By Michael Bryan
Shame. That's what disbarment amounts to. It is the ultimate sanction of an attorney for acts that are inconsistent with the professional ethical standards for practicing law: frankly, that's sometimes not a terribly high bar to clear. But Andy Thomas missed it by a mile. Thomas was disbarred today by a three member disciplinary panel of the Arizona Supreme Court. (coverage in the NYT, Arizona Republic, and AP Wire)
Thomas joins such notable disbarred attorneys as Alger Hiss, Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon, Mike Nifong (of the Duke lacross case), and local ne'er-do-wells such as Lourdes Lopez (of the Bradley Schwartz murder) and Ken Peasley (knowingly eliciting false testimony in a capital murder case).
Of the 31 ethical violations alleged against Thomas, clear and convincing evidence was found that he actually committed 27 of them. These included the very serious allegations that he used his office to file charges solely to burden or embarrass his political enemies, engaged in fraud and deceit, and even committed perjury in pursuit of his political vendettas.
I can only imagine the impact Thomas' corruption would be having on the already sullied image of Arizona should he actually have been nominated and become Arizona's Attorney General. Given the margin between Horne and Thomas was about 1/5th of one percent, it was quite a narrow miss. That would have been a historic disbarment, indeed.
Of course, now Tom Horne is facing his own problems with the FBI… The AZGOP, folks, the gift that keeps on giving.
Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley, one victim of Thomas' witch-hunts, had this to say:
"I listened to Judge O'Neil's public statement from the bench this morning. I was flooded with feelings. The strongest among them came when Judge O'Neil found, ". . . by clear and convincing evidence, that Mr. Thomas and Ms. Aubuchon acted with no substantial purpose other than to embarrass and burden Don Stapley."
"Three years ago, I was indicted for all the wrong reasons. The burden imposed on me, on my sweet wife Kathy and on our children is almost impossible to describe. I listened with mixed feelings when O'Neil said "Andrew Thomas is hereby disbarred for his conduct."
"Part of our burden is lifted with the disbarment order. Sadly, the burden will never be fully assuaged."
"I have had personally confirmed that "a prosecutor's power is a dangerous power." The new County Court Tower has a significant phrase engraved on its face. It says "The First Order of Society is Justice." The court today has served justice."
Thomas made the following statement upon learning of the Panel's findings:
"Today corruption has won and justice has lost. I brought corruption cases in good faith involving powerful people, and the political and legal establishment blatantly covered up and retaliated by targeting my law license. Arizona has some of the worst corruption in America, according to a recent national survey. The political witch hunt that's just ended makes things worse by sending a chilling message to prosecutors: Those who take on the powerful will lose their livelihood."
"I will be holding a news conference tomorrow, not today, and have no further statement to make today on the travesty we have just witnessed. I will have further details on the time and location later today or tomorrow morning."
I certainly agree with Thomas that Arizona has some of the worst corruption in America; we just disagree where the corruption lies. Today's findings make it clear and convincing exactly who is corrupt: Andy Thomas, his supporters and conspirators in the AZGOP machine.
Thomas resorts here to the all-too-common GOP tactic of calling the kettle black: allege that your political opponents are doing the exact thing you are accused of in the hopes that it makes your opponent's very well-founded and reasonable claim seem implausible by your baseless and misleading use of the same terms. Accused – and found responsible for – political witch-hunting and corruption? Claim your accusers are engaging in a "political witch-hunt" and "corruption", so that people will tune out the newly meaningless "he said, he said" noise that ensues.
It should be very interesting to see what Thomas will say at his planned press conference. I suspect that it will involve an elaboration on how his oppenents are conspiring against him, and I expect to hear the words "political witch-hunt" and "corruption" ad nauseum.
Thomas' disbarment brings a new, and surely unwelcome, focus on his partnership with Sheriff Arpaio. Arpaio's involvement in the very investigations and cases for which Thomas has been disbarred was so uncomfortably deep and compromising that Arpaio had to sacrifice his own chief deputy, Dave Henderschott, in order to claim his hands were clean. Perhaps the DOJ may finally come to realize that expecting Arpaio to cooperate with their years-long investigation of discrimination and civil rights abuses under Arpaio's leadership of MSCO is a fool's errand.
BTW, You can sign Steve Muratore's (of the excellent blog Arizona Eagletarian) petition to encourage the DOJ to stop negotiations and just take Arpaio to court already.
I just hope that the come-uppance of Thomas, and the coming lawsuit against Arpaio, will teach the people of Arizona a lasting lesson about the damage that hyper-partisan, vindictive, self-agrandizing, scapegoating, race-baiting, and ideologically-motivated politicians like Arpaio and Thomas can do when placed in law enforcement roles with nearly unfettered discretionary powers. I guy can hope, can't he?
See video of the Panel's findings and and local coverage of the findings after the click…
