Arizona Focus: Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Incompetent Deputy

In my book, the recurrent incompetence of a subordinate is ultimately the responsibility of his boss. Well, in Maricopa County, Arizona, the sheriff's deputy was just found to be in contempt for his incompetence, and this ultimately is the responsibility of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. From AZ Central:

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge found a Sheriff's Office deputy chief in contempt of court Wednesday for his office's repeated inability to deliver jail inmates to court dates on time.

In his order, Presiding Criminal Judge Gary Donahoe wrote that the sheriff's court-security division is "chronically understaffed," which he characterized as a consistent and conscious decision on the part of the Sheriff's Office...

Donahoe ordered that Trombi pay "remedial relief" totaling $10,575 to the court, prosecutors, the defendants, their lawyers and even the jurors for the inconvenience...

Making sure inmates make court dates is one of the primary responsibilities of a sheriff under state law. In 2007, the office transported nearly 150,000 inmates and this year expects to transport more than 160,000.

The indirect civil-contempt findings focus on four incidents in which defendants either arrived late - or not at all - to court hearings over four days in August.

In one instance, a detention officer informed a court commissioner that because of a shortage of experienced officers, only 64 of 123 defendants would be delivered to a single court that day.

Under the law if you don't deliver the inmate to court on time, you are breaking the law and showing contempt to the judge, the court and the legal system. Where I come from, law enforcement recognizes the authority of the courts. I guess they do things differently, and incompetently, in Maricopa County's sheriff's office. I guess somehow Joe Arpaio doesn't care about the law.