Mary Rose Wilcox's attorney seeks dismissal of charges
by Yvonne Wingett - Jan. 21, 2010 12:53 PM

A defense attorney for indicted Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox is seeking to have the criminal charges against her tossed, alleging that the grand jury wasn't told of critical information and that, in some instances, were given misleading or false testimony.

In a motion filed in Superior Court Thursday morning, attorney Colin Campbell asked a judge to dismiss the indictment and have the case heard by a new grand jury.


Campbell argued that prosecutors withheld from the jury critical information about the caseand that a Sheriff's detective gave misleading and sometimes false testimony to the panel. That information led the 14-member grand jury to unanimously decide to indict Wilcox.

Wilcox's business organization, restaurant operator Grant Park Enterprises LLC, received three loans between November 2000 and October 2008, varying from $7,500 to $120,000. Two of the loans were paid back and the business has made regular payments on the $120,000 loan.

Prestamos, a division of the non-profit Chicanos Por La Causa, lent the money.

At the same time, in her role as a county supervisor, Wilcox was involved in decisions that gave the group hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide services about HIV/AIDS education and other social programs.

"I have just never seen a grand jury proceeding with as many errors as there are in this grand jury," Campbell told The Republic. "I think you can only conclude there was a rush to get an indictment out for reasons that are not related to the truth."

A Sheriff's official declined immediate comment. A spokesman for the County Attorney's Office declined comment until he could read the motion.

Among the allegations in the motion:

• The grand jury received no instructions on the law governing perjury and false swearing, which account for 16 of the 36 charges in the indictment.

• The indictment was based on false evidence. Wilcox was indicted on a felony charge that alleges she had a conflict of interest, even though she was not present for a Board of Supervisors vote at issue. The grand jury was told that the conflict of interest charges involved votes that occurred when Wilcox had outstanding loans with Prestamos. Halverson testified falsely that Wilcox owed money to the group when she voted on contracts for Chicanos Por La Causa in November 2005 and April 2006. Halverson also testified that Wilcox obtained three loans in 2008 that were not disclosed in her financial disclosure forms from that year. However, Wilcox received one loan that year - a business loan.

• The state gave the jury inaccurate information about which statutes apply to financial disclosure statements. That information suggested that Wilcox's statements must comply with a state statute that did not apply to her position as a local public official.

• The state withheld loan documents and financial disclosure statements from the grand jury that would have allowed it to make its own determination whether statements made by Halverson were accurate.


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