As a private defense attorney, Sean Chapman argued a string of high-profile cases in recent years, including the case of Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz in 2018.

 Greg Bryan / Arizona Daily Star 2008

Sean Chapman, a pillar of the Tucson law community, died on June 26. He was 58.

He died of multiple myeloma, a form of cancer, of which he was diagnosed in June 2010.

Chapman argued on both sides of the courtroom, as a prosecutor and a defense attorney.

He earned his law degree from the University of Arizona in 1988. In the early 1990s, he served as a Pima County public defender before becoming an assistant U.S. attorney in 1997 and then a private defense attorney in 2004.

“He did an excellent job in whatever setting he was in. I think that’s going to be his lasting legacy,” said U.S. District Court Judge Raner Collins. “It was amazing to watch his growth in professionalism, how hard he worked for his clients, and how much he cared about the law.”

As a private defense attorney, Chapman argued a string of high-profile cases in recent years.

In 2018, for example, two juries sided with Chapman’s defense of Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz, who was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder after Swartz shot and killed a Mexican teen through the border fence at Nogales.

“Sean understood, like the best criminal defense attorneys do, that it’s not our job to like or not like the clients, or to even agree with morally what they’ve done. But the job is to make sure that the client gets the best possible defense,” said Richard Lougee, a Tucson defense attorney and Chapman’s longtime friend.

Lougee realized how bright Chapman was when the two worked a murder case together at the Pima County Public Defender’s office in the early 1990s, he said. Lougee also argued against Chapman in federal court when Chapman was a prosecutor.

“He was one of the most honest, decent, caring lawyers I’ve ever been around,” Lougee said. “Both sides sometimes forget what their ethical duties are to disclose information and to be candid with each other. And Sean never had a problem with that. When Sean tells you something, you didn’t confirm in writing, it was gold. And that’s a rare commodity in the law.”

Chapman wrote on his website: “Whether I’m defending the criminally accused or fighting to prosecute a legitimate criminal, my philosophy always follows one central theme: Honesty. Criminal law exists for one sole purpose, and that is to find and uncover the truth.”

Wild animals and outdoor enthusiasts could one day hike freely between Saguaro National Park and Pima County’s Sweetwater Preserve, thanks to a land acquisition announced this week. More info: http://tucne.ws/1fco (Video taken by Henry Brean / Arizona Daily Star on the land that was just added to Saguaro National Park’s Tucson Mountain District)

Connie Chapman, his sister, remembers him striving to tell the truth at a young age. When they were kids, she recalls lighting matches with him in the alley behind their house. They lit something on fire and quickly stomped it out.

Then Sean went running inside the house, she said. “Where are you going,” she remembers calling after him.

“I’m going to tell,” he said.

“You can’t tell. We’ll get in trouble,” Connie said.

“I have to tell,” he replied. “I have a guilty conscience.”

Sean Chapman was born in Berkeley, California on Sept. 11, 1961.

He moved to Tucson at the age of 3 when his father, Phillip Chapman, took a job as a political science professor at the University of Arizona, said Kristi Chapman, Sean Chapman’s wife of 35 years.

While Chapman’s work in the courtroom made headlines, his friends and family carry with them more intimate memories.

He had a dry sense of humor, Lougee said. “I mean he’d say something and you reflect on it for a few seconds, then you realize it’s hilarious.”

Throughout his fight against cancer he maintained his law practice. And he even rode in a 50-mile bicycle race in Durango, Colorado last May.

“He was really good about keeping his professional life separate from his personal life,” Kristi Chapman said. “This family was everything to him. Everything. And his friendships were incredibly important to him.”

She said that after he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2010, it was very important to him to go on family vacations with her and their two children, Ian and Erin Chapman. “More than anything he wanted the kids to know that he was proud of them.”

Over the course of his treatment, he went through two stem cell transplants and multiple rounds of chemotherapy, Kristi Chapman said.

The best lawyers in Tucson met the day he died, Lougee said. They decided to take on his remaining cases and give Kristi Chapman the fees.

“There aren’t many lawyers in town who would get that kind of support,” Lougee said. “We came together and we did it for Sean. We loved him. … He truly was a wonderful, wonderful person who died far too young.”

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Kristi Chapman said a memorial will be postponed until it’s safe to gather.

In addition to his wife, children and sister, Sean Chapman is survived by his mother-in-law, Ann Chapman.

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Contact reporter Alex Devoid at adevoid@tucson.com or 573-4417.

On Twitter: @DevoidAlex.

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