Like we needed more evidence of the insidious culture of corruption that pervades the entire Maricopa County Sheriff' Office: Check out this video from Channel 12 News, as reported on by Joe Dana. According to Dana, the video is of a court hearing last week for jail inmate Antonio Lozano, who was before a judge on charges of fighting with another inmate.
During the hearing, deputies casually walk over to defense attorney Joanne Cuccia's table as she's addressing the judge, and pick up some of her paperwork. One fat MCSO guard waltzes out of the room with the docs, and reportedly makes copies, bringing them back as if it was just another day at work. Cuccia flips out, as well she should under the circumstances. And the judge halts the hearing until the matter can be sorted out at a later date.
Dana talked to veteran defense attorney Mike Black who said he's never seen anything like it. Black surmised that the deputies were under orders to do as they did. He also suggested that several laws might have been broken, from petty theft to felony tampering with evidence.
Amazingly (or not, depending on how you look at it), MCSO flacks backed up these two goons, further bolstering the contention by Black that the deputies had been told to grab the papers and make copies. They said that case law allows them to inspect anything passed between counsel and client for contraband, like drugs. What drugs they would be able to obtain by photocopying sheets of paper? Unless, they were rolling papers.
This is just further proof that we live in a lawless county, where sheriff's deputies can do anything they want without consequence. We might as well be in Burma, for all the good the U.S. Constitution does us here in Maricopa County.
