Deep Fix

Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley went very, veryeasy on Governor Fife Symington and his cronies inthe Project SLIM bid-rigging case. After first assistant attorney general Rob Carey showed that the county attorney's investigation had been a sham, R

A A A Comments By Michael Lacey Thursday, Feb 22 1996

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Later, Romley would claim that he had been unable to prove criminal activity and that his office lacked jurisdiction to pursue a civil-court remedy, which is the kind of sophistry that only a lawyer can offer with a straight face.

If Romley had pursued his investigation with even minimal vigilance, he would have utilized Vincellette and Blanco instead of burying them. He would have interviewed Marge Kendall and subpoenaed the September 4 spread sheet.

And had Romley taken those basic investigative steps, he would have had his criminal case.

Carey's staff uncovered fresh evidence, it located new witnesses and it turned up lost documents. It established the largest instance of white-collar fraud ever perpetrated on state government.

Despite the problems presented by Romley's earlier whitewash, Carey weighed pursuing a criminal indictment.

But the attorney general's probe had taken a full year, and the criminal statute of limitations on certain activity occurring in 1991 was running out. If the attorney general obtained criminal indictments, the targets would have constitutional protections, including the Fifth Amendment, which would have allowed Leckie, for example, to avoid testifying.

And if Leckie did not testify against Symington, there was little chance of successfully prosecuting him.

Finally, even though it was obviously deeply flawed, Romley's investigation provided a bulletproof argument for any defense attorney fighting a criminal indictment by the attorney general: The Public Integrity Task Force had already investigated and cleared everyone involved of criminal activity. If Woods took the criminal route, he could easily be portrayed as someone going after the governor for political reasons--to grease his own path to the governor's chair.

For all those reasons, when Suzanne Dallimore made her case in front of Grant Woods, she argued to the attorney general that the state should seek civil damages from Coopers & Lybrand and Governor Symington's fixer, George Leckie.

"Do it," said Woods.
That day, May 16, 1995, was the pinnacle of Rob Carey's professional life.
That day, events began that would humiliate Rob Carey and cost him his career.

Just outside the conference room where Woods and Carey huddled, Deborah Vasquez's phone was ringing.