Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces a new lawsuit filed this time by Austin Flake, son of Sen. Jeff Flake, who argues that he and his ex-wife were persecuted by a case of animal cruelty.
The trial against the country’s most “feared” former sheriff will begin on December 5, due to the federal lawsuit by Austin Flake, who claimed that Arpaio’s sole objective was to politically harm his father and to get publicity.
Kevin Gibbons, brother-in-law of Senator Flake, told Efe that the actions of Arpaio when initiating a “tremendous hunt” against his nephew, is part of the political rivalry that has existed more than ten years ago against the senator for defending immigrants.
The senator’s youngest son and his then-wife were charged in June 2014 with the death of 21 dogs from heat stroke at an Arizona animal nursery, run by the lawmaker’s in-laws.
The animals died due to the failure of an air conditioning unit in the place where they were.
“The investigation was fraudulent and they armed it through the investigators and they attacked the family in a cruel way, when the accident was due to technical failure,” explained Gibbons.
The demand for Arpaio comes a week after the ex-Paraguayan launched a campaign among his followers to decide whether to run for the federal Senate for the state of Arizona. Senator Flake announced that he will not be re-elected.
“His aspirations to be a senator are a fantasy, he has just received a presidential pardon and I hope he will retire and stop doing so much nonsense.”
“Their sole purpose is to raise funds to pay for all their receipts,” explained Gibbons.
According to the suit “for malicious accusation” against Arpaio, it is stated that the ex-Paraguayan tried to link the Flake with the deaths of the animals, for which he even requested that the senator’s house be monitored.
“Neither justice nor a monetary amount will repair the psychological state of the young man, who at that time was 21 years old and is crossed out for life.”
“He lost his marriage because of the problems and now even to get a job he has to explain that he was arrested,” Gibbons explained.
He also mentioned that justice must recognize that this case is something that the County had to have stopped from the beginning.
“They were brutally harmed because of the investigation of the ex-Paraguayan, who is carrying out the investigation, not necessarily by the prosecutor, they went to the state of Utah to investigate them, it was a tremendous hunt,” recalls Gibbons.
The case against Flakes was dismissed at the request of the prosecutors.
The Maricopa County Exsheriff, Joe Arpaio, was convicted by a Phoenix court in June this year, for contempt of the orders of a federal judge in a racial profiling case, against Hispanic drivers. But then he got a pardon from President Donald Trump and avoided going to jail.Â
