Heat City

Robert Robb

A close aide to Maricopa County’s chief prosecutor, Andrew Thomas, says the Arizona Republic’s recent criticism of his boss and Sheriff Joe Arpaio amounts to “editorial jihad.”

Special assistant county attorney Barnett Lotstein made the angry comments in a letter to the editor published in today’s Republic.

Thomas and Arpaio have come under sharp scrutiny by many of the newspaper’s columnists and editorial writers in recent weeks because they have launched more than a dozen criminal investigations into their critics and political foes. Thomas has even called for investigations into fellow prosecutors who have written letters to the editor criticizing him.

But it was a column by the Republic’s Robert Robb that really set off Thomas’ aide this time around.

James Walsh

Sheila Polk

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas called for investigations into the chief prosecutors of two neighboring counties on Thursday because they publicly criticized him and Sheriff Joe Arpaio earlier this week.

Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk and Pinal County Attorney James Walsh sent separate letters to the Arizona Republic, criticizing what they called “abuses of power” by Thomas and his close ally, Arpaio.

Polk, a Republican who described herself as a passionate believer in limited government, accused the two men of “totalitarianism” and said they have become “a threat to the entire criminal-justice system” because of a series of a investigations they have launched against their foes.

In recent weeks, Thomas and Arpaio have announced more than a dozen criminal investigations into public officials who have criticized them in the past. The pair has said their fellow Maricopa County officials are engaging in a massive conspiracy to obstruct justice and limit their power. The investigations have resulted in criminal charges against two elected officials and a judge.

Now, Thomas wants a former state Supreme Court justice to investigate his neighboring prosecutors as part of what he calls “an orchestrated campaign to pressure law enforcement in Maricopa County to drop charges against influential criminal defendants and suspects.”

Based on public statements, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that anyone outside of Maricopa County plans to intervene in its ongoing chaos – at least not anytime soon.

While a whole host of agencies and higher officials have the power to intervene, none are exactly champing at the bit to do it. Here, now, is a list of those who have the power to get involved and why they probably won’t:

As you probably have heard by now, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is scheduled to speak tonight at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. Protests are planned from both sides of the aisle, and the event is sure to be heavily covered by the media.

I’ll be there taking notes, and probably posting some things on Twitter. But for live coverage of the event, your best bet is PHXated, a blog run by journalist Bill Wyman. He’s been covering the lead-up to the event and has done a more-thorough job than anyone.

The event also happens to fall on the same day Arpaio’s office is squaring off with a judge over whether a detention officer should apologize for taking an attorney’s legal file. I’ll update Heat City on the latest events as that situation continues to unfold.

Dennis Burke

Dennis Burke, the top federal prosecutor in Arizona, reportedly will be named Monday to an elite panel that advises the Justice Department on issues like civil rights and gang violence.

Burke only became the US Attorney for Arizona a month ago, but his close ties to the White House make him an easy pick for the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee. He will be on the panel with only a handful of other federal prosecutors, according to the Washington Post. The post will be in addition to his work in Arizona.

For five years, Burke was chief of staff to former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, now the Homeland Security secretary. He also worked at DHS earlier this year as a senior adviser to Napolitano.

Don Stapley

The high-powered defense attorney for Don Stapley vowed today that his client will be “more than vindicated” as the latest criminal accusations against the embattled Maricopa County supervisor shake out.

Attorney Paul Charlton called the morning arrest of Stapley by county sheriff’s deputies a “political hit job” and “the kind of thing you would see in a third-world dictatorship.”

Today was the second time in less than year deputies have arrested Stapley. The first time was in December when sheriff’s investigators accused him of 118 crimes for leaving out key information from financial disclosure forms he is required to file as an elected official. After a number of ongoing legal problems, however, that case was dropped on Friday.

So Charlton said it was “suspicious” that Stapley, a Republican from Mesa, would be arrested by the sheriff’s office just three days after its first case was dropped.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is accusing supervisor Don Stapley, a Republican from Mesa, of 100 new counts of fraud, which the office said are “unrelated” to the criminal charges dropped against him on Friday.

In a statement this afternoon, sheriff Joe Arpaio’s office revealed some details of the morning arrest of the embattled politician.

The statement said Stapley was arrested at about 9:30 a.m. in a county parking garage in downtown Phoenix. He “appeared agitated” and told deputies, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” as they moved in.

Don Stapley

Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley was arrested this morning by county sheriff’s deputies, just days after prosecutors dropped all charges against him in a criminal case that began last year.

The details of his arrest are unclear so far, but a Maricopa County Sheriff’s spokesman confirmed to Heat City at 10:07 a.m. that Stapley had been arrested again this morning. That spokesman, Detective Aaron Douglas, said in an email the office had “no further comment.”

The Mesa Republican was previously accused of leaving out key facts from the financial disclosure forms he is required to file as an elected official. The case had been investigated and built by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and later given to Yavapai County after local prosecutors determined it would be a conflict of interest to try one of their own county supervisors.

On Friday, the special prosecutor hired by Yavapai County to handle the case threw out the charges against Stapley because of some legal hurdles. However, special prosecutor Melvin Bowers left open the possibility of refiling it.

Diane Humetewa

Arizona’s top federal prosecutor, Diane Humetewa, announced today she is stepping down from office, clearing the way for an appointee handpicked by the Obama administration.

Humetewa, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, took over the post in December 2007 in the wake of a still-unresolved scandal in which a number of federal prosecutors, including her predecessor, were fired by the Bush administration for political reasons. But despite open skepticism by some Democrats, Humetewa found her way through the fog to announce a number of high-profile prosecutions like that of former U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., who has pleaded not guilty to corruption charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said her resignation will take effect Sunday.

Humetewa’s likely successor is Phoenix lawyer Dennis Burke, the former chief of staff to Gov. Janet Napolitano. The Whilte House announced Burke’s nomination earlier this month. He has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.

The East Valley Tribune posted a big scoop on its website tonight. Mesa’s departing police chief, George Gascón, told the paper he was going to be fired by the city after he testified earlier this year before Congress that immigration enforcement should not be the job of local police agencies.

An outspoken critic on immigration issues, Gascón resigned recently to take a job as the police chief in San Francisco, leading to speculation that the politics of Arizona had taken its toll on him. “I was not pressured to resign,” said Gascón, whose last day in Mesa is July 31. “I was told I would get terminated.”