Attorney's office mulling charges against Sheriff Joe Arpaio

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Protestors want to see Sheriff Joe Arpaio in his own jail stripes.

That possibility is on the table after Federal Judge Murray Snow found probably cause that the sheriff and his top aids committed a crime by violating his court orders, lying on the stand and withholding evidence in the civil racial-profiling case.

"We want him to go through the same things he made out families go through," Protestors said. "He is a criminal."

Former U.S. attorney for Arizona, Paul Charlton, says he's never heard of anything like this.

"If the U.S. Attorney's Office still had books in the office to do research, they'd literally be blowing the dust off of those books because this is so rare in occurrence," he said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office confirms that prosecutors are reviewing the case but do not have a timetable for a decision.

Arpaio's attorney has said they welcome a jury trial and will not agree to any sort of plea deal. If convicted, Arpaio could face prison time.

"And whether or not Joe Arpaio has to resign in the event of a conviction, the only thing we have in our state to instruct us is former Governor Symington, who remained in office during the course of the trial, but left office when he was convicted," Charlton said.

Arpaio's lawyers are planning to meet with U.S. Attorney John Leonardo. The U.S. Attorney's Office can either decide to go forward and prosecute the charges or not and have the Department of Justice prosecute the case.