Maricopa defense lawyers fight back
Via Gamso: Maricopa county defense lawyers are filing motions asking that County Attorney Andy Thomas' office be disqualified from prosecuting cases - after filing criminal charges against one judge and bringing a RICO action against others, can the courts operate impartially under this type of threat?
Last week, prosecutors working for Thomas charged the county's presiding criminal court judge, Gary Donahoe, with three felonies -- including bribery -- with no evidence other than that they disagreed with his rulings. Deputies working for Thomas' ally, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, also visited the staff of local judges in a clear attempt to intimidate. And Thomas' office filed a badly written RICO lawsuit alleging the judges are part of a (seriously now) "criminal enterprise."Some defense attorneys believe that makes for a huge conflict of interest if those judges are presiding over cases brought by Thomas' office. (Will they worry that if they rule against Thomas, they'll be charged criminally, too? Will they placate the crazy county attorney just to stay out of the limelight? The possibilities do exist...)
So motions have now been filed in a number of cases, asking the judges involved to disqualify the County Attorney's Office from prosecution.
Rick Horowitz at Probable Cause is talking about how police states are born - they do not spring into existence fully formed, but they develop slowly, gradually. The reason that Maricopa County and Sheriff Arpaio are so frightening (and fascinating) is because we are watching "another step in the transformation from the rule of law to the rule of man," and, so as not to be an utter pessimist about it, we are holding our breath while we watch to see if Maricopa County's lawyers and courts can take back and hold the rule of law.
