Arizona's most famous Russian is not in Arizona!
Is America the new Soviet Union — where
people are jailed to hide the mistakes of government? The more Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the Maricopa County health care system try to legally abuse a young Russian, the more publicity each gets. The Sheriff wants publicity, the county hospital does not. Russian-born Robert Daniels (Danilov) had to flee back to Russia last year for protection from the hostility of America. Maricopa medical authorities made big mistakes and hid Daniels and their records. The Sheriff needs free publicity whether he is ethical or not. Since Dennis Wagner's first report on March 1, 2007, Robert Daniels has become the most interviewed and reported Russian in Arizona in the past decade, more than resident Olympian Olga Korbut, visiting journalist Vladimir Pozner, or other resident sport stars, combined.
TB patient indicted as risk to public health
Dennis Wagner — The Arizona Republic, Valley & State, Page B1 — Mar. 24, 2008A tuberculosis patient who was involuntarily quarantined for a year in the jail ward at a Phoenix hospital has been indicted on charges that he unlawfully exposed the public to a disease. See 2007 news about Robert Daniels ...
Robert Daniels, a Russian-born man with dual U.S. citizenship, fled to Moscow last year to escape possible prosecution and incarceration by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
At a news conference Monday, Arpaio said Daniels had knowingly exposed and endangered Arizona citizens.
"This guy is a time bomb," the sheriff said.
Reached by phone Monday, Daniels said he thinks the case demonstrates that Arpaio is a vindictive man who may be using criminal charges to deflect a federal lawsuit still pending against the county.
"You've got to be kidding me," Daniels said when told of the two felony counts. "They don't really have evidence. They can't accuse me of anything unless there's a person who got the disease from me."
Daniels came to Arizona in 2006 looking for work but required treatment for a drug-resistant form of TB not long after his arrival.
His plight in custody became the subject of worldwide scrutiny after a Superior Court commissioner ruled that he was a danger to the public. Daniels was confined in a locked room at Maricopa Medical Center in August 2006 and treated as a convicted prisoner with no phone, windows, shower, television or other amenities.
The controversy prompted court hearings in which physicians testified that Daniels ignored treatment instructions and caused a health hazard by going out in public without a mask. Daniels denied the allegations in interviews but was never allowed to testify or have witnesses appear on his behalf.
After a year in custody, Daniels was sent to a hospital in Colorado for treatment. Specialists at National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver concluded that Daniels was misdiagnosed in Arizona and never suffered from extreme drug-resistant TB.
No longer contagious, Daniels came back to Phoenix and was housed in a motel while still receiving treatment under court orders. Daniels said he suffered from depression in solitary confinement and was terrified by Arpaio's threats of criminal prosecution.
"I was afraid he would put me back in there," he said.
Meanwhile, Daniels said, excessive chemical therapy in Phoenix made him so sick he required emergency treatment twice and feared that the drugs were killing him.
"That's why I left America," he said. "I was desperate. I had to save my stupid life."
Daniels said he has recovered fully in Moscow: "The TB is gone. I have no diseases whatsoever. If I had stayed in Arizona even a month longer, I'd probably be dead."
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Daniels' behalf last year but no longer represents him.
Dan Pachoda, ACLU legal director in Arizona, said there is no basis for an indictment.
"This, at best, seems like a terrible waste of public and judicial resources," he said.
Sally Wells, chief assistant to Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, said prosecutors do not know of anyone infected by Daniels. She said Daniels was charged under a 2002 statute and it is unclear on whether he is subject to extradition agreements between Russia and the United States. If convicted, Daniels could get up to 10 years in prison.
See 2007 news about Robert Daniels ...
Comments posted:
posted by stacyp on Mar 25, 2008 at 09:13 AM
Joe is costing us too much money. Theres the New Times Case computer cookies, the jail abuse and death cases, the rides to get an abortion, and so many others that I just can't remember right now.
He also has made up charges to punish whistleblowers and then changes his mind on charges and settles for big $$. He is changing his statement on the chandler officer that left his dog in the car case. There's missing money on the RICO case and Honduras, and the MCSO has not been audited since he took office!
Now I hear Arpaio is going to engage us taxpayers on a wild goose chase to Russia to chase after a man who had been unfailry treated by Arpaio like a criminal in a county hospital because of a TB scare which a hospital in Denver deemed was curable and not contageous at all (the guy was misdiagnosed) and Apaio facing a federal suit because of this lashes back by chasing this victim of Arpaio's antics all over Russia. I wonder how much this will cost us?
I just don't know how much more of this abuse and corruption we can take? I seriously hope the voters do the right thing this coming election and vote this liability out. He is costing us way too much money and will continue as we've seen that he is a financial liability.
He needs a mental evaluation too.
You've been asked to talk up his opponent, but that would be campaigning on the papers part and they can only write about stories, not help campaining..
But I can:
Dan Saban is a very straight up no-nonsense guy. He has promised to audit the MCSO when he takes over to have a clean slate. That I like. What impressed me the most with Saban is that promises to do something about the 70,000 unserved arrest warrants that the MCSO should be serving. That is a lawman — someone who is concerned about public safety and not how many cameras will be there when he makes arrests. I will be voting for Saban this coming election — I urge taxpaers of Maricopa County to do the same for the protection of our county resources, VOTE FOR DAN SABAN.
See 2007 news about Robert Daniels ...
Supreme Court refuses to hear Arpaio's appeal of rulings on abortionMichael Kiefer — Arizona Republic — Mar. 25, 2008The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider an appeal from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on whether it should be forced to take female jail prisoners to abortion clinics. Judges in the Maricopa County Superior Court and Arizona Court of Appeals ruled that the Sheriff's Office must provide the transport. Sheriff Joe Arpaio took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and was turned away. "I'm disappointed," Arpaio said. "We fought the good fight. I still don't agree that we should take females on a voluntary basis to an abortion. I'm still against that. But we took it to the highest court, and we'll see what happens if the situation comes before me again in the jail system." Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, called the high court's decision "the end of the road for Sheriff Joe's campaign against reproductive freedom." The case stems from a 2004 incident in which a jail inmate asked to be transported to a prescheduled appointment for an abortion. The Sheriff's Office refused to do so without a court order. After the court order was obtained and the woman had the abortion, the ACLU of Arizona filed suit in Maricopa County Superior Court to ensure that incarcerated women would not lose the right to have abortions, which by law must be done within a specified time period. Arpaio has referred to abortion as an "elective" procedure. The Superior Court sided with the ACLU, so Arpaio took the case to the Arizona Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower-court decision. Arpaio then took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. With that court's refusal to hear the case, the Appeals Court decision stands. "As we have shown throughout this case, a pregnant woman in prison does not lose her right to decide to have an abortion any more than she gives up her right to have a child," said Brigette Amiri, the ACLU staff attorney who argued the case before the Arizona Court of Appeals. "It is not up to prison officials to decide whether a woman prisoner should carry a pregnancy to term or not." |
|
Arpaio loses case but 'wins' publicityE.J. Montini column — The Arizona Republic — Mar. 24, 2008On the surface, the case seems to be about abortion. It's not. It's about publicity. On the surface, it appears that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio lost. He didn't. He won. You just have to look past the "news" to appreciate it. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said that it wouldn't review a lower-court ruling that told Arpaio he could not refuse to transport inmates for abortions. The case goes back four years. One of the things that has kept Arpaio in office for so long is his unique genius to recognize an attention-grabbing story when he sees one. In this instance, a pregnant jail inmate had asked to be driven to an abortion clinic. The sheriff refused to do so until he was ordered by a court. As a practical matter, making an issue of this was a farce. The sheriff himself admitted that inmates make such requests only a couple of times a year. Still, he told me in 2004, "It's government money and this is elective surgery. What are they going to ask for next, a nose job?" Actually, it isn't the government's money. It belongs to taxpayers. Just as the money that Arpaio spent to keep the case in court all these years belonged to taxpayers. There was never much doubt how the case would turn out. Still, after losing in Superior Court the sheriff announced, "We're going to appeal this up to the state Supreme Court. And if I lose it all the way, I want to get it into the federal courts, and I want to go to the United States Supreme Court." He got his wish, mostly because he knew that no one would try to stop him. It didn't matter that laws dealing with abortion rights (or lack of them) are not considered to be the purview of a county sheriff. What is the purview of a county sheriff, at least our county sheriff, is publicity. And no one has been more effective than Arpaio in using the public's dime to craft his image. The same is beginning to be true of Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, who went along with the sheriff on this case. Thomas opposes abortion rights as well, though he framed the argument against transporting inmates to clinics in a slightly different way. In deciding to go forward with a federal appeal a few years back, the county attorney's office said that its argument would focus on a law forbidding government funds for abortion. Special Assistant County Attorney Barnett Lotstein said at the time, "This is not an abortion issue as far as we're concerned. It's a matter of enforcing the law as written by the Legislature." Again, not really. It's about politicians taking full advantage of a no-lose (except in court) proposition. Arpaio knows that his job isn't about making laws, but enforcing them. He says so himself - when it's convenient. For instance, speaking of the Arizona immigration law that allows people who are smuggled into the country by coyotes to be charged as conspirators, Arpaio once said, "Do you think I like arresting people? No. I have compassion for these people. But they're violating the law and it's my job as the sheriff to uphold the law. Change the law and I promise you I'll stop arresting them." He could have said the same thing about existing abortion law. He could have quietly given the woman a ride to the clinic and saved county taxpayers plenty in legal fees. But that wouldn't have got him what he really wanted. No matter how the Supreme Court ruled, Arpaio didn't lose a court case. He won four years of "free" publicity. Reach Montini at 602-444-8978 or ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com. Read his blog at montiniblog.azcentral.com. |