Those are very good questions, are there any lawyers around who can answer? My guess is that he may be more venerable in civil court on a slander/libel charge.
Vulnerable?
oops,"vulnerable", not "venerable."
The event was a two-part story. In part one, the illegals charged toward him and he drew his gun to defend himself. It was a perfectly legal exercise of his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and his rights under Arizona Revised Statues to threaten deadly force if he believes he is about to be badly injured in an attack.
Part two of our story starts when the illegals dispersed and ran to their Suburban. At that point he was no longer in danger. His next action should have been to holster his weapon and go on about his business. Instead, he followed them to the Suburban and held them at gunpoint. Now let's think about this for a minute. What Probable Cause did he have to perform a citizen's arrest? Did he ask them if they were American citizens? No. Did he check their identification? No. Why did he point his gun at them? Because they were SPEAKING SPANISH to each other. They very well could have been a traveling orchestra from Peru or something. The Deputies were correct to arrest him, no doubt about it. That's the way the system is supposed to work.
Then the County Attorney investigated and determined that he didn't want to prosecute. That also is the way the system is supposed to work. He came up with some pretty good reasons why he didn't prosecute. In the end, it turned out that they really were illegals along with a coyote.
I heard Sergeant Haab, County Attorney Thomas, and Sheriff Arpaio all interviewed on local radio station KFYI this evening. Sgt. Haab was understandably happy to find out that he wouldn't have to go to jail, but the interviewers asked about the possibility of federal prosecution. The Sgt. also said he was happy that the County Attorney overruled the Sheriff. Sheriff Arpaio said that he had no hard feelings toward the County Attorney, and supposed that he might not prosecute the case if he wasn't sure he was going to win. He also stood solidly behind the actions of his Deputies, which is what I was saying before - he supports his people. But the County Attorney had the most interesting quotes of all. He said that Sgt. Haab was lucky that they really were illegals. He said that if they hadn't been illegals, Sgt. Haab would have been guilty of a felony. He also said that this shouldn't be a green light for citizens to take the law into their own hands. He said "if you go to the local day labor center and start rounding up people, you will be arrested." And that is definitely the way the system is supposed to work. We don't arrest people for speaking a foreign language in this country. Sgt. Haab rolled the dice and happened to be a winner. The next person who tries it might very well arrest a group of American citizens, and the County Attorney will certainly make an example of him.
This area is sensitized to people "taking the law into their own hands." Right after 9/11 there was a guy who killed a Phoenix store owner that he thought was an Arab terrorist. It turned out the store owner was a Sikh from India, and the reason he was shot was because the guy saw the turban and beard he was wearing and thought that was the mark of a terrorist. What made it even sadder was that the dead guy's family was devastated, but they completely forgave the shooter.