Sheriff ordered to pay more attorney fees in Arizona case

The Arizona Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered Maricopa County Sheriff Joseph Arpaio to pay additional attorney’s fees in the Tuscon Citizen’s open records case.

The appellate court awarded the paper $29,403.65 in fees, which comes on top of the trial court’s award. Arpaio now owes a total of $54,644 in fees.

The case stems from a request the Citizen made to the Pima County Attorney’s Office for documents related to a civil forfeiture case that Arpaio’s office had originally investigated. The Pima County Attorney conferred with the sheriff, who wanted the request denied because, he argued, releasing the records would violate his attorney-client privilege with her office. However, the court ruled that Arpaio could not sidestep the fees simply because he did not personally have control over the records — Aripaio was liable for the fees because he lost.