Money Pit: Andy Thomas’ Death-Penalty-Laden Years as Maricopa County Attorney

Mike Terribile and Treasure Van Dreumel made lots of money defending recently convicted murderer Jeff Martinson on the taxpayer's dime.

Jeff Martinson's indigency didn't stop his attorneys from making enough public money to afford a Bentley and an office building.
pool photo by Darryl Webb/Ahwatukee Foothills News
Jeff Martinson's indigency didn't stop his attorneys from making enough public money to afford a Bentley and an office building.
Andy Thomas' tough-on-crime posture was hugely expensive for taxpayers, plus ineffective.
Social Eye Media
Andy Thomas' tough-on-crime posture was hugely expensive for taxpayers, plus ineffective.

The actual sum is almost $1 million per attorney over the past 28 months for work in the tragic and highly controversial case.

New Times wrote about State of Arizona vs. Martinson in last week's issue. Titled "Eating Jeff," the story revealed serious allegations of juror misconduct that may win Martinson a new trial, sooner than later.

The jury convicted the Ahwatukee man of first-degree felony murder and child abuse in the August 2004 apparent drug overdose death of his son Josh, who was 5.

But the panel couldn't decide whether to impose death or life.

Superior Court Judge Sally Duncan declared the jury hopelessly hung (two panelists voted for death). A retrial on the sentencing phase will be held later — that is, if Duncan doesn't order an entirely new trial because of pending legal issues.

Terribile and Van Dreumel became Jeff Martinson's legal team in late 2009, more than five years after little Josh died.

That was long after what Judge Duncan called "a three-ring circus" of a case entered the criminal justice system. The judge referred to the incessant trial delays and 11 prior defense attorneys (mostly from Maricopa County's public agencies) who had come and gone for a variety of reasons.

Until recently, the money deal Terribile struck with county judicial officials was more controversial in courthouse circles than the Martinson case itself.

The veteran Phoenix attorney agreed to lead the Martinson defense at a trial within 18 months, but he wouldn't settle for less than $300 an hour. That was far more than the $125 an hour private attorneys are paid as "first chairs" (lead lawyers) in county death-penalty cases.

Van Dreumel, another experienced capital defense attorney, signed on for $250 an hour as Terribile's "second chair," almost three times the $90 an hour that the county usually pays.

The grumbling inside the gabby criminal-defense community began as soon as word of the unique Martinson deal got around (which took all of about a day).

Several attorneys contacted New Times with titillating tips of a Bentley and a newly purchased office building financed by taxpayers for Terribile and Van Dreumel in Martinson.

More than one source referred to Van Dreumel's "Martinson-mobile," the Bentley that she was said to have purchased with the substantial sums collected while representing the broke Mr. Martinson.

"Nice work if you can get it," sniffed one of Van Dreumel's peers, who wouldn't be quoted by name.

New Times first approached the Martinson case with that money angle in mind, though the story morphed into the juror-misconduct tale.

But sure enough, public records reveal that Arizona vs. Martinson cost county taxpayers $3 million and counting, including the $2 million in attorney fees.

And, yes, a limited-liability corporation with Terribile listed as a director did buy a beautiful old building in downtown Phoenix last June.

As for the Bentley, Van Dreumel confirms that she purchased a used model since going to work as the number-two attorney on the murder case.

But here's the rub, and it's an important one:

Both attorneys made a legit deal with judges desperate to find someone who finally would get the Martinson case to trial after a maddening series of delays.

Judge Timothy Ryan, then the county's assistant presiding criminal judge, "hired" Terribile and Van Dreumel within days after testily allowing two lawyers from the Public Defender's Office (who apparently did nothing to advance the case for more than a year) to resign.

This all happened during the peak of then-Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas' onslaught against what Thomas decried were "corrupt" judges who allegedly coddled accused violent criminals and their slimy, stalling, victim-hating defense attorneys.

Thomas' office issued a position paper about the state of the death penalty in Maricopa County, predictably blasting the judiciary and defense bar.

It came on the heels of an American Bar Association study concluding that prosecutors, including those in Arizona, use inconsistent standards to seek the death penalty and that most states severely underfund attorneys who represent poor people in death-penalty cases.

One of the Thomas camp's prime targets was Ryan, a respected former murder prosecutor who had specialized in crimes against children.

A Thomas henchman accused Ryan in one court filing of showing "a persistent pattern of conduct that indicates bias and prejudice" against the County Attorney's Office. The henchman futilely demanded Ryan's removal from all future criminal cases.

One of Ryan's most critical and thankless jobs at the time was trying to keep death-penalty cases moving forward, either toward trial or to a plea bargain.

Even under the best of circumstances — which these decidedly were not — death-penalty cases are painstakingly difficult to process through Maricopa County's justice system in any time frame that could be called "reasonable."

For any number of reasons — most of them perfectly sound — usually it takes at least two years (but surely not seven, as in Martinson) from arrest to capital trial.

But Judge Ryan was none too kind to Martinson's deputy public defenders in a memo filed in October 2009, shortly before he endorsed Terribile and Van Dreumel's appointments to the case.

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14 comments
Truth in Media...
Truth in Media...

Come on!!! Mr. Rubin are you laying all this on the DEFENSE attorneys in Martinson? Why didn't you detail, for comparison and fairness, what the county paid and continues to pay for Thomas' and Arpaio's MISDEEDS in OFFICE?!?!?!? VanDreumel and Terribile didn't seek out the Martinson case - they were asked to take it. And what you also failed to print is the fact that BOTH these attorneys had lucrative practices before Martinson. One of the conditions of taking Martinson was that they would basically have to forego any other work. And given that what they got paid is LESS than what the county pays for Thomas and co and Arpiao's attorneys, let alone the fact that their lawyers aren't shutting down all other business to take these cases, your story smacks on bias. It appears your story is a hachet job on a convenient target - defense attorneys. I guess seeking justice in a death case does have a cost ceiling.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Are you reading-impaired, or just stupid. New Times has reported incessently about what the county has paid for Thomas and Arpaio's bullshit! This doesn't mean it can't also report that a lawyer makes so much money off the public that she can buy a fucking Bentley, and her partner a God-damn office building! Get your fucking head our of your dumb ass.

Truth in Media
Truth in Media

Get your fucking head out of your own ass dog fucker. What Was asked was a side. Y side. Omparison in THIS story you stupid shit for brains idiot. And you got a problem. Ecause lawyers make money doing what is require of them in defending a man accused of such a serious charge and facing the ultimate punishment? Get. Sck in your run down crackhead hood trailer loser and quit the jealousy over other folks' success. You stupid fuck.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Man, you have lost it! Make a lot of assumptions, do you? Hope you find more facts to work with in your law practice. Sheesh, why don't you put your name on your rantings? Well, because nobody would ever retain a hothead, lamebrain like you again. Oh, and I saw everything involved in this. That's why I'm laughing at you, as are most of the lawyers in town. Heh, you should zip up that stupid trap of yours. Somebody might figure out that you're a principal in the case. Just saying...

Truth in Media
Truth in Media

HaHAHa trust me dip-shit - last thing you want is me near you on a bar stool (which is probably exactly where you spend your unemployed ass). You're an idiot. Funny how losers like you "hate" lawyers,,,that is until you NEED a lawyer (sorry your ex had a better lawyer and she and her new beau cleaned you out...) And when losers like you need a lawyer, you want the BEST, Nastiest, Hard fighting lawyer you can afford or get appointed (Luckily Mr.Martinson got just that). So you see, loser, you're fool and a joke. As for Mr. Rubin's story ending big paydays, not likely dumbs - the "going standard rate" is $125.00 an hour. Figure in the fact that most capital cases take over two years to prepare for trial, and, well, even with your welfare income, you should be able to do that math. As for your bullshit claim that the Martinson case was not "worth" a million "bucks", enlighten us all how you come to that conclusion... have you seen the billings, the work, the trial, the total hours involved? ANYTHING to justify your claim? Nope - you're just another loser with a big mouth spouting off about shit you know nothing about. Sorry Law School was just a far-away pipe dream for you and the bar stool works out better for you. As for the public defender's office, aren't you forgetting that in addition to the 100K income, there's all those holidays, med and dental insurance, life insurance, retirement, law school loan repayment, etc. HAHAHA not a bad gig rather, right Loser!!! Way to embarrass yourself AGAIN. Inclosing, let me reiterate (that means say again...) - sorry your ex and her beau had a better lawyer and left you broke which is the REAL reason you hate lawyers.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Right-wing loser? Hardly. I voted for Obama, but he's not liberal enough for me. Heh, you're just making a bigger fool of yourself with every post, lawyer fucktard. Doubt you'd be talking so tough if we were sitting next to each other on a bar stool. I smell a pussy. Oh, I see the issues just fine. Love it the way you look down on the very people who employ you, the folks you "use" as a means to suck money out of taxpayers (among other things you suck stuff from). As if making minimum wage is a sin, and only "smart" guys like you lawyers deserve to make bank. Your hatred of the poor you represent is classic! Oh, I know, nobody's intelligent enough to know what you mouthpieces go through, having to get your expensive duits dirtied up defending "low-lifes." Boo, hoo. Face it, everytody hates you blood-sucking scum. Nobody's asking you defense-lawyer creeps to work for free, but there's no way you deserve a million bucks apiece on a case like Martinson, and you fucking know it! Oh yeah, it was a used Bentley. It was an office building in foreclosure. Two of your earlier clueless points. I'm afraid, thanks to Rubin, your big paydays may be coming to a close, which is what you're so burned-up insane about, right. The Bentley train is getting derailed. Maybe you'll have to go to work in the public defender's office, and make just $100,000 a year. How sad for you.

Truth in Media
Truth in Media

Ahh, Dog Fucker, note how you're the only one here arguing against lawyers and especially lawyers making good money - on the public dime. As for coherent posts, read your own posts, dog fucker, you make no sense at all other than to reveal that you're nothing more than a myopic, homunculus little twit of a "man" who is also homophobic. So, let's see, what lawyers are on the public dime -- Prosecutors, Government agency counsel, etc. Why are you not complaining about what Thomas', Aubuchon, Alexander and Arpaio's lawyers are getting paid? Why are you not complaining about the huge costs of death penalty cases especially when ALL studies show it to be completely worthless in crime prevention and deterrence?

You see Dog Fucker, you can't see the REAL issues involved in this story, because you are so blinded by your own minimum wage salary (oh, I know, you'll post back how "rich" you are, own your own company, etc.... sure ya do, DF, suuuuure ya do) that you have to attack the least important aspect of this story - how good lawyers, who are doing a good job, privately spend their own earned income...which isn't ANY OF OUR BUSINESS (Sad Mr. Rubin got side-tracked on this point, but got to sell stories lest he don't get paid...)

Sorry your pathetic life is so bad you have to be so jealous of these two lawyers who (1) got asked to take the case, (2) took it with the understanding they would forego other work, (3) took it at an AGREED UPON contractual price, (4) did, and are doing, what real lawyers do - fight for their client, (5) and have done a great job of it so far. It's only homophobic little right-wing losers like you that would expect these lawyers to sacrifice their own lives for free to defend a man accused of murder and facing the death penalty. So, take your loser ass, go find that dog you like to "bite" and saddle up to other homophobic ass clowns like yourself, and let real people debate what the real issue is in this story.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Lamebrain lawyer asshole, it's probably worthless to respond to you. Yo have probably died from a stroke. You're so upset that you can't even write a coherent thought. Um, you ever heard the one with the punchline: it's a good start? Sorry, but lawyers like you don't deserve to get rich on the public dime. Go fuck yourself! And keep up the good work, New Times. As usual, you the stuck pigs are squealing like little faggots.

teknik1200
teknik1200

oh wow, time to get back on those meds, bro.

ExpertShot
ExpertShot

Dude - it was a used Bentley and the office building was a wreck and under foreclosure - I guess you didn't get the whole point of the story - the death penalty SUCKS!!!

Paul Rubin
Paul Rubin

My advice to both of you nitwits is to stop reading new times story's..

 
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