New defamation lawsuit against Sheriff Arpaio denied
by JJ Hensley - Jul. 8, 2008 12:26 PM
The Arizona Republic
Dan Saban has been dealt a blow Tuesday in his quest to have his defamation lawsuit against nemesis Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and others retried. He vowed to press on, part of an effort to have his name cleared.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert C. Houser denied Saban's motion to request a new trial in a ruling issued Tuesday morning.

The trial is residual mud from the last time Saban faced Arpaio, in a 2004 election.

Saban filed suit after ABC Channel 15 ran a story in April 2004 in which Saban's adoptive mother, Ruby Norman, alleged Saban raped her 30 years earlier.

Saban has denied the allegation, saying it was Norman who molested him instead, and witnesses in the salacious defamation trial cast doubt on Norman's veracity.

Saban claimed Arpaio's chief deputy, Dave Hendershott, leaked the story to a TV reporter in an effort to discredit Arpaio's political opponent.

The crux of Saban's request for a new trial hinged on an assertion that the judge had given jurors improper instructions at the end of the first trial, which ended with a victory for Arpaio in September.

"At the end of the day, it's an interesting case but I think ultimately they really had no case and I think it was filed for political purposes," said Dennis Wilenchik, an attorney representing the Sheriff's Office. "In my judgment it was more of a case brought for some publicity on his part."

Saban's supporters make the same kind of claim against Arpaio: That the sheriff's right-hand man, Hendershott, leaked the story to taint Saban's run against Arpaio in 2004.

They're prepared for more of the same as Saban tries to unseat Arpaio again this fall.

"Arpaio and his bunch seem to go after his political enemies more than they go after criminals," said Joel Robbins, Saban's attorney. "He's innocent of any kind of wrongdoing and the county has just flat been dirty toward him for the entire race. He had enough guts to stand up and take it where a lot of people would say, 'I don't have the strength'."

http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/ ... 0N.html