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.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ pursuit of a spate of lawsuits and indictments against county leaders and judges won’t rob any other criminal defendants of their right to a fair trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Judge Wallace Hoggatt of Cochise County Superior Court ruled against more than 40 criminal defendants who sought to disqualify the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office from their cases on claims the office had a conflict of interest and appearance of impropriety in representing the state.
Thomas also got indictments against Stapley and County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, and he filed a criminal complaint against Judge Gary Donahoe.
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Maricopa County officials are waiting for County Attorney Andrew Thomas to resign to run for state attorney general because they believe it gives them carte blanche to appoint his successor.
However, in a letter to the county Board of Supervisors Thursday, Thomas pointed out that if he leaves office before the mandated May 26 deadline, state statutes call for a special election so the general electorate can choose his replacement.
Under that scenario, the supervisors would choose an interim county attorney who serves until the results of the November general election are final.
The Arizona Republic has printed a barrage of articles, editorials, and guest op-eds by attorneys lately highly critical of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County
Attorney Andrew Thomas. When attorneys like Dennis Riccio, below, try to submit an article with a positive viewpoint of Arpaio and Thomas, the Republic can’t turn their bias aside enough to print even one positive article.
My Turn: Enough of Prejudging Thomas and Arpaio
It is disturbing reading many of the editorials and op-eds in this this newspaper about Sheriff Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas’s attempts to prosecute Supervisors Stapley and Wilcox and investigate the Court Tower. The writers rush to judgment accusing Arpaio and Thomas of unethical behavior, without knowing the full facts. Only Arpaio and Thomas have seen the results of the investigations, search warrants and subpoenas. Most of this information is still privileged until the prosecution is over, and some of it – the Grand Jury information – will never be publicly releasable. The newspaper editorial board and criminal defense attorneys are acting as judge and jury prematurely deciding cases in public they know very little about.
The public has a right to be skeptical of a $341 million state of the art, luxury Court Tower being built during a recession, while county agencies, including law enforcement, are forced to cut 15% of their budgets by laying off employees. With the exception of columnist Laurie Roberts, this newspaper has failed to ask the hard questions, and even her questions have gone unanswered. Why is this luxury tower being built even though the county cannot afford it? People deserve to know answers.
