New Times files a prelude to a lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, County Attorney Andy Thomas and a discredited ex-special prosecutor on behalf of its readers and the Constitution

In the past, Chagolla has said there would be "legal consequences" if New Times reporters dared to pick up public documents at MCSO offices in the Wells Fargo building downtown. When reporter Ray Stern disagreed with MCSO lawyer Michelle Iafrate in her law offices over whether he could photograph public records, Iafrate complained to the MCSO. This sparked a "disorderly conduct" citation getting delivered to Stern by the Selective Enforcement Unit in the same nighttime spree that netted Lacey and Larkin.

In that article, Fenske described how anyone who crosses the sheriff, or even happens to work for someone who opposes Arpaio, could find themselves the subject of an unwarranted investigation, have their assets and computers seized, and even be arrested on trumped-up charges that never go to trial. Anyone from a politician aiming to replace Arpaio as sheriff (like Dan Saban) to a graphic designer working for local Democrats to a tow-truck operator loyal to the GOP could find themselves in the MCSO's crosshairs.

Raids can be timed to slander an enemy and his business, as happened with erstwhile Arpaio-supporter Lee Watkins. Watkins backed local radio personality W. Steven Martin over Arpaio in the 2004 general election. Then, his business, Cactus Towing, was raided in 2005, with computers, cell phones, and records seized as evidence. The raid came at the end of the month, when Watkins' business normally billed expenses. Watkins was ruined. No charges were ever filed.

In 2000, Jim Cozzolino managed the campaign of an Arpaio opponent. Arpaio's deputies sorted through his trash and tapped his phone, but nothing came of it. Still Arpaio held his grudge, and in 2003, when Cozzolino stepped in to protect a woman who was being assaulted at the bowling alley Cozzolino operated, deputies popped him for attempted murder and seized his car. Cozzolino plea-bargained, pleaded guilty to illegal discharge of a firearm, and got four months in jail. Deputies set up Cozzolino on a drug charge while he was incarcerated. He beat that rap and ended up suing Arpaio, who later settled for an undisclosed amount.

Or take the case of Nick Tarr, falsely arrested in 2002 while portraying "Joe Arizona" in a lighthearted spoof of the sheriff sponsored by backers of a ballot initiative opposed by Arpaio. Tarr had the bad luck to walk into a restaurant where Chief Deputy David Hendershott was eating. Hendershott wanted to charge him with impersonating a DPS officer. The DPS wanted no part of it, but Hendershott had his men hold Tarr and cite him. The MCSO dropped the complaint against Tarr, whose lawsuit against the Sheriff's Office is scheduled to go to trial this year.

The list goes on.

"These and many other incidents show that the Defendants' actions against the New Times in this case were more than the aberrational consequence of simple neglect," Manning observes in the notice. "They were the product of a long-standing pattern and practice of the abuse of power against dissenting voices — of intentional, punitive and retaliatory conduct against the New Times, its reporters, and its readers."

This is the same sheriff's administration that has cost the county $43.4 million in lawsuit payouts and insurance premiums because of wrongful deaths and injuries in Arpaio's jails.

Yet the sheriff and his underlings appear indifferent to atrocities in MCSO jails, to the financial burden they impose on county taxpayers, and to the international embarrassment they cause Maricopa County. Amnesty International, which usually chastises Third World dictatorships, cited deplorable conditions in Arpaio's lockups after a 1997 investigation.

As New Times writer John Dickerson reported in "Inhumanity Has a Price" (December 20, 2007), "With a fraction of the inmate population, Arpaio has had 50 times as many lawsuits as the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston jail systems combined." Since Dickerson wrote the article — which warns of MRSA staph infections in Arpaio's jails and describes the horror of a pregnant mother bleeding incessantly and losing her child while one of Arpaio's prisoners — the payout figure (which was $41.4 million) has climbed another $2 million.

In the face of such persistent, institutionalized cruelty and spitefulness toward anyone who disagrees with the MCSO, Michael Lacey believes New Times' notice is also about preservation of the Fourth Estate. He argues that not just New Times, but all Maricopa County media, are threatened by Arpaio's administration — particularly because the County Attorney's Office provides no check on the sheriff's power.

"These people just don't understand boundaries," Lacey said of Arpaio and his officers. "They don't understand the Constitution. It's a fine comment on where we've come in the community when this sort of action on our part is necessary. But we actually believe it is necessary."

Lacey added: "I hope it keeps [the MCSO] off our throats. And I hope it keeps it off the backs of the media, in general."

Michael Manning offers an eloquent appraisal of New Times' case against Wilenchik, Arpaio, and Thomas in the claim notice:

"The facts known, thus far, demonstrate a disturbing picture of muscle-bound police and prosecutorial abuse. The corrupt perversion of the law to attack a newspaper, its reporters, and the privacy rights of thousands of its readers. When fair criticism of these public officials became too piercing for them to tolerate, they flexed their political muscle in the form of a conspiracy.

"They abused their governmental authority by attacking the press, punishing free speech, demeaning the role and function of an impartial prosecutor and an independent judiciary, perverting the grand jury function, and serving notice to citizens who read news online that neither their identities nor their reading habits are safe from the reach of a vindictive government."