16 Aug 21st- Aug 27th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | FULL BAR! BILLS OF $50 OR MORE Dine-In or Take Out Not Including Combinations Dinner Only Expires 12/31/25 Closed On Tuesdays $5 OFF 2050 N. Alma School Rd., #36 • 480.857.4188 eventually took the position that the one- year statute of limitations on contempt of court had expired. Arpaio was later tried and found guilty of criminal contempt, only to be pardoned in 2017 by President Donald Trump. Unlike Sheridan, whose prevarications and misconduct earned him two civil contempt citations from Snow and a spot on Maricopa County’s “Brady list” of cops with honesty issues, Bailey eluded any lasting consequences. He retired from the sheriff’s office in 2017 and until recently had been working at his own security firm, RPI Consulting, in Chandler. Bailey insisted to New Times that he “pushed back hard” on some of the things Arpaio wanted and had “testified truth- fully” before Snow — which, he said, displeased Arpaio. Asked if he thought his work for Arpaio cast a pall over his career, he said that he hoped not. “Sheriff Arpaio just did things differently,” he said. “I didn’t always agree with it.” Bailey said he thought he made “good decisions” in the Arpaio years. Sheridan, Bailey claimed, never asked Bailey or others to do anything hinkey because it was “never part of his DNA.”’ Bailey’s salary for his new role has not been made available to New Times. Chad Willems, Chief of Administration Willems was Sheridan’s political consultant and fundraiser, a service he also performed for Arpaio for many years. After helping Sheridan to an election win last fall, Willems now gets to call himself the “Chief of Administration” for the sheriff’s office. According to Willems’ LinkedIn page, he has zero experience in law enforce- ment, but he has loads of experience in raising money for politicians. Over the years, Willems raised millions for Arpaio, and for himself in the process. Willems’ clients of yore include notoriously racist state Sen. Russell Pearce and the medical marijuana industry. During the 2024 elec- tion cycle, Willems consulted for Sheridan’s campaign, earning $364,000. Now, Willems is being paid $185,000 for what a sheriff’s office spokesperson described as a “chief of staff” position. As they say, to the victors go the spoils, all of it at taxpayer expense. ‘Slendershott’ Perhaps the biggest Arpaio retread is Sheridan himself. The newly minted sher- iff’s early track record in office is both self-serving and less than inspiring. During the 2024 campaign, Sheridan tried to downplay the actions that landed him in hot water with Snow, to the point of severely distorting the historical record. Then there was his failed attempt to cancel his first court-appointed monitor meeting as sheriff, and his announcement that the sheriff’s office would no longer screen employees entering county jails for drugs and other contraband, despite a rash of drug over- doses in the facilities. And there are his repeated mischarac- terizations of the state of the sheriff’s office’s compliance with Snow’s orders. For instance, in a recent interview with Jim Sharpe on KTAR’s AZ Political Podcast, Sheridan asserted that his agency was down to a four-second discrepancy between stops for white versus Hispanic drivers, which Sheridan called “pretty darn good.” Not quite. The sheriff’s office’s own Traffic Stop Annual report for 2024 showed a 14-second discrepancy, which differs from Sheridan’s figure by a full New Year’s Eve countdown. A sheriff’s office flak admitted to New Times that Sheridan misspoke. In a 2014 training session with deputies, Sheridan notably scoffed at the idea that even a 14-second discrepancy is significant. In that same training session, Sheridan called Snow’s order to cut out the racial profiling “ludicrous” and “crap.” As local politicians and commentators bitch about the more than $300 million price tag for Snow’s mandated reforms, it’s worth noting that Sheridan is a big reason the case has lasted so long and cost so much. Snow has reinforced and broadened oversight of the sheriff’s office’s internal affairs investigations, finding that Sheridan and Arpaio “willfully and systematically manipulated, misapplied, and subverted” internal investigations “to avoid imposing appropriate discipline.” Sheridan also signed off on ridiculous investigations like the Seattle operation (at a cost of $250,000), described Arpaio in print as a successful and dedicated public servant and fostered a laissez-faire office atmosphere that benefited a favorite detective who admitted to sleeping with the female victims of crimes that the agency was investigating. Phoenix civil rights attorney Joel Robbins, a well-known Arpaio foe who has sued the sheriff’s office numerous times, says he’s not impressed with Sheridan, whom he used to refer to as “Slendershott” because Sheridan “wasn’t fat like Hendershott.” When Penzone was elected over Sheridan in 2016, Robbins said, “our busi- ness fell through the fucking floor.” But he was OK with that. “It was the best day in my fucking life, because I solved the problem,” Robbins said. “I didn’t just get money for a problem.” But now, with “Slendershott” back in the saddle and a “City Slickers”-style cowboy hat on Slendershott’s native New Yawker noggin’, Robbins said he’s back to suing the sheriff’s office again. It’s busi- ness he doesn’t want. “I don’t want people to get hurt,” Robbins said. “I would rather have a good sheriff that actually gives a shit. But he’s bringing back the bad guys, ya know?” This story is part of the Arizona Watchdog Project, a yearlong reporting effort led by New Times and supported by the Trace Foundation, in partnership with Deep South Today. The Arpaio All-Stars from p 14
