The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted to give its lawyers permission Monday to sue the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office over the purchase of a $456,000 inmate transport bus purchased with money from the Jail Enhancement Fund.

The bus was originally purchased in October 2008; the supervisors have since refused to title it because they had questions about the purchase.

In other news, Judge Gary Donahoe has stepped aside from his position as presiding judge over the criminal courts system three months early, possibly to make way for a lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas alleging malicious prosecution.

On Monday, Morgan Loew reported that the Attorney General's Office is investigating several bank accounts maintained by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office that are kept separate from other county funds:

One of the accounts is the RICO fund that contains money from property confiscated from criminal activity.

The other is the Jail Enhancement Fund, which is supposed to be used to increase the value, quality, desirability or attractiveness of county jail services or operations.

According to JEF Guidelines and state law, the money is supposed to be deposited with the county treasurer. But that's not happening in Maricopa County.

In a news release posted on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Truth Behind the Headlines page, the Sheriff's Office argued that it can do whatever it wants with these funds, such as purchase a nearly $500,000 inmate transport bus. Nevertheless, the office did not address the fact that its use of the funds was under investigation.

The Sheriff's Office did, however, attack KPHO:

Like so many other overdramatic “investigative” stories generated by Channel Five on the Sheriff’s Office, this particular story was reinvented from information covered by the Arizona Republic several months ago that has already been responded to by the Sheriff’s Office...

Channel Five’s tactic is usually to find a new person to interview like Byron Schlomach form the Goldwater Institute and lead their audience to believe that they have a new exclusive story...

The documents “obtained” by Channel Five on last night’s story were supplied by the Sheriff’s Office through public records requests. How channel five can suggest that the Sheriff’s Office is failing to be transparent is beyond us.

The truth is, these funds are audited every year and the Sheriff’s Office has never been found to be in violation of any state laws. Channel five never supported their accusation about violating state laws with any proof or evidence. Another Channel Five tactic; put an idea into the public’s head by making an accusation that they have no evidence to support.

In other news, the Sheriff's Office published an e-mail sent from ABC 15's news director to one of its investigative reporters:

The letter shows that Channel 15’s news director now wants his investigative reporter, Bernstein, to “come after” the Sheriff. The letter did not admonish Bernstein to be fair and impartial in his coverage of Arpaio but rather to “COME AFTER” him.

Given the email correspondence printed below, Sheriff Arpaio and the Office as a whole fully expect that Channel 15 will soon line up behind KPHO 5 and KPNX 12 as well as the Arizona Republic in a collective effort to denigrate Arpaio and the Office at every given opportunity.

What the Sheriff's Office does not include in the publication of the letter were the e-mail headers that state when the e-mail was sent. In fact, it was sent shortly after the news broke that a grand jury had been convened to look into allegations of abuse of power by Arpaio and his office.

The Phoenix New Times wrote its own commentary on the letter. This was shortly after the paper released an issue with a cover story on the court tower investigation.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio scored a victory last week when the seventh holiday music lawsuit was dismissed. According to a news release from the Sheriff's Office:

Judge Snow's order found "neutral secular purposes for playing holiday music" included reducing tension in the facilities. In addition, the judge found no "excessive government entanglement with religion" and no attempt to advance religion.

Nevertheless, less than a week later, county officials asked the state to investigate the purchase of a $465,000 inmate transfer bus. As readers may remember, the sheriff fired back with a video after an internal audit in November found his office violated procurement procedures.

A recent internal audit found that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office violated procurement procedures when it purchased a $465,000 inmate transport bus using jail enhancement funds.

Since the bus was purchased in May, the Board of Supervisors has refused to authorize its use, something that Arpaio has called a political ploy:

In an August news release, Arpaio claim county management is withholding authorization of the bus as retribution for his investigations into county elected officials and administrators.

"This bus was purchased with money from the Jail Enhancement Fund, not from the county budget," he said. "As Sheriff, I have sole discretion on how this particular fund is used. We determined this vehicle was critical to enhance our jail operations. It's time the board and its county manager, David Smith, put public safety above their own political agendas and egos and stop interfering with my mandated duties."

On Tuesday, the sheriff's office posted a YouTube video and two letters to the county on its "Truth Behind The Headlines" blog.

Here's the video: