Two NEW Sherriff Joe updates!!!!!

[Joanne98]

March 13th

The bill for Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Honduran scam: $157K and rising.
Thu Mar 13, 2008 at 11:15:33 AM
Yesterday, Sheriff's office flack Paul Chagolla coughed up the hourly rates on the ten MCSO employees who were part of the Honduran enterprise, and after crunching the numbers, and adding equipment purchases and RICO-funded reimbursements for travel expenses, the bill for this Central American hayride comes to approximately $157,000. That's far more than the $100,000 I estimated in a recent Bird column. And it does not include the cost in untold man-hours spent planning this boondoggle or those spent chaperoning around the Hondurans who visited Maricopa County back in June of last year.

Furthermore, we don't really know if the Honduran project has come to an end, as Arpaio first stated that he was suspending the program, then he backtracked, stating he was reviewing the program. Personally, I don't think we can believe much of what Arpaio asserts. This was Chief Deputy David Hendershott's baby, and he's as mum as Heath Ledger's corpse. Well, to the Arizona press, that is. While visiting with Honduran talk show personality "Roatan Bruce" Starr last year, Jabba the Hendershott was practically chatty. And what he had to say contradicted what Joe's said since about the origin of the program to train Honduran cops and reorganize the entire Honduran police force. Arpaio's led us to believe that the whole thing was instigated by a request from Honduran officials. But Hendershott told Starr that the program's origins had more to do with the efforts of ex-MCSO deputy Roger Marshall.

"We have a wonderful, wonderful retired employee in the name of Roger Marshall," Hendershott rambled on to Starr during a radio interview. "Roger...several years ago decided to further his missionary work and his wonderful wife Pam and their two children are in the process -- and Roger's been down here for about a year now and furthering work with his church and ministering to the folks on Roatan. Roger has a lot of background in the area of investigations. He was one of our top homicide investigators in the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. And Roger reached out to Commissario here, and Julio Benitez with the tremendous support of Vice Secretary Rodas to improve the professionalism of the officers. And so there were letters written to our Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County..."

The question, of course, remains, what was the MCSO getting out of all this? Or, more specifically, what were Hendershott and the other MCSO brass getting out of this? Maybe just working vacays in a tropical paradise. But the possibility that something more motivated the MCSO's involvement remains. Continued>>
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2008/03/the_bill_for_sheriff_joe_arpai.php

TODAY.....

Channel 12 uncovers more of David Hendershott's dirt in the Honduran scam.
Fri Mar 14, 2008 at 12:33:00 PM
In case you missed it, Channel 12's Joe Dana rolled over a new stone in the Honduran scam last night, revealing that the MCSO had plans to install a high-tech facial recognition system in Honduras, which Arlie Thompson, Governor of the Bay Islands, said included, "...security systems and programs...at the airports, and docks, near the ferry bays, all the different points of entry."

Dana's report also revealed that the MCSO received a $264,450 grant from the Department of Homeland Security to buy equipment for facial recognition technology, though the MCSO denied any of this was used in Honduras. And guess what? One of the pioneers of this technology -- Hummingbird Defense Systems -- just happens to have offices in the PHX, and its head honcho is buddies with the MCSO's Chief Deputy David Hendershott. They've taken plane rides together, even, said Dana. (Oddly, Channel 12 did not mention the corporate exec's name.) And according to the Channel 12 report, Jabba the Hendershott's apparently pimped this technology to the feds and to the European Union.

Suddenly we're starting to see how Hendershott might have been using the Honduran enterprise to possibly help his cronies. Has Hendershott enriched himself somehow from the Honduran scam? That's the big Q. If it's ever shown that he did benefit from this Honduran boondoggle, he would almost certainly have to resign his post as Joe's top deputy dawg.

Kudos to Dana for advancing the story. Every reporter in town should be on this. It may just turn out to be Arpaio's Watergate.

Check out Dana's report from last night, here:

Part One;

Part Two.

PS: I tried contacting Hummingbird Defense Systems, and weirdly, I first got someone who said he works for the building, and that there's no company by that name there. The second time I called, I got a generic recording that said the subscriber does not use the voice mail system.

Curiouser and curiouser...

PPS: In several places online, guess who's listed as the Chairman of the Board of Hummingbird Defense Systems? None other than former Arizona Governor Fife Symington III.

Alas, I called the ex-Guv's consulting/PR org., The Symington Group, and exec Camilla Strongin there told me that Symington has not been affiliated with Hummingbird in some time.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2008/03/channel_12_uncovers_more_of_da.php

[begin_within]

1. Joe Arpaio is something out of the 17th century.

I'm ashamed of Arizona voters for keeping him in office.

[panader0]

2. Bless the New Times. Agreat paper.

[Joanne98]

3. Really. The Feathered Bastard is getting hot!

[niyad]

4. it boggles the mind that this POS is still sheriff.

[HuffleClaw]

5. you'd think this nutcase could be easily dealt with via civil rights laws

'cruel and unusual punishment' comes to mind as well

[L. Coyote]

6. Corrupt Bastards Club, AZ Chapter, includes weapons interests, like Tazer

The Good Old Boy networking is worth billions these days.

=============
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fife_Symington
John Fife Symington III (born August 12, 1945 in New York City) was the Republican governor of the U.S. state of Arizona from 1991 until his resignation in 1997.

During his first term, Symington was the subject of an investigation over his involvement with Southwest Savings and Loan, a failed Phoenix thrift. He was later cleared, and was handilly reelected in 1994.

Later, he was indicted on charges of extortion and making false financial statements, and of bank fraud. He was convicted of bank fraud in 1997. The Arizona state constitution does not allow convicted felons to hold office, so Symington was forced to resign.

..... He was subsequently pardoned by President Clinton near the end of his presidency in January 2001. .........