Suspended Animation

Two senior court officers sit at home, wondering if they've been blacklisted

A A A Comments By Paul Rubin Thursday, Dec 23 1999

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That's when the incident involving the young woman occurred.

Because the county won't discuss the matter, the relationship between the Hartley incident and Griller's subsequent August 18 letter to Mitchell (in which Hartley isn't mentioned) is uncertain.

Darrion Hartley reacts with his attorney (back) to the announcement of the guilty verdict.

Mark Lang

Court administrator Gordon Griller

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And what about Edwards' possible motivation in dropping the dime on Mitchell and Sells? The men say that they recently had chastised Edwards for spending too much time at a female client's home. A retired policeman who had been with pretrial services for less than a year at the time, Edwards had taken umbrage with the criticism, his now-suspended supervisors say.

"I thought we were being overzealous, if anything, with those [Chipman Road] kids," Sells says, countering Edwards' allegations that they were anything but diligent.

"The AG's investigator kept telling me, 'I hear you're friends with the families, you socialize with them.' I was practically speechless. I knew one of the boy's aunts in grammar school because I grew up around there. And they [Chipman Road defendants] knew they'd be back in jail if they screwed up. Those boys never violated a damned thing, never tested positive for drugs, never got busted for anything, because they knew we meant business."

Because he is in his first year on the job, Cliff Sells is a "probationary" employee. That means Maricopa County could fire him without giving justification. That's not the case with Perry Mitchell, whose veteran attorney, Ted Jarvi, says he is "likely to take administrative remedies" if Mitchell's case isn't resolved soon. Asked if that means a lawsuit, Jarvi says that's a possibility.

Until then, Mitchell's days have taken on a numbing sameness. Griller's suspension letter instructed him to report in by telephone each morning, and to stay at home during normal business hours except for a lunch break. There, Mitchell takes care of his firstborn, a 5-month-old son, and ponders his future.

Contact Paul Rubin at his online address: paul.rubin@newtimes.com

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