The
Arizona Republic provides something you almost never see, the grand jury transcripts (links to the
pdf of the original documents are at the link) from Sheriff Joe Arpaio and (former Maricopa County Attorney) Andrew Thosmas' tragi-comic attempt to have their political enemies indicted. If you check the
Bad Lawyer index you will see that Sheriff Joe and and his Boy Andy's machinations have been a special obsession of mine and the
Bad Laywer blawg.
Anyone who cares about the law should care about this story--and with this report you see the smoking guns which were released by the interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley. Romley formerly served in the position and came in after the disastrous tenure of Thomas who now thinks Arizonans should elect him Attorney General. You can watch Romley's press
conference at the link.
The story represents for me the sort of wholesale abuse of local power. This sort of thing happens in many places around the country but usually beneath the surface. But not in Maricopa County where Sheriff Joe and Boy Andy operated a full reign of terror. They trammeled the rights of criminal defendants, immigrants, the poor, their political opponents, lawyers, Judges, and other elected officials. The Maricopa grand jury transcripts which are linked to the story are amazing documents. The final transcript in particular conclude with grand jurors "refusing" to act any further.
These original documents provide a rarely seen window on how it is that prosecutors can "indict a ham sandwich."
If you are at all interested in how folks get "indicted" and how little "indictment" bears on guilt in some situations, here's your proof. You will rarely see anything like this. Don't miss this story. The
Arizona Republic and the
Phoenix New Times deserve Pulitzer Prizes for their coverage of this story.
your obsession with this is it seems trying to convince the majority of americans who are supporting the actions taken by arizona to stop the flow of illegal immigration and the pampant lawlessness of murder, drug smuggling,kidnaping ,theft ,vandalism and much more
ReplyDeletei have never seen any thing with regards to a justice department which supports intimidation of are citizens at the voting polls and the refusal to do anything that might interfer with the attemptb to hold on to the position of power at the expenses of the democratic process probably just as well because we i'm sure would see the side of the story that furnishes a few edited details with the majority of the facts left out
if you will a state trooper pulls a truck over it has no brake lights upon talking to the driver while he is seated in his truck he notices the truck has a television box and is full of other boxes which he can't distinguish their contents and recalls he heard a appliance store was robbed in the neighboring state - INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF STOLEN PROPERTY federal offence truck heading towards the mexican border. no discribtion of the truck or the occupants,. the driver and his passenger are chicano speak little english what should he do what do you think he can do. do you yhink given all i stated he can even ask for identification how about proving citizenship - again no description of the truck nor the thieves his gut says these are the TVs based the lack of any real evidence and only seeing one box that appears to be a television GET REAL
the pope
I am SOOOO looking forward to this jerk going to prison.
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