Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo, who was appointed to hear the case, said Thomas faced a conflict of interest in prosecuting Mary Rose Wilcox and ruled that the conflict violated Wilcox’s rights when Thomas’ office presented allegations against her to a grand jury in January.
“Because the defendant has no representative to watch out for his or her interests before the grand jury, the prosecutor has a duty (to) not take advantage of this role to unfairly influence the grand jury,” Leonardo wrote.
Wilcox, 60, was accused of voting on contracts involving a Hispanic advocacy group that had given her loans and never filing conflict-of-interest statements. She had pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conflict of interest, perjury, forgery and false swearing.
