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Joe Arpaio On Trial Over Immigration Patrols

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio will go on trial Monday on a criminal contempt-of-court charge for disobeying a judge's order to stop his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants in metro Phoenix.

Arpaio has acknowledged prolonging the patrols for months but insists it wasn't intentional.

The 85-year-old retired lawman faces up to six months in jail if convicted, though lawyers who have followed his case doubt that he'll ever be put behind bars.

He was ousted from office last year in the same election that sent Donald Trump to the White House after using some of the same immigration rhetoric that made Arpaio a national name a decade earlier.

The judge concluded that Arpaio ignored the order because he believed his immigration efforts would help his 2012 campaign.

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