He's a real sweetheart, to so something like this. What a dirtball Arpaio is! I hope he ends up in jail:

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio dropped a bombshell in court Thursday when he said his former lawyer had hired a private investigator to look into the wife of the federal judge presiding over a contempt of court case against the sheriff.

The hearing took the strange turn after Arpaio had finished his testimony and Judge Murray Snow began asking him questions, including whether the sheriff was investigating his family.

Arpaio said he believed his former lawyer, Tim Casey, had hired a private investigator to look into his wife. The investigation stemmed from a purported comment Snow's wife made about the judge not wanting Arpaio to get re-elected in 2012.

Casey declined comment, citing attorney-client privilege, when The Associated Press reached him after the development in court.

Snow has been overseeing a sprawling racial-profiling lawsuit winding its way through the courts for several years. Snow determined in 2013 that Arpaio's office systematically racially profiled Latinos during traffic stops then called this week's contempt-of-court hearing after Arpaio defied his orders to stop carrying out immigration patrols.

Arpaio's office has a history of investigating his opponents. Two elected county supervisors and a judge were among those investigated and charged with crimes in the past decade after feuding with the sheriff's office.

The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff to look into abuse-of-power allegations over the political feuds.