Don Stapley Case: Andrew Thomas Offers Up "Experts" Who Say Stapley Judge is Biased

If you don't believe Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas when he says the judge appointed to hear the Don Stapley criminal case is biased, maybe you'll believe the experts he rounded up. Thomas submitted affidavits to the county Superior Court today by the experts, consisting of two judges, an attorney...

By Ray Stern

December 18, 2008

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18478561",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "16759093",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759092",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "17980324",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "16759094",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 24
        }
      ]

If you don't believe Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas when he says the judge appointed to hear the Don Stapley criminal case is biased, maybe you'll believe the experts he rounded up.

Thomas submitted affidavits to the county Superior Court today by the experts, consisting of two judges, an attorney and a law professor.

It's the latest effort by Thomas to get retired Judge Kenneth Fields, who openly supported Thomas' political opponent this election season, kicked off the Stapley case. Yesterday, as covered in this blog, the county attorney's office announced that a court employee had come forward to say she had heard Fields' bias against Thomas first-hand.

The county attorney has certainly been making a full-court press to change the judge, and has all but called the court's Presiding Judge, Barbarba Rodriguez Mundell, corrupt.

In Thomas' news release today, Thomas once again notes that Mundell worked with Stapley to get an expensive new court building built, and that she departed from normal procedures when she assigned Fields to the case.

Those are fightin' words. -- Ray Stern

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Phoenix New Times has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.

Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.