Power Play

For the record, there are a host of criminal-defense attorneys who don't agree with Cotter on that one.

Judge Burke noted that Ryan hadn't issued any sanctions against Cotter (and Ryan didn't issue any at the contempt-of-court hearing the next day).

Burke asked Robert McWhirter, one of the public defenders in the court that day, what he thought of Judge Ryan.

"Judge Ryan is a good judge," McWhirter said, adding that Wilenchik hadn't proved bias or prejudice.

"I've got a whole notebook [from Wilenchik] that says there is [bias and prejudice]," Burke replied drolly. "Two notebooks, as a matter of fact."

McWhirter said, "If the county attorney has a weighty case, it's the trees they've killed in producing this thing."

Before adjourning, Judge Burke noted that complaints of bias against a judge must be specific, not general.

"Anything else is an attack on judicial independence," he said.

In his six-page ruling issued the next day, Burke concluded that Andrew Thomas' special prosecutor hadn't made his case, hadn't even come close.

So, Judge Ryan still sees prosecutors and defense attorneys in his courtroom, and things seem cordial enough.

And though the judge wouldn't directly address his recent struggle with Wilenchik, he did say this about the war over the soul of the Maricopa County courts:

"People may think that judges are all-powerful and untouchable and all that. We're not. If some politician with an agenda chooses to attack us, so be it. All we can do is try to do our jobs and apply the laws as we see them. That's what it's all about."