Lawyers take a stand against the swirling cesspool of corruption in Maricopa County

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On Monday, around 350 attorneys rallied against the swirling cesspool of corruption in Maricopa County, specifically the abuse of power by County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Their use of the legal system to attack their political opponents and to criminalize policy differences has reached a tippping point with their witch hunt against their political opponents this month. Lawyers protest actions by Thomas| eastvalleytribune.com:

About 350 lawyers and onlookers gathered Monday in front of a downtown Phoenix courthouse to protest Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas filing criminal charges against Judge Gary Donahoe.

Thomas Ryan, a lawyer who served as a master of ceremonies for the noon-hour rally, said Thomas can expect more than just a public gathering.

Ryan said the attorneys who organized the rally intend to campaign statewide against Thomas if he runs for Attorney General and work with the State Bar of Arizona if any action is brought against the prosecutor.

“This is not the end,” said Ryan, whose brother is Tim Ryan, the second-highest ranking judge in Maricopa County.

Thomas filed charges against Donahoe, Maricopa County’s top criminal court judge, Dec. 9, alleging he accepted bribes from county management, the board of supervisors and two lawyers representing the board to stop an investigation into County Supervisor Don Stapley and the construction of a $340 million court tower.

Thomas also filed a federal racketeering lawsuit Dec. 1 alleging other judges were also in on the alleged cover-up.

* * *

Thomas has been feuding with the board since 2006 when he filed suit against it in a dispute over retaining private attorneys to represent the county in civil matters.

The feud intensified in December 2008 when Thomas indicted Stapley on allegations he didn’t disclose financial information he was required to as an elected official.

The court, and in certain instances, Donahoe, has ruled against Thomas in various lawsuits and criminal matters.

Donahoe ruled that Thomas cannot participate in the court-tower investigation.

Thomas claimed in the federal racketeering lawsuit that those rulings were to shield Stapley and others from scrutiny in exchange for their building the court tower.

“When Judge Gary Donahoe got charged it struck me that we had gone from political self-interest to dangerousness,” said James Belanger, an attorney who organized the rally.

Belanger, who represents Judge Kenneth Fields in the racketeering suit, said the “unfounded attack on the judiciary” will erode public confidence in the justice system.

* * *

At Monday’s rally, attorneys read aloud in unison the state’s oath of admission for lawyers.

Certain passages were in bold to illustrate which parts of the oath Thomas has broken.

The rally ended with them singing “America the Beautiful.”

The Arizona Republic has more Criticism mounting vs.Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Andrew Thomas. "I think all Maricopa County citizens need to be very concerned about this attack on the independent judiciary," defense attorney John Curry said, "because without an independent judiciary, there is no rule of law."

[I]n a scathing letter to The Arizona Republic, the Yavapai County attorney, who previously handled some of Thomas' cases against county officials, blasted the prosecutor and sheriff as "a threat to the entire criminal-justice system."

Sheila Polk, a Republican and career prosecutor, spent six months working on two of the cases sought by Thomas and Arpaio in their ongoing battle against county officials and the courts. Her office handled the first criminal case against Supervisor Don Stapely and the investigation into the disputed Superior Court tower project.

* * *

Polk had stayed out of the legal drama in Maricopa County, and her remarks offer the first insight from an outside law-enforcement official who has some knowledge of the cases Arpaio and Thomas have lodged against county officials.

The Arizona Republic editorialized Finally, someone takes a stand:

Someone in office in Arizona has showed some grit.

Someone in office in Arizona has stood up against Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

On the page below, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk has spoken out on a subject from which countless other officials around the state have run.

From firsthand experience, Polk knows better than most the damage Thomas and Arpaio are causing to the concept of justice.

She has been witness to the tandem's tactics, which in our view constitute using the law to pursue political enemies. Earlier this year, as her office attempted to prosecute a pair of politically supercharged Maricopa County cases, Polk came to realize that "what is transpiring now in Maricopa County is wrong and a disservice to the citizens of our state."

Polk knows. The cases included a set of charges against Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley as well as allegations of misdeeds regarding the construction of the new Superior Court tower in downtown Phoenix. She worked for six months on the matters with Arpaio and his deputies, and it appears to have been a hellish experience.

In addition, we have printed on the same page an exposition by County Attorney Thomas on recent events, which have included the criminal prosecution of the county's presiding criminal-court judge, as well as charges against yet another county supervisor.

Thomas is welcome to explain himself.

* * *

Your critics are attempting to "intimidate and thwart" justice, Mr. Thomas? Your critics?

Talk about "genuinely threatening the foundation of our government." Here's just one case in point, of many: Thomas needs to explain how it is that the attorney for one of his political enemies is instructed to show himself at the Sheriff's Office for an "interview" within hours of launching his client's defense.

We are to believe this is the slow, milling grind of justice at work? Absurd.

At last, one official has stood up to the Orwellian double-speak of this oppressive pair.

There must be more.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk's opinion in full. Arpaio, Thomas are abusing power:

The charges against Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapely and Mary Rose Wilcox and Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe will eventually be resolved by our courts.

Whatever the outcome, however, it will not repair the tremendous damage being done to the entire justice system by the manner in which these investigations and prosecutions are being handled.

We are a nation that prides itself on its system of laws. My brief involvement has led me to conclude that what is transpiring now in Maricopa County is wrong and a disservice to the citizens of our state.

On April 1, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas requested that I take from him the criminal investigations and prosecutions involving members of Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

I agreed. For the next six months, I worked with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office on the cases.

On Oct. 6, I returned all the matters to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, except the matters on appeal, and have had no further contact with either office on these matters.

I was happy to remove myself from the cases and from contact with Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

My discomfort grew daily and my role in restraining potential abuses of power increasingly more difficult. It was a relief to package up the files and return them to Maricopa County.

Maricopa County is not my jurisdiction, but I can no longer sit by quietly and watch from a distance the abuses of power by Sheriff Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

I am conservative and passionately believe in limited government, not the totalitarianism that is spreading before my eyes.

The actions of Arpaio and Thomas are a disservice to the hundreds of dedicated men and women who work in their offices, and a threat to the entire criminal-justice system.

Peace officers and prosecutors take an oath of office that is sacred. We swear, under God, to support and defend our Constitution and our laws against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We also swear to "impartially discharge the duties of the office."

Our power, granted to us by the people, is not a personal tool to target political enemies or avenge perceived wrongs.

Prosecutors are ethically bound to refrain from prosecuting a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause.

In maintaining public safety, each of us is tasked, by our oath, with protecting the rights and privileges of the least among us. Everyday, in every single thing we do to keep our communities safe, we must respect the rule of law and the protections set forth in our Constitution.

Abdication of these responsibilities causes erosion of confidence in law enforcement and our communities become less safe.

Law enforcement and prosecutors throughout the state have been my second family for the past 26 years and I am proud of our profession. We are a brotherhood (and sisterhood) and we must hold each other to the highest of standards.

Our vocation is to seek justice. When one of us forsakes our role as protectors of the Constitution, it is up to the others to call him out.

Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio have strayed from their constitutional duties.

They serve at the pleasure of the people.

Every citizen should be concerned about the ongoing damage to the rule of law.

WATB Andrew Thomas replied Nobody is above the law in America*

* With the exception of Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio, of course.

NB: Andrew Thomas has filed an exploratory committee for Attorney General. He will have to resign to run under Arizona law. Sheriff Joe Arpaio has been threatening to run for governor. He also would have to resign to run under Arizona law. Perhaps they should be encouraged to run for higher office to end their reign of terror in Maricopa County, and then let's beat the stuffing out of them in the election.