Maricopa County Mum on Taxpayer-Funded Lawsuit Settlements by County Officials; With UPDATE

Several former and current Maricopa County officials received settlements in their lawsuits against Maricopa County last night -- but the county isn't giving up the amounts. No news release for this one -- and it's not hard to understand why. The issue of payoffs is sensitive because public money will fund...

By Ray Stern

April 10, 2012

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Several former and current Maricopa County officials received settlements in their lawsuits against Maricopa County last night -- but the county isn't giving up the amounts.

No news release for this one -- and it's not hard to understand why. The issue of payoffs is sensitive because public money will fund the settlements.

Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, retired Superior Court Judge Barbara Mundell and others reportedly received settlements, but county spokeswoman Cari Gerchick had no news for us this morning on last night's actions. She says she may be able to get back to us in a couple of hours.

Meanwhile, County Manager David Smith is telling members of the media that he has info yet.

UPDATE: Maricopa County releases info on recent settlements.

Back to original post:

Wilcox, Mundell and other county officials filed their lawsuits because of the very actions that got Andrew Thomas disbarred this morning. Their arguments that they were wrongfully prosecuted on bogus crimes are warranted, of course.

But county leaders aren't being very transparent on an issue in which they know the public's highly interested.

We'll update this one when we learn more.

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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.