The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Wednesday to settle long-standing discrimination claims against Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
The agreement came at a last-minute executive session of government lawyers and politicians. It settles three of the four allegations the Justice Department made against the man who bills himself as “America’s toughest sheriff”: that he retaliated against public officials, punished jail inmates with limited English for speaking Spanish and conducted workplace raids that targeted Latinos.
The Justice Department’s most significant claim – that he targeted Latino drivers -- will be the subject of a federal court trial that begins Aug.