-based weekly newspaper.

A panel of three appellate judges ordered that the case be remanded to county Superior Court to determine whether the Phoenix New Times is entitled to tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys fees if the sheriff's office acted arbitrarily, capriciously and in bad faith.

The case dates to spring of 2004 when a New Times reporter began a series of investigative articles about Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Those stories included one that led to charges against the newspaper for publishing Arpaio's address online and the October 2007 arrests of two New Times executives when they published the contents of a grand jury subpoena.

In September 2004, New Times filed a petition for special action in Superior Court to compel the sheriff's office to honor nine separate public-records requests and also asked to be reimbursed for attorneys fees.

The sheriff's office turned over the documents without further delay.

But Superior Court Judge Michael Jones refused to award the attorneys fees, which New Times attorney Steven Suskin would only say totaled tens of thousands of dollars.

The newspaper appealed, resulting in yesterday's ruling in Phoenix New Times v. Arpaio.

Although Arizona public-records laws do not set a specific number of workdays in which to provide public documents, several of the New Times' requests took more than three months to fill, according to the newspaper.