Is Maricopa County Nuts? Consider the Evidence

According to a report at AZCentral, Maricopa County, AZ's Board of Supervisors is considering allocating more dough to former County Attorney Andrew Thomas to defend himself over ethics allegations thus calling into question their collective sanity. 

Thomas, (Sheriff Joe Arpaio's legal water carrier) spent nearly all of the $100,000 previously budgeted to him to pay for his defense.  This astounding story is by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez (<---hmmmmm, new married name?) which follows in excerpt:

"Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has spent a large portion of $100,000 in public funds earmarked for his defense against a State Bar of Arizona ethics complaint, prompting discussion among county officials about whether to allocate more. Public records show Thomas has spent about $86,000, and no hearing date has yet been set.

[Former County Attorney Thomas] was [ . . . ] charged with multiple ethics violations after a lengthy investigation into his political and legal fights with the county Board of Supervisors, judges and other officials. The state Bar, which licenses and polices attorneys, accused Thomas and two former deputies of having conflicts of interest and filing criminal and civil cases without probable cause or sufficient evidence.

Days after Thomas was charged, the county Board of Supervisors approved a $100,000 budget to defend him against the charges despite its sharp political and legal differences with him. [ . . . ]  Now that Thomas has nearly exhausted the amount set in the initial budget, the Board of Supervisors is unsure how to proceed.
[ . . . ] Don Wilson, Thomas' attorney, said his client 'is entitled to a meaningful defense, and we remain hopeful the board will do the right thing.'
'As one person that witnessed his offensive behavior so directly, it makes it hard to give him anything,' [according to the Board of Supervisor Chair.]  'I don't know how he can defend his actions. That being said, we defend the professional licenses of a number of people. You'll never be able to capture my disdain for doing this.'

County officials said it is unclear if the county is legally obligated to continue paying for Thomas' representation given the Bar investigation that found he acted unethically.  But Jerry Cobb, a spokesman for Montgomery, said the office has historically provided defense for attorneys facing disciplinary hearings."
_______________________________
Completely outrageous!  This lawyer conceived and participated in the ransacking of Maricopa County's coffers to fund baseless political prosecutions at the behest of his dark master, Joe Arpaio.  Thomas' actions were so offensive that the notion that the taxpayers are on the hook to defend his license defiess common sense.  Thomas quit the Maricopa County post, ostensibly, to run for Arizona Attorney General.  He lost.

What a sweet deal, you the lawyer commit unethical acts prohibited by your profession and oath, but the taxpayers will pony up to defend you!  Is that nuts?

False Allegations of Crimes Made By Arpaio and Thomas--US Attorney Confrims

OK, you can read the Bad Lawyer archive of Maricopa County, Arizona stories to get the context if you haven't been following this carnival. 

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (America's Toughest Sheriff) and his boy Andy, (former Maricopa County Attorney, Andrew Thomas') engaged in a Stalinistic terror campaign to indict and prosecute all other elected Maricopa County officials not-named-Arpaio-or-Thomas--but, as we suspected all of the charges, indictments, and arrests were false.   Reporters Yvonne Wingett and JJ Hensley at AZCentral relate and supplying links to the US Attorney's summary of his investigation of cases Arapaio and Thomas forwarded to the feds for followup, after numerous dismissals by Arizona courts.  The conclusion by the feds, no evidence of any crimes by any of the Maricopa officials persecuted by Arpaio and Thomas.  

Here's the article:

"There is no evidence of federal crimes by county officials in material forwarded to federal prosecutors by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke says.  Last March, Arpaio and Thomas forwarded nine cases of suspected county corruption to the U.S. Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section for review. Though an attorney working on behalf of Arpaio and Thomas said federal officials promised to review the material, a Justice Department section chief later chastised him for giving the impression that federal agents would likely take on the investigations.

The cases instead were sent to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix for review.

'Our thorough review has shown that there is a total lack of evidence of the commission of any federal crimes by the individuals listed in the materials,' Burke wrote in a letter to Interim County Attorney Rick Romley. 'Furthermore, in several instances, the evidence was so lacking as to make the theory of liability nearly incomprehensible.'

However, Burke recommended the matters be reviewed for any potential violations of state statutes. Romley, who cannot review the matters because of conflicts of interest, has asked the Navajo County Attorney's Office to perform that task.

Robert Driscoll, an Arpaio attorney, said Arpaio and Thomas filed a wide-ranging racketeering suit after failed attempts to get an outside prosecutor to review their allegations against other county officials. When the racketeering suit was withdrawn, Driscoll said Arpaio and Thomas wanted a prosecutor to review the cases.

'I don't think it would be fair to say that a declination (to prosecute) means there's nothing there,' Driscoll said. 'There's been a review and people are better off than they were at least knowing it's been reviewed.'

The material included Arpaio and Thomas' investigations into the county's project to build a new court tower, and use of public funds to search for listening devices in county offices. Those cases were presented to a grand jury, which determined there was no probable cause that a crime was committed."
____________________________________
So now you have an overwhelming finding of pure political malevolence by these two clowns, Arpaio and Thomas.  Andrew Thomas was soundly defeated in a bid to be the Republican nominee for the position of Arizona attorney general and a bar investigation is underway.

Arpaio's profligate spending on guns and lawyers, including Big Law--ended when the County Supervisors he and Thomas repeatedly and unsuccessfully indicted recently regained control of the county spending authority.  And Arpaio's Sheriff's department is itself on the verge of collapse in the face of corruption investigations and denunciations from former trusted associates. 

You gotta give it up for Sheriff Joe, he is the darling of the Tea Party.  He's on the road raising money for all the tin foil hat types, that is until he ends up in U.S. District Court. 

But Arpaio's victims: county officials who were arrested, smeared and indicted; and, the taxpayers of Maricpa County, they just keep paying.

Andrew Thomas Concedes

Maricopa County's own, Andrew Thomas, (Sheriff Joe Arpaio's former legal gunslinger) has conceded the primary contest to his Republican primary opponent, Tom Horne.  Thomas who may well lose his law license labeled Mr. Horne a scam artist based on a history of financial shenanigans and a bankruptcy not disclosed on required state filings.  We'll see how this all plays out; suffice it to say the Arizona Supreme Court appears to be losing its patience for the games being played by Thomas et al.  

Arizona Election Results

AZCentral.com is reporting this morning that the political career of Andrew Thomas, former Maricopa County Attorney and water boy for Sheriff Joe Arpaio, may have come to an end.  As you will recall from the stories on Bad Lawyer, Thomas quit his job mid-term, a-la, Sarah Palin to run for higher office, Attorney General.  Thomas appears to have narrowly lost in his bid for the Republican nomination.  Amazingly, Thomas lost to a local lawyer who ran an investment scheme that went belly-up in college resulting in a bankruptcy that the lawyer subsequently lied about in various filings.  How bad a candidate do you yourself have to be to lose a race for attorney general to a "con artist" which is what Thomas called his opponent, Tom Horne?   If the election results hold, Horne will face democratic challenger Felecia Rotellini in the general election. 

Tellingly, returns from Maricopa County played a significant role in the projected electoral defeat of Thomas.

In a separate story, AZCentral.com is reporting that Sheriff Joe Arpaio who utterly hates interim County Attorney Rick Romley may have played a role in defeating Romley's bid to win election to the the County attorney position by illegally running ads and sending mailers on behalf of Romley's opponent.  The local electoral commission found Arpaio's interference in this election violated election laws as it relates to the mailers Arpaio paid for and distributed.  Romley appears to have lost the race by a wide margin although the defeat may have been attributable to complex and underhanded manipulation of candidacies and of course Arpaio's seemingly bottomless deep pocket. 

We will see how this turns out.  As with all things Arpaio, more shall be revealed.

God, Save Arizona!

AZCentral is reporting that former Maricopa County Attorney [like a county prosecutor, but way-scarier,] and current Arizona Attorney General candidate Andrew "Yessir Sheriff Joe!" Thomas planned a full-fledged coup with mass indictments of most Maricopans not named Andrew, Joe, or Lisa.   This story is so preposterous that it is a wonder that it hasn't been made into a video game, maybe an update of whack-a-mole.

Bad Lawyer has covered the extensive adventures of Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe, terming their reign of terror, Stalinistic.  But really, words fail when the actual reality exceeds satire.  You can also read quality background coverage at the ABAJournal website and at the Phoenix New Times which is currently  running this report of Sheriff Joe's men run wild.

It's real easy to be cynical about life and law in places like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, but it isn't much of an exaggeration to find similarities with our Dear Leader Joe and his army of tax-funded lawyers (now, including former Congressman Bob Barr) and armament and other toys bought on the people's credit cards. With outrage after outrage  piling up--is it not a wonderful thing that these clowns are driving immigration politics in the United States? 

Think about this, it's as if Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn were put in charge of immigration policy in America.  But that is exactly what's happening, Governor Jan Brewer and the Arizona legislature are dancing to the political tune whistled by Joe Arpaio--and, this song is the mainstay of the immigration platform of one or two American political parties.  I console myself with the firm conviction that when the music is over, there are going to be a lot of politicians running around looking for missing chairs.  There will come a time in this country where we look back at the anti-immigration hysteria driven by these political lizards in Arizona and politicians who happily associate themselves now with these figures and the sentiments that they represent are going to be embarrassed and will try to deny, that they ever were associated with these xenophobic ideals.

Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas: They're Out to Get Me!

Readers of Bad Lawyer know that I think Andrew Thomas (pic) is one very shady character having supplied legal "big guns" to Sheriff Joe Arapio during Arpaio's reign of terror costing the taxpayers of Maricopa County, Az beau coup bucks in damages, lost county services, lost county time and resources, frivolous lawsuits and malicious prosecution of officeholders--ultimately, resulting in the Supreme Court of Az stepping up and appointing a special master to supervise all of the legal activities of Thomas and Arpaio.  As you will recall I predicted on Bad Lawyer that at the end of the day Thomas will lose his license. 

Undaunted, Thomas did such a good job, in his opinion--he wants the voters of Arizona to elect him statewide as Arisona's next attorney general.  Now the Arizona Republic is reporting that Thomas is complaining that the mysterious forces are "conspiring" via a State disciplinary investigation to thwart his ambitions to lead Arizona.  Here's an excerpt from Michael Kiefer's story:

"[T}he chief justice of Arizona ordered an inquiry into Thomas' behavior after a Superior Court judge ruled he acted unethically in his prosecution of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox. Since then, several other complaints have been lodged against Thomas with the state Bar, including one by an association of defense attorneys. In an interview with The Arizona Republic, Thomas and his former attorney in the matter, Ernest Calderón, alleged that:

• The special investigator appointed by the Arizona Supreme Court was told there would be 'a predetermined result.'
• The investigator, John Gleason, full-time counsel to the Colorado Supreme Court Attorney Regulation Commission, refuses to fully divulge the nature of complaints against Thomas, thus hindering Thomas' ability to respond.
• Calderón was fired by county managers, who were paying his bills, to hinder Thomas' defense.
• The cards were stacked against Thomas from the start. As proof, Calderón noted that Scott Rhodes, an ethics expert, has been retained by interim County Attorney Rick Romley and just won an award from the state Bar. Rhodes was appointed by the high court to investigate Thomas, but he turned down the appointment when Thomas suggested he had conflicts of interest.

Gleason, the state Bar and the Supreme Court all deny any collaboration against Thomas. 'Unequivocally, there is no conspiracy against Andrew Thomas,' said John Phelps, the Bar's chief executive officer. 'Everything we have done is to protect the process and to ensure that Andrew Thomas' rights would be protected.'

The state Bar is a quasi-governmental organization that licenses and polices attorneys in Arizona. Calderón claimed that Gleason has refused to cooperate with Thomas' attorneys, a contention echoed in correspondence to Gleason from Eric Dowell, who remains Thomas' attorney in the Bar matter. A letter sent by Dowell on Monday states that Gleason 'abruptly ended our conversation by slamming down the telephone.'

Calderón and Thomas think it's a conspiracy. "I can only speculate that he came down here and talked to some powers that be and they said, 'You don't understand, we have a predetermined result we need to get to,' " Calderón said.

When reached, Gleason said that he would not respond to the conspiracy claim Gleason denied that he has refused to share with Thomas' attorney the allegations against him. 'How can I possibly investigate allegations against a lawyer if they don't know what has been alleged?' he asked.

Thomas also complained to The Republic that Gleason, a Colorado resident, spent three weeks at the Arizona Biltmore resort while conducting his investigation. Thomas wanted to know who paid for it and why Gleason had stayed at such an expensive resort. Gleason said he obtained a rate of $89 per night and pointed out that he is charging $40 per hour for his services - hundreds of dollars less than the going rate for attorneys.

Jennifer Liewer, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Supreme Court, said, 'John Gleason is a highly experienced and professional discipline investigator. He has regulated Colorado lawyers and judges for more than 22 years for the Colorado Supreme Court. In his extensive years of experience,' she said, 'he knows that, in some cases, lawyers under investigation employ a number of defense tactics including delay and attacking the investigator.'

'He will continue to conduct a fair and impartial investigation, regardless of pressure or attacks from any party involved. However, because rules require confidentially at this point, he will not violate them by responding to any specific issues raised at this time by anyone involved in the matter.'Phelps said Rhodes' consulting work with Romley's office has nothing to do with the Bar. Most of the allegations against Thomas focus on the last two years of his tenure as county attorney, including his prosecutions of county supervisors and Superior Court judges.

Thomas has come under ethical scrutiny before. In spring 2008, several complaints were filed against him involving a contracted attorney who confronted a judge over bail for illegal immigrants, and because of circumstances surrounding the arrests of two New Times editors. Thomas protested unsuccessfully to the Supreme Court to try to stop that investigation. All of the complaints eventually were dismissed."
________________________
As I said before, Thomas is in big trouble, the Arizona Supreme Court should have but an end to Thomas' antics when the Arizona New Times (Maricopa County just paid $40,000 in attorney fees to the New Times last week over some nonsense--when the editors) brought legitimate charges against Thomas previously.  The AZ Supreme Court did not act then and matters became so attenuated that millions of tax dollars have been flushed down the drain trying to maintain the rule of law in one of this Country's biggest metropolitan counties.  I doubt that the Arizona Supreme Court will fail to act this time.

Maricopa County Prosecutor Quits

That's right, Andrew Thomas, Maricopa County incompetent political hack and frequent filer of frivolous lawsuits has quit his job as Maricopa County Attorney.  He's been so successful, he's running for Arizona Attorney General.  This idiot has somehow raised over $5 million dollars for this upcoming race, according to AZCentral.com.  Since he and Sheriff Joe have raped the Maricopa taxpayers to the tune of milliions of dollars, the most recent outrage being the $500,000 luxury bus that Arpaio bought without county permission--perhaps his donors felt that a mere $5 mil was a bargain to get rid of his incompetent ass.

By the way the picture shows County Attorney Thomas in the classic "steepling" hand gesture.  This gesture is not a prayerful gesture, it is not a humble gesture.  Whenever you see someone using this gesture, it means he or she, usually mistakenly, believes that he or she is superior to you.  Or that he or she knows more than you know.  In Thomas' case, it means he knows his time has come, he better get elected to a good job before he loses his law license or else.  Someone better tell Thomas that he can't be Attorney General and not be an attorney.

Maricopa County Update

According to the ABA Journal, John Gleason,  head of the Colorado Supreme Court disciplinary authority, has been appointed by the Arizona Supreme court to conduct the disciplinary investigations into County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  This is a particularly astute move by the Arizona Supreme Court in light of the vicious fighting and claims of conflict of interest. 

Additionally the Arizona Repubic is reporting that one of the Maricopa County Judges frivolously sued by Thomas and Arpaio for racketeering is now contemplating a malicious prosecution lawsuit.

Finally, one of the County officials who has been repeatedly indicted by County Attorney on trumped up charges brought by Arpaio and Thomas, only to have visiting Judges dismiss the indictiments--County supervisor, Don Stapley has called Arpaio and Thomas, "evil." 

Fear seems to be striking out in Maricopa County.  The Stalinist terror has come to an end.

Department of Justice to Prosecutor Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe, Stop Lying!

The Department of Justice has informed the press and Maricopa County County Attorney, Andrew Thomas that he's a big fat liar.   Thomas explained his voluntary dismissal of his and Sheriff Joe Arpaio's federal civil RICO lawsuit against other Maricopa county officials and state court judges by saying the Justice Deaprtment was taking over the investigation. 

A DOJ letter to Thomas and the media strongly chastizes Thomas for misrepresenting the conversations with DOJ officials, according to azcentral.com.  This Bad prosecutor is going down even his attempts at face-saving are blowing up. 

Here's the thing about RICO lawsuits, --and yes, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act was given its acronym in homage to Edward G. Robbinson who at the end of  the movie Little Ceasar exclaims in his dying breath, "Is this the end of Little Rico?"--18 U.S.C. § 1961–1968 is a federal statute that provides for criminal and civil prosecutions of the mob and anything that looks like the mob. 

As we talked about last night in reporting on the federal judgment that the former mayor of East Chicago, Indiana and his political cronies had turned the city government of East Chicago into a mobbed-up organization.  Civil penalties as you can see from those assessed against former Mayor Pastrick are pretty onerous; on the otherhand, failure to set out a properly plead civil RICO action can cost the lawyer who files the action some pretty heavy civil penalties in the form of back-breaking sanctions under Federal Rule 11. 

The complexity of what must be shown and the detail with which federal courts require elements which must be plead comprise treastise and journals dedicated to the purpose of keeping lawyers out of the Rule 11 woodshed.  This is an area of law that is not unlike a minefield in which the naive and inexperienced are wll-advised not to stray.  Um, I know from experience.

Arpaio and Thomas RICO Lawsuits Dismissed

Things have been rapidly going south for Sheriff Joe and his waterboy, County Attorney Andrew Thomas (pic) as I predicted, here on Bad Lawyer several times since I began to following the stories out of Maricopa County.  Here's the current story at AZCentral.com.

Remember this is the sheriff who called his memoir (the one he didn't write and later admitted, he didn't read) America's Toughest Sheriff; and his prosecutor-on-call, Andrew Thomas.  Essentially the tale of woe is about tax-funded abuse of political and prosecutorial power by Arpaio and Thomas as they indict and sue multiple Maricopa County elected officials for racketeering including indicting Judges who stand up to them and who have the umbrage to throw their frivolous indictments and lawsuits out of court. 

As I suggested sanity was going to creep in the moment Arizona's Supreme Court stepped in and named a special master, former Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to oversee all the Arpaio/Thomas litigation.  Secondly the federal RICO (racketeer influenced corrupt organization) lawsuits filed by Thomas were a step way over the line.  By invoking the federal court jurisdiction, Arpaio and Thomas exposed themselves to pretty heavy sanctions which are already hitting them in a separate civil rights action over the destruction of emails they were ordered to preserve and turn over. 

Likewise state courts have repeatedly tossed the state court indictments including re-indictments dismissed by a visiting judge who called Thomas' actions purely political.

These clowns, Arpaio and Thomas have actively undermined the respect the public once had for their sheriff and prosecutor.  It's truly amazing, the fear this clown had struck with his terrorist tactics in dealing with public officials.  It's coming to an end, I predict at the end of the day, Andrew Thomas will lose his law license.  A lawyer who is a public official cannot seek indictments and file civil lawsuits that are solely intended to punish political opponents without paying an ethical price.  Thomas went way over the line, the disciplinary proceedings have been initiated and they will grind away over the next couple of years, the only thing Thomas has going for his at this point is that the conduct is so complex and byzantine that it make take a long, long time to whack him, but in my opinion he has forced the hand of disciplinary authorities by his hubris.

Bad Prosecutors, Arpaio's Boy, Andrew Thomas Takes the Stand

In the continuing car wreck that is Maricopa County, Arizona local politics there was an extraordinary proceeding yesterday at which Sheriff Joe Arapaio's consigliere, Andrew Thomas testified at a hearing to determine whether Thomas should be disqualified from prosecuting other county officials who are politically at odds with Sheriff Arapaio. 

The Bad Lawyer has followed these cases since thr outset of recent events that include hiring $1100 an hour appellate lawyers from D.C. to advance the personal animus of the Sheriff, the one who calls himself, America's Toughest.  The underlying story is that Maricopa County, which encompasses metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona is the land of the "snow bird." Seniors and others flock south in the winter months, and property values sky-rocketed until recent years.  In the view of Arpaio and others problems in Maricopa County are precipitated by illegal immigration from Mexico and Central American countries.  Arpaio's approach to crime includes enforcing federal immigraton laws, and his approach to enforcing state and local laws are said to involve racial profiling and discrimination especially against persons of hispanic heritage. 

Sheriff Arpaio's power increased with his perceived "tough" on crime approach and reckless disregard for the rule of law as embodied in Arizona and the US. Constitution, to an extent, which open warfare has erupted among elected officials and the judiciary vi-a-vis, the Sheriff.  Instead of reaching out to the other elected officials, Arpaio utilizing the office of the County Attorney, (who is the prosecutor, Andrew Thomas) began obtaining indictments of local officials and recently has taken to bringing federal racketeering lawsuits against County officials.    Think about this, this is sort of like suing your co-workers while claiming you can still provide services to them anf with for your clients--not real easy to do.  Thomas contends that he can sue his co-workers, prosecute his co-workers and still somehow provide services to the citizens of Maricopa County that they hired him to do.

Funny twist on this, this isn't the first time Mr. Thomas prviously obtained indictments against this very county official, Mrs. Mary Rose Wilcox.  In classic prosecutorial overkill he indicted Mrs.Wilcox on multiple, multiple counts accusing her in every variation on a theme of fraud, of false this-false that...for allegedly voting on matters that impacted an Hispanic advocacy organization to which Mrs. Wilcox or her husband was obligated to on loans.  All of these indictments agasint Mrs. Wilcox, and one other county official were dismissed by a Superior Court Judge outside of Maricopa County.  This wasn't what Arapaio wanted, he wanted the heads of these two county officials, so Thomas sought a second prosecution.  Originally, the case files were given to an out of county prosecutor Yavapai County prosecutor Sheila Polk she told Thomas that her review and investigation of the allegations against Mrs. Wilcox revealed no evidence of a crime.  Thomas demanded the files be returned and he went off and obtained a boatload of new indictments against Wilcox et al.  Prosecuor Polk fearing a miscarriage of justice courageously spoke up, penning an op-ed for the Arizona Republic.   Prosecutor Polk also testified, yesterday at the hearing seeking to disqualify County attorney Thomas from further prosecutorial involvement in these matters.  Polk said under oath that the Maricopa County Sheriff's department threatened her if she went public.  Does any of this scare you?  It should. 

Remember, the person not in the courtroom is the driving force behind all of it, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, America's "toughest sheriff." 

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid30311461001?bctid=66899385001 The link is to the short video excerpts of the hearing.  You can see the witnesses for yourself including Andrew Thomas. 

Sanity for Maricopa County, Arizona?

The trainwreck that was the Rule of Law in Maricopa County, Arizona caused in large part by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his sweetie/ally, County Attorney Andrew Thomas may finally be reaching its end.  It certainly reached its nadir with the arrests of County Judges and racketeering lawsuits filed last week by Thomas against most of the county officials not named, Joe Arpaio.  As you will recall I offered the opinion that Thomas may have erred in invoking the jurisdiction of the federal court; as it turns out the Arizona Supreme Court decided to act, as we say in the law: forthwith.

Chief Justice Rebecca Berch of the Arizona Supreme Court appointed her predecessor, former Chief Justice Ruth McGregor as "special master" for all things Maricopa.  In her order granting broad jurisdiction to former Chief Justice McGregor, Chief Justice Berch alluded to a "public safety emergency" in the offing generated by the allegations and counter charges that could result in disqualification of the very people the citizens of Maricopa County elected to administer their county adn criminal justice system.  By the way, Maricopa County--this is what you got when you bought into Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the demagoguery of "the toughest sheriff in America." 

The reason I obssess about clowns like Sheriff Joe Arpaio, is that he is the poster boy for official thuggery wrapped in the flag of patriotism.  He is a petty tyrant who given reign by the citizens of Maricopa County demonstrated that he and unprincipaled lawyers can shut down a democratically-elected govenrment.  It's an amazing spectacle, we should not soon disregard the example of Maricopa County if we care about representative democracy.

Good luck Chief Justice McGregor.

Maricopa County, Arizona Prosecutorial Misconduct?

Maricopa, Arizona "County Attorney" Andrew Thomas is the Butt Buddy of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a favorite subject, here on Bad Lawyer. 

The LA Times has a decent summary of the most recent Stalinist antics of Arpaio and his sycophant prosecutor, Andrew Thomas. 

In sum, Arpaio and Thomas are conducting a coup in Maricopa County by arresting, prosecuting and suing all of the county elected officials, including sitting Judges--that they, Arpaio and Thomas dislike.  These elected officials are accused by Prosecutor Thomas of a massive conspiracy agasint Arpaio; and, Prosecutor Thomas has filed a racketeering lawsuit in federal court.  

Arizona Central is reporting on a rally of local attorneys against prosecutor Thomas and Arpaio.  Since the drafting of this post, last night,  Arizona Central has updated it's article.

Perhaps all of this an encouraging sign for Maricopa's citizens?  It's reminiscent of the attorney-uprising in Pakistan that led to the reinstatement of that country's Chief Justice and for the time being, the return of the rule of law in a country formerly dominated by Musharraf and his military dictatorship. 

Dictatorship is not too strong a word for what's happening in Maricopa County.  Good luck, gentlemen--Bad Lawyers all!