Sheriff Joe Arpaio is announcing that Ruben Pena, Jr., 43, the man who came to the Sheriff’s Office headquarters last December 8th and threatened harm to the Sheriff, has been sentenced to 6 months in jail for the crime. Pena was also sentenced to three years’ probation for the stalking charge.
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Pena for stalking Sheriff Joe Arpaio and writing a letter which prompted a bomb sweep at a downtown Phoenix hotel on December 15, 2015. Pena (DOB 09/16/1972) was already being investigated by Sheriff’s deputies for continually coming down to Sheriff’s downtown headquarters.
Pena claimed to be “Jesus Christ” and visited the Headquarters Building requesting to speak with the Sheriff regarding an identification issue. Pena’s request was not completed in timely manner at which time he left a letter which read; “Joe!!! Your ass is mine Sincerely Your creator & Destroyer”. Sheriff’s investigators determined Pena had been in the building several other times making statements of “The Sheriff is a piece of shit”, and “This isn’t threatening but this piece of shit is done”.
Sheriff’s deputies also found two letters written by Pena that were left in a bag on the headquarters property. The items written in the letters read: “Son of mary lou Bownds of the house of david can not receive any texts, calls, or see my face again until she accepts and confesses with her mouth that I am Jesus Christ Jr. Son of Jesus of Nazareth. Bag location is @ renaisance Fire/exit”. This prompted a bomb sweep of the Renaissance Hotel in Downtown Phoenix. This sweep was done to rule out any possible suspicious packages left at the hotel.
In a recent case involving threats against Sheriff Arpaio, a Canadian man who had been arrested several times for making a total of eight death threats; he also threatened the Sheriff’s family.
Sheriff Arpaio has a history of threats against him, such as Gregory Lynn Schrader, the suspect who mailed a dangerous explosive device to Sheriff Arpaio. Schrader was sentenced in U.S. federal court to a long prison sentence. This is just one example of many threats and the convictions against Arpaio.
Pena was also sentenced to 2 years in the Department of Corrections on a drug charge.