Sheriff Arpaio defends against critics who accuse him of PR spin

It is either a coordinated effort or a coincidence, either way there is a pattern.

Whenever bad news is coming Sheriff Joe Arpaio's way, his office appears to issue a press release about something totally unrelated.

Critics of Arpaio say it is a tactic to distract the public.

On Wedneday, Sheriff Arpaio learned that an appeals court upheld the racial profiling case against him.

"I'm not going to comment on that," said Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

But he did talk about Pamela Anderson and invited the media to his meeting with the actress at Tent City.

"I've never seen any politician working so hard to keep a positive spin going," said Randy Murray.

Murray followed Sheriff Arpaio for eight years for his documentary called "The Joe Show."

He said it is no coincidence that the Sheriff releases positive stories right around the time a negative one hits.

"When the Sheriff has a crisis, when bad news is coming his way, it is in his best interest, and it's smart politics to go and create positive spinning news," said Murray.

On February 12, a judge ordered a civil contempt hearing for Sheriff Arpaio. The day before, Arpaio announced that his deputies busted an animal hoarder.

On March 20, Arpaio went to court after he admitted wrongdoing in the case and was reprimanded by the judge. The same day his office announced another animal hoarder case.

In late March, he's still not talking to the media about the case, but he did celebrate half a million inmates in tent city.

FOX 10's Troy Hayden was there and asked the Sheriff about what some call a distraction.

"People say you do stuff like this to distract people from what is going on with court, what would be your reaction to that?" asked Hayden.

"I do this every month, I don't change, so this is something we've been doing, why shouldn't I celebrate it," said Arpaio.

On Wednesday Sheriff Arpaio continued to defend his office. "I don't think this is a spin, believe me I'm spinning every day, I don't need a special spin," he said.

On April 8, the county approved a $3.5 million settlement in the case against the Sheriff's Office, who failed to investigate a rape case for five years. The same day the Sheriff called a press conference, not on the botched rape investigation, but to talk about the latest animal hoarding case.

"We can't time it because we are making so many animal cases that sometimes it overlaps with other activity, I cannot control it," said Arpaio.

"If it is coordinated I should be the executive director of the world if I could be able to coordinate all the activity in this office for a specific reason, it doesn't happen that way," he said.

The contempt hearing against Sheriff Arpaio is scheduled for April 21-24.