Pima Countyโs newest Constable, Deborah Martinez-Garibay, is facing accusations of falsifying petition signatures in her effort to make the ballot in Justice Precinct 8, which covers part of midtown Tucson.
Assistant County Administrator Mark Napier, the former county sheriff, has submitted a 100-page report to the Pima County supervisors outlining complaints the constableโs office has received over Martinez-Garibayโs conduct, concerns she forged signatures on her petition to run for the constable and allegations she doesnโt live in the precinct in which sheโs running for election.
The board appointed Martinez-Garibay to replace former JP 8 constable Kristen Randall in March. Martinez-Garibay is seeking election this fall to the same constable position, responsible for serving legal summons such as eviction notices and protection orders from the justice courts.
The constable positions have long ranked with state mine inspector among the least noticed races on Arizona ballots, but in Pima County they have become increasingly hotly contested in part due to disputes over how to handle evictions.
Presiding Constable Michael Stevenson alerted Napier to the concerns over Martinez-Garibayโs conduct and provided documentation โspecifically addressing the validity, and potential falsification, of signatures on the nomination petition formsโ and โraised concerns (Martinez-Garibay) had a valid residence in JP8 when collecting signatures,โ the report said.
Martinez-Garibay could not comment extensively on the matter Thursday, she said, but called the allegations a โsmear campaign.โ
โTheyโre twisting things around,โ she said. โWhatever happens that theyโre going to, you know, whatever they look into, theyโre going to find that Iโm vindicated, that this is all so false.โ
Opponents enjoined
Stevensonโs information came from South Tucson Police Sgt. Chris Toth, who considered running against Martinez-Garibay but dropped out โdue to some alleged aggressive tacticsโ from Martinez-Garibay.
Toth collected signatures to run for the JP8 constable position, he said Thursday, and he had planned on filing a challenge to Martinez-Garibayโs signatures. But when he was at the courthouse on the deadline day, April 18, he ran into Martinez-Garibay, who said she was planning to file a harassment injunction against him.
Toth said he worried an injunction could harm his police career.
โShe told me she was going to put out an injunction against harassment against me,โ he said. โI was under the impression if I withdrew she wouldnโt do that.โ
He decided not to file his challenge to her signatures and the same day withdrew from the race. Martinez-Garibay has filed against him anyway, Toth said, but nobody has served him with the papers.
Martinez-Garibay did serve an injunction against harassment on another political rival, longtime local Democratic activist Sami Hamed. He said Thursday that he had heard there might be problems with her signatures, so he requested to see them on April 4, the day they were submitted โ a routine request in contested political campaigns.
On April 18, the deadline day for challenges, Hamed was served with an injunction against harassment obtained by Martinez-Garibay, he said. Later, he challenged the validity of the injunction in court, noting he had never seen nor met Martinez-Garibay before. Pima County Superior Court Judge pro tem Deborah Pratte dismissed the injunction May 4.
Suspicious signatures
In Napierโs review of Martinez-Garibayโs nomination petition forms, he found signatures of voters without addresses in JP8 as well as several entries that seemed to be written in the same handwriting.
โI am not a forensic handwriting analyst,โ Napier wrote. โHowever, in the case of these entries, one does not necessarily have to be. The writing is so obviously similar as to leave nearly no reasonable doubt that the entries were made by the same person.โ
If the alleged falsification is real, it could constitute forgery, fraud and tampering with a public record under state statutes, Napier wrote.
Napier also outlines allegations that Martinez-Garibay doesnโt live in JP 8, which would violate state law. The address she provided on her nomination petition forms is in JP 8, but it is the residence of a former constable and current employee of the county assessorโs office, Joe Ferguson, according to Napier. He wrote โsubstantive evidence indicatesโ she lives outside of the precinct sheโs seeking election in.
The second address provided in Napierโs report as Martinez-Garibayโs potential residence is listed on assessorโs records as belonging to her.
Napier recommended the board consider suspending Martinez-Garibay, seek advice from the county attorneyโs office on โinitiation of a possible criminal investigation,โ and that the allegations be transferred to the state board charged with investigating claims of misconduct among constables.
โAs a constable, (Martinez-Garibay) holds a position of trust in the community,โ Naper wrote, later adding, โher continued performance of the duties of constable may pose a liability and potential embarrassment to the county.โ
Tim Steller and Nicole Ludden</&h6>
Arizona Mirror next Gawker?
U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters, a Tucson Republican, is continuing his campaign against the Arizona Mirror, a small online news outlet based in Phoenix.
An article posted Friday May 6 by the Mirror said that Masters wants to give states the right to ban contraception. It was based on Mastersโ statement on his campaign website that he would like to see the Griswold v. Connecticut case overturned. Thatโs the case that established a constitutional right to privacy and prevented states from interfering in married couplesโ use of contraception.
After the story was published, Masters said the reporter had made an inadequate effort to get comment from him, sending an email to a non-functional email address 90 minutes before publication. He said he thinks that the case was wrongly decided, not that contraception should be banned.
Later, Masters threatened the Mirror with trying to shut them down through a lawsuit. โHey @ArizonaMirror and @DillonReedRose: preserve your documents! If I get any free time after winning my elections then youโre getting sued, and Iโll easily prove actual malice. Gawker found out the hard way and you will too.โ
Mastersโ longtime boss and political sponsor, Peter Thiel, secretly funded a lawsuit that led to the closure of Gawker, an online news site that had covered Thiel critically. But the circumstances now are vastly different: As a public figure running for office, Masters has a much higher legal threshold to prove defamation, and the Mirrorโs main sin was that it did not reach out to him adequately for comment.
Tim Steller</&h6>
Candidate kicked off ballot
A candidate for state Senate in Legislative District 16 has been kicked off the ballot.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Republican Daniel Wood submitted too few valid signatures.
The district reaches from southern Maricopa County, across Pinal County and into the far northwestern reaches of the Tucson metro area.
Tim Steller</&h6>
