Maricopa County Attorney Will Have to Take Hot Seat
Court Orders Maricopa County Attorney to Appear in Court to Justify Missing Subpeonas issued in media suppression case.
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 16, 2007 10:03 AM
A judge has ordered that the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office appear at a hearing Nov. 26 regarding its investigation into the New Times.
In a ruling issued Friday, Judge Ana Baca noted that Maricopa County Attorney’s Office grand jury file did not contain the proper paperwork - including the original grand jury subpoenas, the original affidavits of service and written notations showing the date that any presentations about subpoenas were made to the grand jury.
The subpoenas, which were issued to the New Times, demanded information from reporters and information about all the readers of the publication since Jan. 1, 2004, including their Internet domain names and browsers and what other Web sites they visited before reading New Times.
The subpoenas, which were issued to the New Times, demanded information from reporters and information about all the readers of the publication since Jan. 1, 2004, including their Internet domain names and browsers and what other Web sites they visited before reading New Times.
The editors of the New Times wrote about the grand jury subpoenas and were later arrested for revealing the secret proceedings. The arrests came at the request of the office of the special prosecutor handling the case.
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Republican, has since fired the special prosecutor, Dennis Wilenchik, and dropped charges against the New Times editors.
For further information, click on this link the the Phoenix New Times. Predictably they are a bit upset.
There is also an informative story in the Phoenix Examiner that speculates that the County Attorney and Sheriff Joe Arpaio may have illegally used the secret grand jury process.