Discontent with Phoenix prosecutor Andrew Thomas’ and Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s legal battles with county officials moved to a public forum and received a boost from an unexpected source with inside knowledge of their cases, reports the Arizona Republic. Hundreds of attorneys gathered on the courthouse steps in downtown Phoenix to protest Thomas and Arpaio’s public campaign against public corruption. And, in a scathing letter to the newspaper, a prosecutor from another county who previously handled some of Thomas’ cases blasted the prosecutor and sheriff as “a threat to the entire criminal-justice system.”
Sheila Polk, a Republican and career prosecutor, spent six months working on two cases sought by Thomas and Arpaio in their ongoing battle against county officials and the courts. “I am conservative and passionately believe in limited government, not the totalitarianism that is spreading before my eyes,” she wrote. “The actions of Arpaio and Thomas are a disservice to the hundreds of dedicated men and women who work in their offices and a threat to the entire criminal-justice system.”