Rick Romley: Unleash the documents!
Maricopa County prosecutor Rick Romley released a ton of documents about the crazy investigations Joe Arpaio’s office and Romley’s predecessor, Andrew Thomas, waged against their political enemies.
The pair kept pursuing the investigation, even though each venue they took it to—independent prosecutor, grand jury, and then prosecutor in another county—all rejected the pair’s claims.
The Republic lays out just how pathetic the case was, and how to this day Thomas fudges the truth:
After weeks of meeting, the [grand] jury decided to end the inquiry.
Both Thomas' prosecutor and officials in Romley’s office described an “end the inquiry” as rare.
On Thursday, Thomas said … [h]is office asked the grand jury to end the investigation.
Had the grand jury wanted to exonerate those under investigation, Thomas said, it could have issued a “no bill,” which means there was not enough evidence to indict.
However, one of Thomas' own prosecutors had explained to the jury during orientation that to “end the inquiry” meant “the case is so bad, there’s no further evidence that could be brought to you folks,” according to the transcripts.
“Frankly, I have been doing this a long time, and I have had three in my whole career,” deputy county attorney William Moore had said.
Robert Robb piles on here.
The paper’s editorial page is scathing:
It reflects most harshly on Thomas, who now is running for the Republican nomination for attorney general.
Thomas told The Republic’s Craig Harris on Thursday that Romley “has falsely claimed the grand jury found no evidence of wrongdoing” and that the release “vindicates” his office and proves his claims of county corruption.
Against the stark contrast of the grand jurors' own words, Thomas' arguments seem strikingly self-serving.
Citizens who supposedly could be persuaded by Thomas' prosecutors to indict a ham sandwich instead have eaten his lunch.
Despite it all, Sheriff Arpaio clings tenaciously to these now-thoroughly discredited charges. It is time he paid attention to the people and ended this contemptible inquiry once and for all.
8:11 AM
The Maricopa County craziness rachets up a notch
The reporter wanted to come film the raid. (?!) The judge, Barbara Mundell, went code red. She went to the Arizona Court of Appeals to block her offices’ being raided. But at the hearing, an assistant county attorney said no warrants were being issued.
Heat City’s Nick Martin cites this as an example of hair-trigger tensions in the court system, as Arpaio and his Dimmer Twin, County Attorney Andrew Thomas, have used just about any aspect of their police and legal powers to harass and intimidate enemies.
The journalist in question is identified only as a TV reporter, and no gender was cited. Unanswered is where the reporter got the tip. According to Martin, the ADA at the hearing said no warrants had been “sought or obtained.” That could mean a) the reporter was lied to; b) the reporter was given a good tip but somehow got the judge in question wrong (a possibility, since he or she seemed to have a screw loose in any case*); or c) Thomas’s office was choosing its words carefully in front of the judge to obscure the fact that some sort of action was about to be taken against Mundell.
Martin says the judge has reason to find herself on Arpaio’s enemies list:
In May, Mundell told a Phoenix TV station she thought Maricopa County’s judges were facing serious intimidation by the sheriff, including possible investigations and retaliation. She said the sheriff was upset, in part, because a judge had just criticized his office for bringing inmates late to their court appearances.
Mundell also fought the sheriff’s office as far back as 2007 over whether his deputies should have access to thousands of emails she and other court officials had sent or received that year. Mundell and Superior Court Administrator Marcus Reinkensmeyer denied the request, and the sheriff’s office eventually sued.
- By which I mean it’s inappropriate for a reporter to find out a raid is about to happen and then call up the target of it to ask permission to film.
7:00 AM
Another legal salvo from Andrew Thomas against county supervisors
The Arizona Republic says he’s indicting Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox on separate charges:
A grand jury indicted Wilcox on allegations that include perjury, forgery and conflict of interest related to votes she made as a supervisor to fund the Hispanic non-profit group Chicanos Por La Causa, Thomas said.Stapley’s counts include fraud, theft, perjury and forgery largely related to the use of funds Stapley received in his effort to become president of the National Association of Counties. Stapley also obtained mortgage loans under false pretenses, Thomas said.
[…]
Thomas said the counts were based on Wilcox obtaining five different loans through Prestamos, the lending arm of Chicanos Por La Causa, and continuing to approve funds for the organization in her role as supervisor without filing any type of conflict notice.
Farther down, the paper notes:
The indictments from a Maricopa County grand jury are the latest allegations Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio have leveled against county elected officials and administrators, many of which have been dismissed. Despite the history of Thomas and Arpaio’s allegations against other county officials petering out as they work through the justice system, the sheriff maintained confidence in his investigations.“Let’s wait to see what the criminal justice system does before you start criticizing my investigations,” Arpaio said.
5:02 AM