Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was at home in Fountain Hills last Friday afternoon preparing to take his wife, Ava, out to dinner for her birthday when he got a call from his attorney, Mark Goldman.

Goldman told Arpaio what they had suspected was coming, they just weren’t sure when – a pardon from President Donald Trump.

The president had alluded to the potential pardon at a rally held earlier in the week in Phoenix. “He’s going to be alright,” Trump said of Arpaio.

When Goldman arrived at Arpaio’s home he showed him the document. It stated, “I…have granted unto Joseph M. Arpaio a full and unconditional pardon.”

In Twitter statements President Trump had called Arpaio “a great American” who had “protected the citizens of Arizona.”

Arpaio told The Times on Saturday that the pardon made the evening out to dinner an even happier occasion.

“I usually go [to rallies] to introduce him,” Arpaio said. “I didn’t want to add to any controversy.

“Deep in my heart I felt he was going to talk about it and he said some nice words.”

Arpaio said he had never talked to President Trump about a pardon, had never asked. He said he thought things would turn out OK, and he would just see what happens.

Arpaio said after the election last year, which he lost to now Sheriff Paul Penzone, he was uncertain about the future, but did not see a return to politics.

The pardon had given the 85-year-old a new store of energy.

“I’ve had a change of heart,” Arpaio said. “I’m back in again.

“If the president needs any help I’ll be there for him. I’ll support him as long as he is president.

“We’ll see what my future will bring.”

Arpaio said his dinner with Ava was somewhat interrupted by media trying to reach him, and some television stations arrived at his house later Friday evening.

Saturday was a little more subdued, he said. He was out at the local grocery store and was greeted by numerous people offering him congratulations.

Arpaio has promised a press conference this week to tell what he says is the “real story” about what happened.

The charge

In July Federal Judge Susan R. Bolton found Arpaio guilty of violating a valid court order from another Federal Judge, Murray Snow.

“The court finds the defendant [Arpaio] willfully violated an order of the court, it finds defendant guilty of criminal contempt,” Bolton states.

Sentencing had been scheduled for early October, and Arpaio could have received up to six months in jail.

In 2016 Arpaio, along with some of his staff, were referred by Judge Snow for criminal contempt of court after Snow had concluded that the Sheriff’s Office under Arpaio had violated a direct order from him.

In December 2011 Snow issued an order stating that “MCSO and all of its officers are… enjoined from detaining any person based only on knowledge or reasonable belief, without more, that the person is unlawfully present within the United States, because as a matter of law such knowledge does not amount to reasonable belief that the person either violated or conspired to violate the Arizona smuggling statute or any other state or federal law.”

By 2016 Snow had determined that Arpaio had continually violated that order.

Reaction

The reaction to the pardon has been swift, with opponents and supporters making their position known.

Arpaio’s successor at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Paul Penzone, issued a brief statement almost immediately after word of the pardon came down.

“The court made its decisions, the president made his, but the people had the final say in November,” Penzone said. “We are dedicated to earning trust and confidence from the community while ensuring the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office delivers exceptional law enforcement services.”

James J. Fotis, president of the National Center for Police Defense, issued a statement saying, “President Trump stood up for justice and for enforcement of our immigration laws when he courageously granted a pardon…to Joe Arpaio…Despite knowing he would face criticism, the president did the right thing.”

The Fair Immigration Reform Movement, a national immigration rights coalition, called the pardon “beyond reprehensible.”

“Trump has pardoned Joe Arpaio for advancing racist policies that terrorized immigrants and people of color in Arizona for more than two decades.

“By pardoning one of the nation’s most extreme anti-immigrant sheriffs, Donald Trump is perpetuating Arpaio’s crimes and revealing his full-fledged support for a White Supremacist agenda.”