A federal judge on Tuesday found the sheriff of metro Phoenix to be in civil contempt of court in the same racial profiling case in which his predecessor, Joe Arpaio, was found to be in contempt six years earlier.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone was found to be in contempt for noncompliance with a court-ordered overhaul of his agency’s much criticized internal affairs operation, which has a backlog of 2,100 investigations, each taking an average of more than 600 days to complete. A court order requires those investigations to be completed with 60 to 85 days, depending on which operation within the agency handles the case.
