Lawyer Named by Thomas and Arpaio as Racketeer Appointed to Character Committee by AZ Supreme Court

To Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio, local lawyer Edward Novak is a scoundrel -- one of several conspirators in a federal racketeering lawsuit the county lawmen filed on December 1. Edward Novak To the state Supreme Court, Ed Novak is a respected master of his profession who should spend...

By Ray Stern

December 22, 2009

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To Andrew Thomas and Joe Arpaio, local lawyer Edward Novak is a scoundrel -- one of several conspirators in a federal racketeering lawsuit the county lawmen filed on December 1.

Edward Novak

To the state Supreme Court, Ed Novak is a respected master of his profession who should spend the next seven years helping decide who's fit to practice law in Arizona.

Novak's law firm, Polsinelli Shughart (which also employs Tom Irvine, another of the sheriff and county attorney's alleged conspirators), put out a news release today that announces Novak's appointment to the Supreme Court's Committee on Character and Fitness. The nine-member committee provides the final word on who gets to be a lawyer in the state.

Does this mean Arizona's top justices are part of the conspiracy?

Highly doubtful.

The sheriff and county attorney haven't made a convincing case against Novak; their point of view must be taken with a huge grain of salt.

There isn't much irony in Novak being named to this committee if the only two people in the state who think he's a bad guy are Thomas and Arpaio.

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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.