14 Aug 21st- Aug 27th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | During the Saban investigation, Gentry, then a detective, interviewed Saban’s adoptive mother and wrote up the report as ordered. His superior at the time was along for the ride: Sergeant Steve Bailey. According to a Maricopa County spokesperson, Gentry’s salary as under- sheriff is $209,636. Steve Bailey, Executive Chief of Enforcement Bailey, a former sergeant of the threats squad who was directly involved in both the Tarr and Saban investigations, is Sheridan’s pick for executive chief of enforcement, which oversees all enforcement and detention personnel. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Chris Hegstrom confirmed that Bailey has been offered the position, and Bailey told New Times that he was inclined to take it. “I’m pretty sure I’m going to do it,” he said. “I’d like to be there sometime this month.” Bailey said he would report to Gentry in the new role, a man he had known “for years and years.” He added that he believed Sheridan was “doing it for the right reasons” and that “this might be a really good chapter for the sheriff’s office, without all the sideshow nonsense, if that makes sense.” But back in 2015, both Bailey and Sheridan were knee-deep in that very sideshow — particularly the civil contempt trial of Arpaio and his under- lings before Judge Snow. Snow had discovered that Arpaio and the sheriff’s office were violating his orders not to enforce federal immigration law. Snow also discovered that Arpaio was using a confidential informant in Seattle, a supposed computer wiz with a dubious past, to investigate a cockamamie conspiracy theory that involved the Obama White House, the Department of Justice, Snow and a law firm working for the plaintiffs, among others. The judge ordered the sheriff’s office to cough up all records having to do with the “Seattle operation,” plus evidence related to the agency’s violation of his orders. Instead, the sheriff’s office attempted to hide the existence of 50 hard drives related to the Seattle investigation and nearly 1,500 IDs that had been confiscated by the agency, many of them from Latino drivers. Snow was pissed when he found out about the cover-up, ordering the U.S. Marshals Service to seize the evidence. Both issues became part of the contempt proceedings. By this time, Bailey was head of the agency’s Professional Standards Bureau. As captain of PSB, he’d opened an investi- gation into the 1,500 IDs, which he later told the court Sheridan ordered him to pause. Ultimately, Snow concluded that Bailey gave a “knowing and false report” to the court’s monitor about the existence of the IDs and referred the matter to another judge for possible criminal contempt proceedings. Bailey was spared when the Department of Justice The Arpaio All-Stars from p 12 Current Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan hugs ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio outside the latter’s birthday party in June. (Stephen Lemons) >> p 16
