Judge moves closer to contempt case against Arpaio

PHOENIX — A judge moved one step closer to launching a contempt-of-court case against metro Phoenix’s sheriff for his office’s repeated violations of orders issued in a racial-profiling case. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow didn’t actually start the contempt case at a hearing Thursday attended by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. And the judge has said the agency violated a December 2011 pretrial ruling that barred Arpaio’s deputies from detaining people based solely on the suspicion that they’re in the country illegally. Tom Liddy, one of the lawyers defending the sheriff in the profiling case, said he doesn’t believe Arpaio will go to jail.