PHOENIX — Maricopa County Lawyer Rachel Mitchell testified that she determined to fireside a high-profile prosecutor due to a sample of overcharging defendants, ignoring evidentiary considerations, and making outrageous claims to grand juries.
In the course of the third day of the State Bar of Arizona’s disciplinary trial in opposition to April Sponsel, Mitchell laid out the issues together with her instances and the disgrace she introduced on the Maricopa County Lawyer’s Workplace.
“When it comes to the lack of fame and morale (to MCAO), I don’t know the right way to quantify that,” mentioned Mitchell.
The State Bar is searching for to droop Sponsel’s legislation license for 2 years with a key focus of their case on her prosecution of protesters in 2020. In essentially the most troubling instance, Sponsel labored with Phoenix police to invent a gang and falsely cost a bunch of demonstrators as members.
POLITICALLY CHARGED: ABC15 investigates Phoenix protest instances
The false fees originated below the management of former County Lawyer Allister Adel, who died in 2022.
Mitchell was appointed as her interim substitute and was later elected to the place.
The county legal professional mentioned she by no means instantly supervised Sponsel and was not concerned in preliminary critiques concerning the gang protest case.
However throughout the fallout from the scandal, Mitchell mentioned she was assigned to assessment a few of Sponsel’s different protest prosecutions, together with the controversial case in opposition to activist Bruce Franks Jr.
Mitchell, who was a division chief on the time, mentioned she discovered Sponsel had overcharged Franks and different defendants and offered inaccurate and exaggerated info to a grand jury in an effort to safe legal fees.
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It’s a sample the State Bar and Mitchell allege within the gang protest case and others.
“There have been a number of cases the place she was being instructed, ‘You don’t have the proof, the physique cameras don’t match what you’ve charged these folks with,’” mentioned Mitchell who testified throughout the disciplinary trial. “That’s a run, don’t stroll, to your nearest laptop monitor to assessment it, and that didn’t occur.”
The county legal professional additionally mentioned the case offered to the grand jury concerning the protest gang case was “outrageous” and that in an inner investigation, Sponsel was defiant and didn’t see something fallacious together with her conduct.
Sponsel’s legal professional, Ernie Calderon, questioned Mitchell about whether or not she knew that a number of of Sponsel’s supervisors accepted of her plan of the right way to prosecute protesters.
Mitchell denied any advance information or involvement within the instances.
RELATED: Prime prosecutor testifies he instructed Adel about protest gang case
In an earlier listening to, Vince Goddard, a former MCAO division chief, mentioned he signed off on the case and instantly knowledgeable Adel concerning the fees on the outset of the case.
Goddard resigned in 2021 throughout the fallout of the scandal and now works on the Pinal County Lawyer’s Workplace.
In the course of the listening to, Mitchell additionally testified that the protest scandal prompted a brand new coverage inside MCAO that requires prosecutors to assessment physique digicam footage, if it’s obtainable, earlier than continuing with fees.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
