Tweedledee and Tweedledum are characters in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” series. Tweedledee and Tweedledum were identical; virtually indistinguishable. They completed each other’s sentences.
Fountain Hills has its own Tweedles – former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his chief operating administrator, former Chief Deputy Sheriff Jerry Sheridan. Both were investigated. Both were found in contempt of court by a federal judge for how they ran the Sheriff’s office.
Sheridan was specifically found to have “made multiple intentional misrepresentations of fact while under oath.” The result has been hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to address their behavior.
Voters have repeatedly rejected Arpaio’s efforts to return to elected office. Voters see through his false bravado.
Sheridan maintains a less public profile. He hopes that as time passes, voters will forget his misdeeds. Voters shouldn’t.
Court records show that Sheridan was the primary enabler and defender of Arpaio’s illegal policing practices. Sheridan was to have conducted important investigations for MCSO. Complaints of improper or illegal behavior by high-level MCSO employees went to Sheridan. There, the complaints died. The complaints were ignored or paper-shuffled to death.
Sheridan’s mishandling of the investigations was one reason federal Judge Snow appointed a monitor to oversee the MCSO. Even then, it was determined Sheridan concealed evidence and “was intentionally untruthful” to the court-appointed monitor.
Will the result be different if Sheridan returns to lead the Sheriff’s office? Does Sheridan understand that he was wrong and is reformed? His campaign message implies that he does not. His campaign behavior shows that he does not. His campaign bravado is that of an Arpaio clone. Tweedledum mimics Tweedledee.
My advice: county voters should hunker down and save, because electing Jerry Sheridan to lead the MSCO is going to get even more expensive.
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
