Arizona constable responds to 6 month suspension for delaying eviction until a mom and kids had shelter

Pima County Constable Oscar Vasquez on Friday responded on Facebook after being suspended from his job.

"A Pima County constable has been suspended over his decision earlier this year to delay an eviction notice rather than enforce the order quickly," The Arizona Republic reported Friday. "A property owner in Constable Oscar Vasquez's precinct filed a complaint with the state Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board after he failed to immediately evict a tenant on the premises. He claimed he was trying to find a temporary place for the tenant and her children before enforcing the order."

The newspaper explained the background of the case.

"The suspension stems from an eviction notice that Vasquez, the constable for Justice Precinct 4, was asked to serve in February. According to Vasquez, the property owner contacted him shortly after he received the notice, advising him the tenant did not have another place to live upon vacating the premises," the newspaper explained. "Given the increasing number of evictions in Arizona, the Pima County board hired a social worker to help stem the number of people forced to live without shelter after an eviction. Vasquez called the social services worker to assist the family in finding another place to stay."

After temporary housing was secured, which took eight or nine days due to the number of evictions, Vasquez executed the eviction order.

But the property owner filed a complaint because Vasquez did not evict the family quick enough.

Vasquez blasted the suspension — and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey.

"The Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board, No. 1, they seem heartless, and basically a partisan committee picked by the governor or the Governor's Office," Vasquez told the newspaper. "They just took it as, 'I defied the law and I should be punished for it,' and they are using my past for the present. I had some issues before with them, and I was sanctioned for that. I have done my time."

"Basically, I was sanctioned, or punished, for using the tool that the county Board of Supervisors voted to give us: a social worker," he added.

Vasquez also responded on Facebook: