Question in Maricopa County attorney's race: Has the office been reformed or mismanaged?
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery is a blunt-talking Republican with an anti-marijuana zeal who six years ago took over an agency reeling from political infighting and has won each of his two previous campaigns by double digits.
But this year he faces a challenge missing from those earlier races: a Democratic opponent.
Phoenix attorney Diego Rodriguez, a political newcomer, is a former Pima County prosecutor with an equally forceful manner.
But though they share a personality trait, the candidates differ on almost every major issue. At bottom is this question: Has Montgomery reformed the office since the fractious days under now-disbarred Andrew Thomas, its previous leader?
Montgomery, 49, argues he has brought order by applying his military and legal background, and implemented nationally recognized policies to protect victims, reduce recidivism and combat crime.
“Back in 2010, we were mired in controversy and conflict,” Montgomery said. “(Today) we’re held up as a model and example of how a professional office should be organized and run. I’m very proud of the work of the 1,000 men and women in this office that has led us to that point. ... Another four-year term will allow me to make sure these are lasting changes.”
Rodriguez, however, paints Montgomery as an inexperienced leader who has neglected the office to pursue politics, mishandled cases and failed to fix a broken criminal-justice system.
Rodriguez, 46, says Montgomery is as politically “extreme” as Thomas — but less vocal about it.
“People just want to know the County Attorney’s Office matches their idea of justice,” Rodriguez said. Montgomery “is a political animal. He’s not what I am comfortable having administer justice in this county.”
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The candidates are vying to head one of the largest public prosecutorial agencies in the country. The office has nearly a thousand employees, a $99 million budget and handles more than 30,000 criminal cases a year. The county attorney, paid $123,678 a year, also advises county government on civil matters.
Ushering in change
A decorated Gulf War officer, Montgomery said his first task in office was smoothing relations with the county leaders he was tasked to counsel.
His upset victory in the 2010 GOP primary, a win that ushered him into office in the subsequent general election, followed years of legal and political strife that pitted Thomas and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio against the county Board of Supervisors and some members of the judiciary. The divisive lawsuits cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Thomas departed the office mid-term to run for state attorney general, prompting the 2010 special election to fill the rest of his term.
As soon as he took office, Montgomery said, “I went into court myself and dismissed the (remaining lawsuit) and said, ‘We’re going to work through this and re-establish the attorney-client relationship that is supposed to exist.' ”
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Next he instituted reforms by:
- Reorganizing attorney assignments. Instead of receiving cases randomly, prosecutors now work on cases by geography, allowing them to build relationships with police departments and community leaders to spot and tackle crime trends.
- Creating a process for investigating police use-of-force cases that he said is objective and has increased trust with community members and law enforcement.
- Expanding the responsibilities of a committee that reviews ethical complaints against criminal defense attorneys and judges to include prosecutors. An Arizona Republic investigation in 2013 found widespread complaints of prosecutorial misconduct and lax punishment.
- Forging partnerships with non-profits that match inmates leaving prison with schools or jobs to try to reduce recidivism.
- Setting up a child-crimes bureau that trains staffers to provide victim services to minors, and chaired a state panel that recommended reforms to the child-welfare system.
- Helping start a program at high-school football games that has collected 25,000 pledges from teens to avoid drugs or alcohol.
Montgomery said the changes have garnered national attention.
For instance, the U.S. Justice Department and Association of Prosecuting Attorneys in 2014 identified the County Attorney’s Office as a model for “high-performance prosecution.”
“This office is not the one that I took over,” Montgomery said. “I want to make sure what we’ve done over the last six years is going to be reflective of the best in this office.”
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In another four years, he wants to streamline the case pipeline, increase technology and reduce crime with better data analysis.
Montgomery argues that many ideas Rodriguez has for the office are already in progress.
“What I’ve been doing for the last six years is what he would propose we should do going forward,” the county attorney said.
Montgomery goes into the Nov. 8 election with a roughly $290,000 fundraising advantage over Rodriguez and a Republican voter-registration edge over Democrats of about 150,000 in Maricopa County.
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Cases mishandled?
Rodriguez, who owns his own law firm, said Montgomery has failed to transform the office.
He said the county attorney has followed in Thomas’ footsteps by using it for political quests, such as fighting this year against legalizing recreational marijuana.
Montgomery helped bring a lawsuit that attempted to remove Proposition 205 from the ballot. He is one of the most active speakers on the campaign circuit against the measure. Rodriguez supports marijuana legalization.
Montgomery ascended to office “basically on the strength of endorsements from Joe Arpaio, (former state Sen.) Russell Pearce and the rest of the individuals that got us to the place we’re trying to dig ourselves out of,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez promised to set a new tone if elected.
“The first step is going to be to send a very clear message to the office that we’re moving forward based on the facts in the law, and we’re not going to have a subtext of a political ideology,” Rodriguez said.
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Inexperience at law is another problem he sees in Montgomery.
Rodriguez has practiced law for 21 years, including four years as a Pima County prosecutor. He said he personally handled more than 65 felony jury trials, including some involving violent crimes such as first-degree murder. Though he worked on civil litigation for years, his practice currently focuses on complex criminal representation.
Montgomery has been a lawyer for 15 years, with 11 of those in the County Attorney’s Office. He said he personally prosecuted about 20 jury trials and has supervised hundreds. He said his ability to direct the office is also informed by his military experience of planning 4,000-person deployments.
Rodriguez said Montgomery has mishandled cases, citing:
- The Interstate 10 shootings. Charges were dismissed against the suspect because of flimsy evidence. The accused man is suing Montgomery and others for what he says was a rush to judgment against him.
- Jodi Arias. A holdout juror was attacked in and out of court. Montgomery said the harassment needed to stop, but Rodriguez says Montgomery didn’t do enough to protect her.
- Green Acre kennel. Animal-abuse charges were dropped against the kennel owners after 20 dogs died, prompting public outrage.
- Euthanized dog. Animal-cruelty charges were dismissed against a veterinarian who euthanized a runaway dog soon after it entered a county shelter. Montgomery cited a conflict of interest. Rodriguez said he should have transferred the case to another county.
Montgomery responded that those cases are four among tens of thousands the County Attorney’s Office has handled.
“It’s very dangerous to make decisions about cases based on public sentiment,” he said. “It’s really easy to lob criticism when you haven’t read the whole case file. As a former prosecutor, (Rodriguez) should know better.”
Rodriguez also pointed to issues he would prioritize differently. For example, he pledged to boost funding to at least 10 percent of the budget for diversion and recidivism programs. He said Montgomery’s 3 percent is too low. And he vowed to create an independent citizen review board with subpoena power to review police use-of-force incidents.
He criticized Montgomery’s handling of murder charges against former Mesa police officer Philip "Mitch" Brailsford in a fatal shooting. Complaints have been made by the Mesa Police Department, defense attorneys and the widow of the man killed.
Rodriguez said a review board would rebuild trust between the community and law enforcement, and remove political pressure on the County Attorney’s Office.
Rodriguez also said he would seek the death penalty rarely. The expensive cases drain the county attorney’s budget, he said.
A Harvard study found Maricopa County a national outlier for the high number of death sentences, 28 cases, from 2010 to 2015.
Montgomery said he has been bringing the number of cases down, filing notices in 17 cases in 2014, 13 last year and seven so far this year.