Thomas reaffirms bold agenda
Top attorney confident despite fiscal crunch
by Michael Kiefer - Dec. 1, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

If Barack Obama was swept into the White House with the promise of effecting change, Andrew Thomas was re-elected as Maricopa County attorney on a guarantee of more of the same.

He may have to do it with less money, though. Focusing on immigration enforcement - a Thomas priority that critics insist is a federal jurisdiction - while prosecuting the more than 40,000 felony charges filed each year may take prayer and planning.

"I think the voters recognize that I fulfilled my promises to fight crime and illegal immigration, and they have confidence that I will continue to do so," he said recently.
When asked about cuts, Thomas at first denied through a spokesman that he had to make any - until reminded that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors asked all county offices to cut up to 20 percent.

That means more than just Thomas' budget, because every case filed sends ripples into the criminal-justice system. Under the state and federal constitutions, every defendant is entitled to an attorney, often at public expense, not to mention the cost of taking the cases through the court.

"There is no decision that any part of the criminal-justice system can make in a vacuum," said Timothy Ryan, associate presiding criminal judge at Maricopa County Superior Court. "Whoever came into the County Attorney's Office was going to have to face the challenge of budget shortfalls and finite resources."

Ryan said nearly 1,000 "complex cases" are backlogged, each of which will take two weeks to six months of trial time. End to end, they could take 70 to 200 years to try. Even if the criminal court's 24 judges put aside the other 40,000 cases filed each year and tried only the complex cases, it would still take three to eight years to try them all.

While prosecutors can boast about being tough on crime, they may have to choose more carefully the cases they can take to trial based on available money.


The new itinerary

In October, as the election loomed, Thomas set an itinerary for his next four years. He announced that he would step up prosecutions of financial fraud, an area usually prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.

It was no coincidence, because Thomas and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio are investigating Attorney General Terry Goddard for his handling of a case involving former state Treasurer David Petersen.

No charges have been filed.

Critics have said the allegation is baseless and an attempt to make it more difficult for Goddard to run successfully for governor against Thomas should either decide to become a candidate in 2010.

Since the election, Thomas said he has assigned a senior prosecutor the task of culling cases and planning an approach to prosecuting cases of financial fraud.

As expected, he also announced that he would step up his anti-illegal-immigration efforts.

Thomas said he has met with state Rep. Russell Pearce about crafting laws that would allow Thomas to prosecute undocumented immigrants as trespassers, prevent "sanctuary" communities and grant broader subpoena powers under the employer-sanctions law.

With the likely departure of Gov. Janet Napolitano and the ascendance of Republican Jan Brewer to the office, Thomas says he thinks such legislation will pass more easily.

Arpaio has vowed to continue as Thomas' partner in immigration enforcement as well as "corruption" investigations, such as the one targeting Goddard.

"Stay tuned," Arpaio said. "We're going to have some exciting days ahead."

And that is what their opponents worry about.

"I think that the election will embolden Andrew Thomas to continue to use imprudent policies and to expand his prosecution of immigration far beyond anything legal," defense attorney Robert McWhirter said.

Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton wonders if the federal government will take a new look at immigration policies.

"I don't think there's any doubt that the next Department of Justice will have a more aggressive position as it relates to civil-rights issues, and I think that should be a concern for Sheriff Arpaio and Andy Thomas," Charlton said.

If, as expected, Napolitano becomes secretary of Homeland Security, she may weigh in on that issue, too.


The legal community

Thomas will also have to deal with the bruises he inflicted on the local legal community.

Despite some publicized attacks on the bench, including an attempt to have Ryan disqualified in any cases involving the County Attorney's Office, which is virtually all of them, Thomas denied bad blood between his office and the Superior Court.

"We have excellent relationships with the vast majority of judges," Thomas said. "There are a few of them who are politicized and left wing and out to undermine public votes on things such as no bail for illegal immigrants. And with those judges, I must disagree because I promised the voters I would work to stop illegal immigration.

"So to the extent that those types of issues arise in the future, I will continue to do my duty."

Nonetheless, he remains under investigation by the State Bar of Arizona for questions related to the Ryan incident and to the arrest of two New Times executives in fall 2007.

During the campaign, Thomas criticized defense attorneys, accusing them of coddling criminals and implying that they were professionally unethical.

"Overall, they (defense attorneys) hated my crackdown on plea bargaining, and they did everything they could, as was their right as citizens, to defeat my re-election because they wanted those policies to go away," he said.

That made veteran defense attorney Mike Terribile laugh.

"If I'm only considering myself, my economic interest, Thomas is like a work program for me because of his plea policy and his charging policies," Terribile said. "When he says plead to the lead, I know I've got a better chance of going to trial and winning, and my fee's going up. I do go to trial, and I make more money. Thank you, Andrew Thomas."

www.azcentral.com