More charges were planned for Maricopa officials

Documents show that Maricopa County prosecutors had planned a more sweeping indictment against many county officials, including two supervisors and two judges, than the charges that were eventually filed.

The Arizona Republic obtained a draft indictment by then-county attorney Andrew Thomas and a deputy county attorney while reviewing hundreds of documents requested under the state’s public records law.

The Republic said the draft indictment against the supervisors, judges, county administrators, and their attorneys was undated, but it appeared to be a precursor to charges filed in December and later dismissed against former presiding Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe.

It also appeared to predate a federal civil-racketeering lawsuit that Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio lodged days earlier against the same defendants, largely over an investigation into the construction of a criminal-court tower in downtown Phoenix.

The incomplete indictment appeared to have been written before investigators had evidence to back up the proposed charges. It sought criminal counts of misappropriation of public money, obstructing criminal investigations, hindering prosecution, bribery of a public official and participating in a criminal syndicate.

The only detailed accusations were related to the county’s hiring of a firm to sweep its offices for illegal listening devices. But no charges were ever filed regarding the sweep, although sheriff’s officials are investigating.

Preliminary charges against Donahoe were filed by Thomas’ office, but the judge was never indicted. That set off the appearance that Donahoe was being targeted for ruling against the sheriff and county attorney in the court-tower investigation and other cases.

Charges against Donahoe were later dropped.

Wade Swanson, director and general counsel for the county’s Office of General Litigation Services, said the sheriff’s office was in violation of the law to release grand jury matters such as the draft indictment.

“They are creating more legal exposure for Maricopa County,” he said. “They’re failed prosecutions. They all appear to be undertaken for no other reason than politics.”

Barnett Lotstein, a former Special Assistant County Attorney and spokesman for Thomas, said that no inferences of guilt or innocence should be drawn from the draft.