Arizona AG Tom Horne's Sex Scandal Scuttles Gubernatorial Bid

"Everyone knew [Chenal] was his girlfriend," another DOE source said.

Indeed, the events that transpired the day of Horne's March hit-and-run may have been standard for the pair, minus the fender bender and FBI agents.

Stephen Lemons

Democrat Felecia Rotellini lost to Horne in the 2010 general election for Arizona attorney general, but thanks to Horne's paranoia, she now has enough political ammo to decimate Horne, should they both end up on the ballot for AG in 2014.

Patrick Faricy

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• Tom Horne
• Thomas Chenal
• Martha Horne
• Election Campaigns
• World Politics

Each left work separately, Horne in his gold Jaguar, Chenal in a black VW Passat borrowed from a co-worker.

They met in a nearby parking lot, leaving Horne's car behind with him, wearing the baseball cap and taking the wheel of the Passat. A quick stop for takeout from Pita Jungle, then over to Chenal's digs, outside of which the accident transpired.

The FBI agents following Horne noted that after he backed into the other vehicle, neither he nor Chenal got out to inspect the damage. Chenal later told the Passat's owner, Linnea Heap, that she had hit a parked car, but there was no damage to the other vehicle.

Such duplicity could be seen as an attempt to avoid embarrassing questions as to why Horne was in Heap's car with Chenal in a parking structure next to Chenal's apartment.

When I inquired in 2011 about the nature of their relationship, Horne's flack, Rezzonico, replied that it was purely a professional one between a "former law partner and valued employee."

Recently, I e-mailed Horne, Chenal, and Rezzonico, asking if Horne and Chenal have ever had a sexual relationship. Rezzonico got back to me with a file of cases Chenal has worked while at the AG's Office, but my question remains unanswered.

Horne, 67, has been married for 40 years to wife Martha, whom everyone calls "Marty." They have four adult children.

Chenal, 58, has three children with her ex and has not remarried.

A pale, thin brunette, Chenal was born in Cuba. It's said that her family was forced to flee the communist regime there after the revolution.

Like Horne, who was born in Canada, Chenal is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Martha Horne and Chenal know each other. During the 2010 campaign, they were seen mingling with Horne loyalists at Rezzonico's house, awaiting returns from Horne's GOP primary battle, in which Horne faced former County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

Horne ultimately bested the now-disbarred Thomas by 899 votes.

The entire Horne posse (Chenal and Mrs. Horne included) were together again at the Hyatt in downtown Phoenix on the night of Horne's general election win over Rotellini.

"Marty looks the other way," a DOE staffer explained to me about Horne's infidelity. "I think it's easier for her to pretend it doesn't exist than to acknowledge it."

Following his election, Horne was determined to take Chenal with him to the AG's Office, and not just as some aging office flower.

The AG-elect testified during Chenal's late-2010 Bar reinstatement hearing. Horne promised the hearing officer that he would hire Chenal as an assistant attorney general if she were re-admitted.

When the Bar counsel countered that supervisors at the AG's Office would be "very reticent" to hire someone with Chenal's checkered past, Horne came to her defense.

"The supervisors that I would hire would have no reticence to hire Ms. Chenal," he averred.Chenal was reinstated April 19, 2011, with two years' probation and the requirement that she continue to see a psychiatrist and therapist.

But Chenal already was at the AG's Office, having been hired in early January 2011 as a "strategic planning director" at an annual salary of more than $80,000.

Her move up the ladder to assistant attorney general was a done deal.

Days before the Arizona Supreme Court was to issue an opinion on her Bar status, Chenal excitedly e-mailed her new boss, section chief Ted Campagnolo, anticipating her move.

"Ted," she wrote. "The Supreme Court will review my matter this Tuesday so, god willing, I will be admitted this Tuesday!!! May I then move in next Wednesday? . . . Tom mentioned to let him know what, if anything he can do to help this happens, as we all know I need training!"

Chenal had been doing paralegal work for Campagnolo, senior litigation counsel with the fraud and special prosecutions section of the AG's criminal division, headed by former Superior Court Judge Jim Keppel.

Shortly after Chenal was re-admitted, Campagnolo assigned her to be criminal division prosecutor in charge of foreign extraditions.

"Thanks again for assigning me to be the 'foreign prosecutor' for the AGO," Chenal wrote Campagnolo. "I told Tom Horne you assigned me . . . he was very pleased."

According to her e-mails, Chenal handled her first grand jury case on May 23, 2011. She was coached in advance by Assistant AG Steve Duplissis.

"Steve will be sitting by me," she e-mailed Campagnolo. "Tom Horne will also be there to meet the grand jury and then watch me."

Chenal's post in the criminal division is a big deal. In a 2011 memorandum, office Security Chief Andy Rubalcava wrote that Chenal had "become the face of [Horne's office] in pursuit of criminals [who] have committed major felony crimes in Arizona and have fled the country."

As a result, Chenal's salary was bumped up to $108,000 a year.

Is it proper for a prominent politician to hire his mistress at a taxpayer-funded six-figure salary?

There is nothing in state personnel rules published on the Arizona Human Resources website that explicitly forbids such a hire.