PHOENIX – The former director of the Department of Economic Security is dropping the libel lawsuit he filed against the state after he was fired.
Tim Jeffries told Capitol Media Services Tuesday that he still believes that a report prepared by the Department of Public Safety about him and his conduct is filled with lies. These range from statements that he carried a gun on state property to the theft of state property, specifically ammunition from the DES inventory.
But Jeffries said a successful lawsuit was dependent on being able to show not just that the report had lies but that those statements were part of an effort to discredit him for trying to expose waste and mismanagement.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Rosa Mroz would not allow him to pursue the documents. Last week the Arizona Supreme Court refused to disturb that ruling.
That, said Jeffries, effectively ended any reason to pursue the suit.
“It’s a very, very high bar for a public official to prove defamation,” he said.
“Our whole thing was that the motive for defaming him was to keep him from disclosing that he had found corruption in the governor’s office and the reaction was to defame him,” said attorney Tom Horne. But he said the court ruled that motive was irrelevant.
