Justice Department to enforce reforms after Arpaio discrimination lawsuit

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday intervened in a private lawsuit against Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joseph Arpaio so it can enforce reforms after the law enforcement office was found to engage in discrimination.

In October 2013, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow found Arpaio and his office used racial profiling and illegal detentions to target Latino people. The class-action, private lawsuit was brought by Ortega Melendres, a Mexican tourist who said he was detained unlawfully for nine hours following a traffic stop in 2007.

Snow ordered reforms be made by the sheriff's office to prevent the future violations of the Fourth and 14th Amendments, and now the Justice Department wants to be involved in the enforcement of those changes.

"As a party in the Melendres case, the Department of Justice can now work together with the court, the plaintiffs and the independent monitor to ensure that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office meaningfully implements the court-ordered reforms so that the constitutional rights of all people of Maricopa County are protected," said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Kappelhoff of the department's Civil Rights Division. "The Constitution guarantees that all people receive the equal protection of the law, and the department is now positioned to ensure that this important right is upheld."

Federal involvement comes a month after the Board of Supervisors for Maricopa County agreed to settle part of a Justice Department lawsuit against Arpaio. The 2012 lawsuit alleged Arpaio retaliated against public officials, punished jail inmates for speaking Spanish and conducted workplace raids targeting Latinos.