One of Flake's sons filed a malicious-prosecution lawsuit, saying Arpaio pursued felony animal cruelty charges against him and his then-wife in a bid to do political damage to the senator and gain publicity. In a deposition, Arpaio didn't accept responsibility for bringing the charges against the couple and was unable to cite any evidence to support the allegations. "A factfinder could thus reasonably find that the prosecutors initially charged the Flakes based on pressure from Arpaio," Wake wrote. It isn't the first time Arpaio has been accused of trumping up charges in an animal cruelty case. He filed a lawsuit alleging Arpaio brought the criminal case so the sheriff could exploit the publicity.

Source: Fox News November 24, 2017 20:13 UTC