Heat City

Judge Mundell

Perhaps it is a sign of just how fearful the leadership in Maricopa County has become in recent weeks.

On Thursday night, the county’s highest-ranking judge, Barbara Rodriguez Mundell, convinced a higher court to block search warrants on her house and judicial chambers by the sheriff’s office.

The only problem? The search warrants didn’t exist. At least not yet, anyway. Essentially, the judge convinced another court to block what amounted to an apparition, and in doing so, revealed just how high tensions have risen as the county’s sheriff and chief prosecutor continue their assault on those who have criticized them.

As Mundell’s attorneys told the Arizona Court of Appeals on Friday, it all began sometime the night before when her court’s officials got a call from a local television reporter.

The reporter wanted to know whether the news station could get permission to film inside the courthouse while the sheriff’s office executed a search warrant on Mundell’s chambers.

Given that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office is actively investigating the majority of the county’s leadership, including Mundell and several other judges, the request was sufficiently alarming. The judge quickly went into action that same night, retaining a team of private lawyers that included the former U.S. attorney for Arizona, José de Jesus Rivera.

Together, they asked Arizona Court of Appeals to intervene by blocking the search and preventing the sheriff from seizing sensitive or otherwise confidential legal documents.

Within hours, the court put a temporary stop on searches of Mundell’s things by the sheriff’s office and called an emergency hearing for the next afternoon.

At the Friday hearing, Rivera said Mundell’s home and personal computers contain things like drafts of rulings that have not been issued and confidential memos the sheriff’s office is not entitled to see. If Mundell’s computers were seized, Rivera said, “she could not adequately continue performing her job as presiding judge.”

But then the tree-judge panel led by Maurice Portley turned to deputy county attorney Clarisse McCormick, who was representing the sheriff’s office. They asked her the status of the search warrants.

That’s when she revealed that no such warrants had even been sought or obtained. They just didn’t exist, she said.

“Unfortunately, we are here today, your honor, simply because of media rumors,” McCormick said.

The attorney also added, however, that she couldn’t guarantee things would stay that way. “I can’t speculate as to which search warrants would be issued in the future,” McCormick said.

She also cited an Arizona law that she said makes it illegal for judges to block search warrants before they even exist. “An injunction cannot be issued to inhibit that from happening,” McCormick said.

The judges, however, said they were interested in setting some ground rules for possible searches of Mundell’s home or chambers in the future.

Rivera, Mundell’s attorney, said he would like to see the sheriff’s office forced to give some kind of advanced notice to prevent investigators from having wholesale access to her files.

“The search warrant could be issued in the middle of the night when there is no judge we could go to,” he said.

But McCormick said that giving such a warning would be “highly unusual.”

In the end, the judges issued a ruling that would tightly restrict the way the sheriff’s office could search or seize Mundell’s possessions.

The Court of Appeals said the state Supreme Court would assign a specific judge outside of Maricopa County to handle any possible future search warrant requests involving Mundell. That would prevent the sheriff from shopping for judges in “the middle of the night” and moving in unfettered.

The court also ordered Mundell and the sheriff’s attorneys to get together to come up with “reasonable procedures” to be carried out in the event a search warrant is issued.

Lastly, but most importantly, the appeals court left its blockade in place for searches of Mundell. Until they or the Arizona Supreme Court lift the ban, the sheriff’s office is not allowed to conduct a search of Mundell’s house, chambers or other property.

The last part represents a significant blow to Arpaio’s office, which has accused Mundell and at least 11 other members of Maricopa County’s leadership of engaging in a wide-ranging conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Along with the county’s chief elected prosecutor, Andrew Thomas, the sheriff has already brought criminal charges against two members of the Board of Supervisors and one of Mundell’s coworkers, the top criminal court judge in Maricopa County.

But Arpaio and Thomas also continue to face mounting questions about their own credibility and whether they are using their law enforcement powers to go after political enemies.

Mundell is an example of someone who has gone up against the sheriff in the past.

In May, Mundell told a Phoenix TV station she thought Maricopa County’s judges were facing serious intimidation by the sheriff, including possible investigations and retaliation. She said the sheriff was upset, in part, because a judge had just criticized his office for bringing inmates late to their court appearances.

Mundell also fought the sheriff’s office as far back as 2007 over whether his deputies should have access to thousands of emails she and other court officials had sent or received that year. Mundell and Superior Court Administrator Marcus Reinkensmeyer denied the request, and the sheriff’s office eventually sued.

That lawsuit was thrown out [PDF] by the state Court of Appeals this past June.