Former Phoenix-area sheriff Joe Arpaio made his first court appearance Wednesday as a civilian after losing his bid for re-election and heard a federal judge say she's inclined to decide whether he's guilty of contempt-of-court rather than grant his request for a jury trial.

The final campaign finance reports from the Maricopa County sheriff's election show that Republican Joe Arpaio spent a total of $12.6 million in his unsuccessful bid for a seventh term in office.

Arizona's three most populous counties now have new sheriffs after the election defeats of top lawmen in Pima and Maricopa counties and the decision by the Pinal County sheriff to make a failed bid for a congressional seat.

The request came as Sheriff Joe Arpaio's 24-year tenure as sheriff is set to end Sunday.

The fall of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio didn’t result from a surge of Latino voters, despite the opposition he drew from the Hispanic community over his immigration enforcement tactics.

Joe Arpaio's attorney filed court papers saying that an elected official's actions should be decided by an impartial jury of his peers, not a judge.

The U.S. Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton in a filing Thursday to hold a bench trial rather than let a jury decide Arpaio's misdemeanor case.

The NCAA men's Final Four basketball tournament scheduled for early April in the Phoenix area has pushed back outgoing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's trial on a criminal contempt-of-court charge.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio stood in a cold parking lot outside Park Central Mall on Monday evening and presided over one of his last press conferences.

Election Day in Arizona saw Republicans winning the presidential vote despite Democratic efforts to tap into the state's growing demographic shift, a GOP sweep of statewide utility regulator races, and a sturdy defense of a swing congressional district in southern Arizona.