Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas explains how the liberal Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have avoided prosecution and instead brazenly retaliated against himself and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Posted on 08/16/2010 2:44:22 PM PDT by az4vlad
Former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas explains how the liberal Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have avoided prosecution and instead brazenly retaliated against himself and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
A prosecutor must seek justice regardless of a defendant's wealth, connections or position. Unfortunately, Arizona prosecutors who try to follow this standard come under public attack.
Throughout the recent controversies in Maricopa County, a clear theme has developed. On one side are the elites-the political establishment, courts, major media-supporting the board of supervisors no matter the evidence of wrongdoing and egregious taxpayer abuses. On the other side are the people. They have a stubborn habit of siding with Sheriff Joe Arpaio and me when we've brought cases before the county grand jury. This divide became clear once again following the self-serving and false claims by interim County Attorney Richard Romley about investigations and prosecutions done with Sheriff Arpaio's office. Romley's recent efforts obviously were done to distract from his rejection by members of his own party who are tired of his liberal policies and endorsements. When citizens seated on a grand jury have heard the evidence of guilt involving county officials, they have sided with Arpaio and me.
Two county supervisors-Donald Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox-have been indicted twice by two separate grand juries. A third grand jury heard testimony related to alleged hindering of prosecution by county officials who ordered a publicly funded sweep for electronic "bugs" immediately after Stapley was served with his first indictment, and alleged misconduct by Judge Gary Donahoe.
Right after the grand jury heard the evidence, they asked for a draft indictment. Experienced prosecutors know this request almost always leads to some sort of indictment.
However, before the grand jury could finish deliberating, Judge Donahoe's lawyers appeared before a judge in another county and obtained a stay blocking the grand jury's deliberations. But for that action, all signs suggest the grand jury was prepared to act.
Later, our prosecutors asked that the grand jury end their inquiry so it could be referred to another law enforcement agency. They did so.
It's not easy to tackle public corruption, just as it wasn't easy to take up the fight against illegal immigration years ago. But I did so unapologetically.
For their part, the board of supervisors and their employees have brazenly retaliated against Sheriff Arpaio and me, both directly and indirectly by exploiting their network of relationships.
Forgotten is the fact that I sought to appoint highly qualified special prosecutors so I would not have to prosecute these matters. The board of supervisors blocked their appointment, then complained when I handled them myself.
I also offered to hand over the matters to the U.S. Attorney's Office. They declined to take them. Now that same office reportedly is investigating and second-guessing Sheriff Arpaio's and my handling of the same cases they refused to accept.
If true, this is not only a blatant violation of state police powers and the Tenth Amendment. It threatens to destroy our system of justice. Prosecutors simply will not bring charges against powerful officials if they know their work will be subject to effective lobbying before the Obama Justice Department or the State Bar.
I've taken on public corruption and paid a political price with election-year smears from friends of these officials. But like Sheriff Arpaio, I've always believed I answered to the people. Soon the people will make the ultimate decision, choosing whether they want a top prosecutor who will tackle these tough cases or take the easy way out. As for me, I will do my duty and serve the people no matter the cost.
Andrew Thomas is the former Maricopa County Attorney and a Republican candidate for Attorney General.
From what I’ve been hearing on talk radio this Thomas guy is crooked himself. You rule against him and he prosecutes in retaliation. I like somebody who goes after RATS but I don’t need somebody else ignoring the rule of law.
I guess the tie-breaking question would be, then, has Sheriff Joe endorsed his candidacy?
Sheriff Joe is very actively endorsing Andrew Thomas for Attorney General, the two work well together. I worked closely with Thomas for over five years, and can tell you that the liberal media and his liberal enemies in public office have tried to do everything they can to smear him - don’t believe the smears. He is an honest, ethical man who has been viciously attacked because he dares to stand up to the open borders lobby and stand for conservative principles. He doesn’t back down and they hate him for it.
My wife and I heard him speak at the border on Sunday and we liked what he had to say and will support him.
“From what I’ve been hearing on talk radio this Thomas guy is crooked himself. You rule against him and he prosecutes in retaliation. I like somebody who goes after RATS but I don’t need somebody else ignoring the rule of law.”
Thomas is for real that’s why he is being attacked so shamelessly. Rick Romley is an opportunist. The Supervisors are corrupt, and want to get rid of Thomas ASAP. If AZ citizens take Thomas down, it will be a long time before they get a chance for honest government at the county level. Sharif Joe will be the next target for sure. JMHO.
In a near perfect government, Sheriff Joe would become Attorney General of the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t listen to the liberal media. Tom Horne has been running against him in the primary I base my opinion on what Horne and Phoenix talk radio has been saying about Thomas.
I don’t listen to liberal media either. Horne is not trust worthy in my opinion. I have found some radio talk shows present themselves as conservative, but are not so conservative. The guy who substitutes for “The nearly Famous Barry” show is a flaming liberal in my book (Barry Marsden or something like that????).
First, in 2006, when the legislature passed the new law on human smuggling, Thomas interpreted that law to include a conspiracy to smuggle humans. In that case if an illegal paid a coyote money to smuggle him into the country, then the illegal had entered into a conspiracy with the coyote and could be prosecuted for human smuggling.
And this interpretation by Andrew Thomas has been one of Arpaio's main tool in going after the illegals. But that is the law only in Maricopa County as none of the other county attorneys in the state made that interpretation.
The second was the Legal Arizona Workers Act, aka the employer sanctions law, to prosecute those employers who hired illegals without checking them against e-verify.
Enforcement money on that comes from the state to the county attorneys and the the county attorney dispenses the money as he sees fit. Thomas was giving bucketloads of money to Arpaio to run the high profile raids on businesses suspected of hiring illegals, often based only on anonymous tips.
All that went on for a long time leading to all the animosity between the board of supervisors and Thomas/Arpaio.
So then Thomas resigns to run for AG, and the board appoints Romley as interim County Attorney, who is also running to be elected as the next County Attorney.
But now Romley has his hands on all the info from Thomas' office.
So he is releasing that info in way to help his campaign.
First he released the info that showed that of all the convictions for human smuggling, only 4% had been actual human smugglers and 96% had been illegals who paid a coyote. And he publicly stated that if Arpaio would bring him a human smuggler, he would prosecute but he wouldn't be prosecuting any more illegals for conspiracy.
Next, Romley released the fact that Thomas had given Arpaio 3 million of state money to run the workplace raids, and that resulted in only one conviction of an employer for hiring illegals. And that he wouldn't be giving Arpaio any mote money. If Arpaio wants to raid employers, he would have to pay for it out of his budget.
Needless to say, Arpaio is backing Bill Montgomery for County Attorney.
Thomas is what every honest citizen hope public officials will be, honest and competent! JMHO
Imagine an America being defended by these people?
Wonderful.
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