Mon 5 Oct 2009
Special prosecutors appointed to handle new charges against Supervisor Stapley
Posted by Press Release under County Government , Crime and Punishment[21] Comments
County Attorney Andrew Thomas has appointed special prosecutors to work with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office on the new case involving Supervisor Donald Stapley and two other ongoing investigations.
Joseph diGenova
The team is headed by Joseph diGenova, who was United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1983 to 1988. During that time he conducted an investigation of corruption in the D.C. government, which led to the conviction of two deputy mayors, and supervised the prosecution of attempted presidential assassin John W. Hinckley. In 1997, he was named Special Counsel by the U.S. House of Representatives to probe the election of Ron Carey as President of the Teamsters. In 1992, diGenova served as Independent Counsel in the Clinton Passport File investigation.
Victoria Toensing
Also serving as special prosecutor is Victoria Toensing. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Justice Department, Toensing established Justice’s Terrorism Unit. She also served as Chief Counsel for Senator Barry Goldwater, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, from 1981 to 1984. Both diGenova and Toensing are currently in Washington , D.C.
Local attorney David Eisenberg is the third member of the team. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Arizona from 1995 to 2005. In 1994 Eisenberg served as an independent counsel in an investigation of the U.S. Office of Housing and Urban Development.
October 5th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Out of state D.C. attorney diGenova will be charging $295/hr unless the case goes to trial. That is less than the $300/hr Democrat Party attorney Tom Irvine charges the Board of Supervisors to represent them on things like sitting in construction meetings for the Taj Mahal court tower. No wonder the Supervisors are in so much trouble for wasteful spending – their own local attorney charges more than a bigtime DC lawyer.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Where is the outrage for the waste in money? Where is the TEA party for this crap?
This guy will make $1,500 just for stepping on a the airplane. A ticket you and I will pay for too by the way!!
There is a reason no other Attorneys in the state would pick it up and we don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands to find out why.
The bonus is Andy T just flushe his AG chances down the drain.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Roger/Paul Bentz from High Ground:
Every time you post a comment in defense of Stapley it is painfully obvious that you are defending him because he steers pricey government infrastructure contracts to High Ground’s clients (proudly listed on your website here – http://www.azhighground.com/?page_id=25, with the exception of Associated General Contractors which mysteriously disappeared off the site after people kept pointing out the connection). The Supervisors can do no wrong to you, including the hiring of an overpriced local lawyer as their main counsel who used to be the attorney for the Democrat Party. Aren’t you a Republican?
Why don’t you go back to your Fix Arizona sham blog and post there, or revive the AZ Report, which actually wasn’t that bad? You do better when you stick to political satire.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
DC lawyers? Are you serious? There isn’t a single attorney in the State of Arizona willing or able to take this case? I find that hard to believe.
October 5th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
considering how high-profile this case has gotten, and the players involved, and how they keep accusing each other of conflicts with their lawyers, am not surprised they went out of state to find someone to handle it….am just glad as a taxpayer they found someone who charges less than high-priced attorneys in town
October 5th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Anonymous are you serious? I must have missed the satire because you couldn’t possibly be serious.
To the genius above. I don’t know why you have to defer all my comments to someone else instead of me but I would really love a response to why we should be paying hundreds of thousnds of dollars when there are plenty of qualified attorneys in Arizona. By the way, clicked on the link and saw right smack dab on there the General Contractors. Again you’ve shown your genius.
October 5th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Wow you guys added Associated General Contractors back to the list? Guess you think the buzz has died down eh? I guarantee you it hasn’t, and as long as Coughlin is behind a tax increase to funnel government contracts to his clients, which include Associated General Contractors who were part of the push-poll about tax hikes, it will continue to be fodder in the blogs.
October 5th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Nice to see our good friend Paul, who still won’t meet me for a beer, continues in his support of losers. Stapley can’t help you once he is out of office and that will be soon. You cry at the rates, which are below Irvins, but don’t mind the $347 million for the Taj? You would have cried about ANY Arizona Attorney. I can hear you now “Conflict, Conflict!!!” Very transparent, don’t you think?
Continue to support criminal and tax increases and you will be out of work.
The Sheriff did the right thing by bring in someone untouched by AZ politics. Another great call Joe. Keep up the good work.
October 5th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Sorry Billbo, this was the County Attorney’s call. Great post otherwise. Thomas is keeping his promise (as usual) and picked someone completely independent. Fantastic job! The libs will still find a way to whine.
Stapley should step down and cop a plea. Save the taxpayers some money. But that’s not his style. He has never been afraid to spend our money.
October 5th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Hi Roger,
I want to know why it is that despite the strong evidence Stapely is not honest, you work so diligently to defend him/knock those who are trying to expose his criminality/change the subject…
Could you tell us what you get out of all this? I think many of us would like to know.
Common sense tells me if we would be using an Arizona special prosecutor, there is always the possibility of some tenuous tie between him/her and the illustrious Mr. Stapely, and/or friends. That liklihood is diminished to the vanishing point by hiring someone from far away.
Tell me, please, if it can really be so that Don Stapely is an honest man. Convince me, and my husband will hire you AND Stapely to sell the Brooklyn Bridge for a three way split of the proceeds.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Alicia I’ve never said one thing about Stapley. Frankly I could care two sh@ts about him. I simply want to know why we insist on wasting thousand and thousands of dollars. Explain to me Alicia why this is the only white collar crime that anyone can remember where a prosecutor didn’t take it to a grand jury first. Explain to me Alicia why not one prosecutor decided to show up when Stapley was charged. Explain to me Alicia why NO ONE in this state can handle prosecuting Stapley.
WHY DO I HAVE TO PAY $1,500 FOR A PROSECUTOR TO FLY TO ARIZONA ALICIA??
October 5th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Is there really not a prosecutor in this state who could not handle this case? Thomas had to go out a find a couple who are constantly on the cable shows to prosecute this?
October 5th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Stapley had all charges dropped against him in the first case and no prosecutor has filed charges in the second. That is plenty enough for me.
Add in the shenanigans of Joe charging him before going to a prosecutor and charging him for violations that don’t exist that is the cherry on top.
Frankly yall are right- where is the conservative outrage for all the waste that is going on here.
October 6th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Obviously, the county attorney office doesn’t believe in the ‘shop local’ motto…
October 6th, 2009 at 10:19 am
The Supervisors’ attorney Tom Irvine charges $340/hr, not $300. Am waiting for the outrage from Roger over this?
There are plenty of prosecutors in-state who could be hired to handle this case. Unfortunately, most of them are allied with either Stapley or Thomas and Arpaio. They also would charge just as much.
I don’t see how you get around bringing in prosecutors from out of state. This has been one of the most publicized, contentious political prosecutions. Stapley has hired the most expensive attorneys in town to defend him. (I think he’s hired Jennings Strauss, one of the biggest most expensive law firms in town that charge more than $300/hr for their top attorneys) The courts are biased towards Stapley, since he’s promised them a Taj Mundell $340 million new court tower with penthouse offices. Makes sense for Thomas to bring in attorneys from out of state – especially considering their rates are reasonable. I’ve seen out of state attorneys charge $600/hr.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:42 am
Ron: Perhaps Andy Thomas determined (correctly) that the local shysters are part and parcel of the B.O.S./Scottsdale City Council axis (Hi Tom!) and are leery of political payback!
Roger and Todd: If you guys are so heated up on behalf of Stapely, you’ll probably go the wall for Mary Rose.
I’ll bet you’ll even hit up the local coyotes to fork up legal defense funds!
October 6th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Ron:
Did it ever occur to you that the locals might be petrified to take the case because of Political blowback?
You can bet that the Chamber and its allies are keeping a close look at this battle and will be protecting their minions and punishing those who aren’t at their beck and call!
Todd and Roger: Boy! You guys are always in a lather over Stapely!
I guess you’ll really hit the wall on behalf of Mary Rose!
October 6th, 2009 at 11:52 am
The more this goes on the more disgussed I get with the Republican Party and the players who are trying to make names for themselves.
I consider them all to have an agenda other than what is best for this county and state and when the next election cycle comes around I won’t be voting for any or them.
I will be voting the person that says, here I am the business owner, the one that has struggled with you and understand that government needs to be limited, I understand the need for seperation of powers and I will work for that. This is not my job, I have one already.
As Glenn Beck has said or implied maybe it is time we through the parties out both Dem and Rep because they don’t represent me anymore.
October 6th, 2009 at 8:45 pm
Carlist – you can say it three times but it doesn’t make it true. I don’t care at all for Stapley and frankly think he has been exposed as being dirty is various ways for years. What I disagree with is Thomas and Arpaio’s ridiculous attempts at self-aggrandisement.
October 7th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Look, Republicans in law enforcement should always look the other way when one of their own is screwing up. It would destroy our future, and be really expensive, to do otherwise.
Second, the sheriff is the sheriff. All you have to do to stay out of his way is operate within the law.
October 7th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Okay Todd!
You’re not keen on Stapely (who, outside of Roger can be?) but I will state for the third time that you’ll hit the wall flying on behalf of Mary Rose!