MSCO’s ‘independent’ investigator is anything but, report finds

A previously sealed federal monitor’s report filed in a years-long class action racial profiling lawsuit and unsealed on Monday revealed that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office hired a contractor to help with internal investigations that were supposed to be independent but were far from it. Instead of being a neutral party, the contractor had professional ties to 2020 presidential election deniers and a designated right-wing hate group. 

MCSO hired investigative firm AZ Truthfinder in 2025 to handle internal investigations that its Professional Standards Bureau was conflicted out of doing itself, according to the report. It told the monitor team that it had vetted the firm during its procurement process and that it was the only option with experience working in law enforcement. 

But in its own vetting process, the federal monitor team found that the firm’s owner, Stephanie Ameiss, had previously worked for two right-wing organizations, Understanding the Threat and the notorious Cyber Ninjas. The sheriff’s office had either ignored this fact or failed to discover it. 

“Either the ‘vetting process’ was a sham; or any vetting that they did conduct revealed some of the same material we uncovered, but they chose to ignore it,” the report said.

In a year, Ameiss and her firm were paid $270,865 for her investigative work.

“If true, by any reasonable measure, MCSO executive staff would have been aware of the many concerns and issues outlined in this memorandum,” the report said about MCSO’s vetting process. “If untrue, and the generally accepted review and backgrounding standards of a potential vendor did not occur, the absence of veracity by a law enforcement executive is problematic.”

The report, which was filed on Aug. 6 and is part of the landmark civil rights lawsuit Melendres v. Sheridan, was unsealed Monday by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow, who has overseen the contentious racial profiling case since it began. The lawsuit began as Melendres v. Arpaio in 2007. Snow recently ruled against the sheriff and the county when they filed a motion asking to end the monitorship. Critics say the revelations in the unsealed report highlight why the monitorship needs to continue. 

MCSO, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and ACLU of Arizona did not respond to requests for comment in time for this story. Ameiss also could not be reached for comment before publication.

Cyber Ninjas was a private consulting firm that led the controversial, conspiratorial ballot audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 presidential election results, which included hand-counting ballots. Meanwhile, the report described Understanding the Threat as a “right-wing consulting firm that posted videos and articles online spewing hate speech against Muslims and their faith, Black Lives Matter activists, Democratic politicians, and others” that was designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Both Cyber Ninjas and Understanding the Threat are now defunct. 

“Our identification of the AZ Truthfinder principal’s involvement with these two entities leads us to conclude that MCSO claimed to have properly vetted and then retained a company that was wholly unqualified and inappropriate to conduct fair, impartial, and unbiased administrative and criminal conflict investigations on MCSO’s behalf,” the report read. 

Undersheriff Jeffrey Gentry and Executive Chief Melissa Palopoli were given three proposals after the procurement application closed on June 10, according to the report. Within three days, they chose AZ Truthfinder. Palopi wrote in an email quoted in the report that she “would lean towards” the firm. Gentry agreed, writing that it “appears that AZ Truthfinders [sic] is most appropriate for our needs.” The contract was awarded to AZ Truthfinder on June 17.  

According to the report, Ameiss worked for Understanding the Threat from 2015 to 2021 as director of investigators or lead investigator. She also billed Cyber Ninjas $23,550 for work performed during the election audit period. Her resume, included in the report, did not list her work for either company. Both Cyber Ninjas and Understanding the Threat are now defunct.

“But while Ameiss may not have disclosed this information in documents she provided in response to MCSO’s solicitation, they were either not identified by – or perhaps, even more disturbingly, they were identified but disregarded by – two of MCSO’s highest-ranking executives,” the report reads. “Given what we easily and quickly discovered online regarding AZ Truthfinder’s associations, this is thoroughly unacceptable and suspect. Even minimal vetting would have raised serious issues. MCSO’s awarding the contract to AZ Truthfinder is inexcusable.”

Raul Piña, a prominent member of the Community Advisory Board that oversees the court-ordered monitorship, said he was shocked at the findings. As he tried to gather his thoughts, he joked that he’s not often left speechless. 

“It takes a leadership structure to allow for something like this. You have to have a system in place to allow this to happen,” he said. “And it’s so egregious it only can happen if you have people who have been operating with impunity for years.”

He has a jaded view of the sheriff’s office after years of other revelations during the contentious monitorship, he said. But the most recent findings have led him into uncharted territory. 

“Based on this, the only muscle memory in the agency I see is dishonesty,” he said, and then added after a long pause. “At this point I’d dare say corruption. It becomes a part of the DNA of the organization if you allow any corruption at any level.” 

Piña said he worries that these revelations about what he sees as a lack of integrity in the independent investigations might complicate efforts for the two parties to find some common ground on other outstanding issues in the monitorship, including which provisions to end. 

“I’ve seen some stuff over the years, but this is shocking. The sense of operating with impunity. It’s shocking to see it this much in your face,” he said. “So much blatant disregard for the rule of law, the courts, the monitoring; it’s a complete disregard for anything that’s good and noble in this process.”