The Arizona Bar, LOL....they are a total joke. Don't look to them for any action against Thomas. It will never happen, not from them anyway. 90% of the time, they are too busy looking the other way and protecting their own. They talk a great story but that's as far as it will go when it comes to Thomas.
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Judge Hoggatt has set hearings on March 1 and 2 for the remaining defendants who want him to disqualify the Maricopa County Attorney's Office from prosecuting their cases.
Among the documents the judge has examined are the criminal "bribery" complaint against Judge Donahoe and the quirky civil RICO lawsuit filed by Andy Thomas against the Board of Supervisors, current and retired Superior Court judges, and some local attorneys.
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Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas
Despite Hoggatt's ruling on Tuesday against some of the defendants, he apparently still wants to hear testimony at next month's scheduled hearings from several judicial administrative assistants to Maricopa County judges or commissioners. Those employees were interrogated at their homes by sheriff's detectives late last year about their bosses and anything they might know about the contentious court tower project in downtown Phoenix.
The cases before Judge Hoggatt are running on a parallel track with the controversial criminal proceedings against supervisors Wilcox and Stapley.
At a bombshell hearing just last week, Thomas and Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk testified about their vastly different recollections of what led to the prosecutions of the Maricopa County politicos and how those criminal investigations evolved.
Another out-of-town judge, Pima County's John Leonardo, considered arguments from lawyers for Mary Rose Wilcox that Thomas is biased and prejudiced against her and should be disqualified from prosecuting the case. (Judge Leonardo has yet to rule.)
Lawrence Fox's remarkable declaration concludes that "it may be that judicial officers and others [are] engaged in RICO violations and other high crimes and misdemeanors."
But Fox says Thomas and his office are "totally conflicted" from working cases before the same judges that he has accused of felonies (or has intimidated).
"The prosecution of judges looks like the misconduct of a disgruntled litigant [Thomas and his team] before them," he writes. "The decisions by judges in cases in which the prosecutor seeks convictions of criminal defendants appear to be, and may in fact be affected by the threats, intimidation and prosecution by the prosecutor of sitting judges."
Fox concedes that "renegade judges" occasionally do turn up around the nation, susceptible to bribes and other influences.
But he insists that such situations are rare, and that it doesn't appear to him to be what's happening in Maricopa County.
Here, Fox says, "what we have is the heavy hand of the prosecutor, not seeking victories in the courts on the merits, not appealing decisions he thinks are worthy of challenge, but seeking victories through arrests, intimidation, and the prosecution of judges and other court officers. This cannot stand."
8 comments
Where's the Arizona Bar?
Their silence in allowing Thomas to continue to abuse his power, along with attorneys and judges that enable him would seem they are complicit in all this destruction to the Justice system.
It's time to disbar Andrew Thomas for starters!
Mr. Ruben, An outstanding article that has been lost in the shuffle of the tornado that hit Thomas in the past few days. Your title says it all!
Having been persecuted by Thomas and his side kick Arpaio despite the fact the all the evidence was in my favor..I can tell you first hand how oppressive both emotionally and economically it is to fight a case when the County Attorney has unlimited resourses and no consequences to face for wrongly oppressing an individual.The most dangerous criminal is one that carries a badge or can hide behind their office and is not held accountable.after all these years of the horror that Thomas and Arpsio has wrought on this county..will this finally be the las straw that makes all good citizens wake up and remove these guys from office...once the people that are responsible for protecting our rights violate those same rights they become dangerous
This article is outstanding, Mr. Rubin!! The truth shines brilliantly through all the distractions in the Maricopa County legal circus Thomas has thrown his wrecking ball into.
The public needs to be made aware of what preeminent legal-ethics attorney, Lawrence J. Fox had to say. As in the Duke LaCrosse players case, DA Nifong was disbarred and convicted. Thomas should have met the same fate years ago. Lawrence Fox certainly laid it out for the AZ Bar to take action! What more damage has to be done before they step in?
Can you please post a link to his stunning "declaration" in this blog?
I have to wonder if Mr. Fox is aware of the depth of corruption of both Andy Thomas and Joe Arpaio. Mr. Fox wrote eloquently and knowingly about Mr. Thomas based on the information provided.
Just imagine what he would write if he was provided all the information about the MCSO shurf.
Andy Thomas may be corrupt, but he's just a small piece of the corruption in Maricopa County, and it doesn't include the judges or the Maricopa Supervisors.
I found it interesting to read this article late in the same day when the visiting judge said very much the same thing about Andy Thomas. With two learned and knowledgeable practitioners of law having said, thus in agreement, nearly the same words about him, I can't imagine how he might attempt to skew those words or spin guilt back to them.
I can only hope that Andy Thomas really does make good on his plan to resign to run for state attorney general.
It looks like the MCSO shurf isn't going to leave without being indicted and lead out of his office in handcuffs. With Hendy in tow, it should be quite a parade to watch.
I can only hope to be in town so I can be a first hand witness.
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