By Ray Stern | Phoenix New Times
Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio filed an urgent petition to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in a last-chance bid for a jury trial or delay of his upcoming bench trial for criminal contempt.
Arpaio faces a June 26 bench trial in Arizona U.S. District Court stemming from alleged contempt of a 2013 federal court order intended to stop his agency from racially discriminating against Hispanics.
Voters ousted the six-term sheriff last year in part because of the long-running, expensive discrimination case.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton denied Arpaio the right to a jury trial in the case earlier this month. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld her ruling last week.
His lawyers assert in a 47-page motion to the High Court that failing to grant Arpaio a jury trial would be “undemocratic.”
