AZ sheriff played probe for laughs
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Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio
Web Producer: Alexa Vogtritter
PHOENIX (AP) - An audio recording has surfaced of an Arizona sheriff playing his refusal to cooperate in a racial profiling investigation for laughs at a fundraiser for an anti-illegal immigration group in Texas.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio displayed contempt toward federal authorities who at the time were - and are still - investigating him on two fronts.
His comments in the 2009 audio recording came as the U.S. Justice Department had already launched a civil rights probe of his trademark immigration patrols and the FBI was already examining abuse-of-power allegations for the sheriff's investigations of political foes.
Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "America's toughest sheriff," boasted in the September 2009 speech in Houston that he arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants after politicians and federal investigators started to pick apart his patrols.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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