Senator Jeff Flake's son files lawsuit against Joe Arpaio
The son of Arizona’s Republican Sen. Jeff Flake filed a lawsuit against Joe Arpaio claiming the former sheriff pursued criminal charges for publicity and political gain.
Austin Flake claims the notorious Maricopa County sheriff pursued felony animal cruelty charges against him and his ex-wife in an attempt to damage his father's political career, according to the malicious-prosecution lawsuit.
In 2014, Austin Flake and his former wife were watching a kennel operated by her parents when an air conditioning unit failed overnight, causing 21 dogs to die from heat exhaustion.
Arpaio was allegedly hell-bent on tying the Flakes to the deaths, going so far as to conduct surveillance on the senator’s home, according to the lawsuit.
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The suit also says Arpaio’s investigators examined phone records to see if the younger Flake called his father during the time he was watching the dogs.
Stephen Montoya, an attorney for Austin Flake and his former wife, said, “It splashed their names across the internet as the murderers of 21 dogs. It really ravaged them emotionally.”
The case against the Flakes was eventually dismissed at the request of prosecutors, and the owners of the kennel pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges after an expert determined the air conditioner failed because the operators didn’t properly maintain it.
In a deposition, Arpaio didn’t accept responsibility for bringing the charges against the couple and was unable to cite any evidence to support the allegations.
“I am going by what my detectives accomplished during their investigation,” Arpaio said during the July 2016 deposition. “They had the nuts and bolts already. I defend my people. I have confidence in them. I don’t have to know everything that’s going on.”
While U.S. District Judge Neil Wake dismissed a defamation allegation from the lawsuit, he determined investigators didn’t have probable cause to charge the couple.
“A factfinder could thus reasonably find that the prosecutors initially charged the Flakes based on pressure from Arpaio,” Wake wrote.
The prosecutor who brought the allegations said in a court filing that she wasn’t pressured by Arpaio’s office to prosecute the couple and that the decision to present the case to a grand jury was made by her and her supervisors.
Arpaio and Jeffrey Leonard, an attorney representing Maricopa County and the former sheriff, declined to comment on the case.
Jeff Flake has been one of the few Republicans in Congress outwardly critical of President Trump. Arpaio, on the other hand, had his contempt of court conviction pardoned by the president.
With News Wire Services.
