Two members of the Phoenix City Council are calling on Mayor Kate Gallego to hold a meeting discussing the city’s relationship with the embattled Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Former County Attorney Alister Adel recently resigned after a tumultuous and scandal-plagued tenure. During Adel’s time in office, the County Attorney’s Office was accused of colluding with the Phoenix Police Department to “surveil, target, unlawfully arrest and maliciously prosecute” protesters in an effort to suppress criticism of law enforcement.
After Adel admitted she was seeking treatment for alcohol dependency, and five top prosecutors urged her to resign, the Arizona Republic exposed that the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office was forced to drop 180 criminal cases after it forgot to file charges for more than a year.
In a press release Monday, Phoenix Vice Mayor Laura Pastor and District 8 Councilmember Carlos Garcia said Adel “resigned amid numerous scandals, but it should not stop Phoenix City Council from looking at our own role in wrongdoings in coordination with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. ”
“We cannot sweep this under the rug and Adel’s resignation should point to the severity of the situation,” Pastor and Garcia wrote. “The Phoenix City Council has a responsibility to hold a discussion on what happened with the cases of protestors who were wrongfully charged and to discuss the high-ranking city officials and representatives that have been implicated as well as what we must do next to ensure it does not happen again.”
Pastor and Garcia said they were calling directly on Gallego to hold a policy meeting on the matter because the Public Safety and Justice Subcommittee of the City Council had not done so.
Have a news tip on the criminal justice system? Reach the reporter at [email protected] or at 812-243-5582. Follow him on Twitter @JimmyJenkins.
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