Republican challenger John Winchester took a hard swing at incumbent Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller in a mailer sent to 10,000 District 1 homes last week.
“KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HILLARY AND ALLY?” it says, picturing a laughing Clinton next to Miller behind Photoshopped prison bars. “Ally Miller may be indicted — and go to prison — for her email scandal!”
True or a low blow?
This all goes back to the convoluted story of the Arizona Daily Herald, a news website started in May by Miller’s then-employee Timothy DesJarlais. Because DesJarlais for weeks denied having started the site, which was touting Miller’s road-repair plan, reporters from the Star and other news outlets made public-records requests for emails between DesJarlais, Miller and other staffers.
We wanted to know if Miller knew that DesJarlais was starting this site that supported her or was ignorant of it, as she said. Importantly, we also asked for emails Miller and staffers sent each other on private accounts dealing with the public business of her supervisor’s office.
This is a big issue, as the Clinton email scandal has shown. Over the years, as public officials have grown used to having their official emails released via public-record requests, many have turned to hiding their communications with staff members and others by doing it on private accounts.
These are still public records, as long as they deal with the business of their public office, but they’re easier to conceal.
After the requests, on June 20, Miller denied having any emails on her Yahoo account that were subject to the records requests.
“I don’t conduct county business on my personal email account,” she wrote to county clerk Robin Brigode.
This was a blanket denial, and it was false. Since then, several former staffers have come forward to release emails they exchanged with Miller on private accounts about office business.
The picture those emails paint is clear: Miller deliberately used private email accounts to hide the exchanges she was having from prying eyes, though she seemed less concerned with journalists’ records requests and more concerned about other county supervisors and employees spying on her.
On Nov. 11, 2013, she wrote from her Yahoo account to then-staff member Jennifer Coyle’s Gmail account: “We also can’t save things on computer at work or they will be ahead of us. So we will go with this at this time ... but we have to be more secretive ... sorry but that is the environment we are operating in.”
She went on in the same email to say, “I will handle that email list from here. But I need the updates emailed to me ... preferably from a private email address.”
Assistant Pima County Attorney Thomas Weaver requested on July 21 that the Arizona Attorney General’s Office look into Miller’s handling of public records. That inquiry is being handled by the criminal division of the AG’s office, but only because that division has the people to look into it, the spokeswoman for the AG’s Office, Mia Garcia, told me. It’s not necessarily a criminal investigation.
The idea that Miller’s acts were criminal is what inspired Winchester’s mailer. In fact, he told me Thursday he didn’t know the law but noticed in a Tucson Sentinel article that there is a potential prison sentence for certain violations of public records law.
Arizona Revised Statute 38-421 says this: An officer having custody of any record, map or book, or of any paper or proceeding of any court, filed or deposited in any public office, or placed in his hands for any purpose, who steals, or knowingly and without lawful authority destroys, mutilates, defaces, alters, falsifies, removes or secretes the whole or any part thereof, or who permits any other person so to do, is guilty of a class 4 felony.
One could argue that Miller “secreted” — in other words, hid — emails exchanged on private accounts by denying they existed. But the idea that this would be charged in a criminal court is remote, as our own public-records attorney told me.
“I don’t think she’s going to be indicted and go to prison for it,” Dan Barr said. “If somebody steps up and sues her and the court orders her to produce those records, she’s going to have to pay attorneys’ fees and other costs. That’s a long way off from being criminally prosecuted and incarcerated.”
So, while Winchester’s claim is theoretically possible, it is highly unlikely. That doesn’t let Miller or any other official off the hook for hiding public records in private accounts, though.
Party vs. country
On Wednesday I argued that it’s time for Trump-averse Republicans to come out and say they won’t support him, rather than criticizing individual Trump comments but maintaining, “I support the Republican nominee.”
Of course, that’s a big thing to ask a Republican — such as U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, Sen. John McCain or Sen. Jeff Flake — to do. It makes it harder for them that Democrats are asking Republicans to reject Trump fully.
President Obama asked that Republicans abandon Trump earlier this week. On Thursday Democrat Matt Heinz, a candidate for the nomination in Congressional District 2, held a press conference with Jeff Latas, a Gold Star father and former Democratic candidate, who made a similar request of McSally.
Latas insisted his request wasn’t a partisan thing — “Before being a Democrat, I’m an American,” he said — but of course he made the request at a press conference held by Heinz, one of McSally’s potential Democratic challengers. McSally’s campaign responded by sending out comments from Gold Star parents who appreciated her criticisms of Trump, which have stopped short of rejecting his candidacy.
So, you can’t really untangle the principle — whether Trump is so unfit to be president that even Republicans should oppose him — from its political effects. But you can ask our elected leaders to take a principled stand despite the political effects and appearances. I still think the danger of Trump demands that.
Johnsons back Feinman
The stories by my colleague (and wife) Patty Machelor about Colleen Johnson have been heart-rending — and tailor-made for Joel Feinman.
Johnson was sent back to prison by the Pima County Attorney’s Office — unnecessarily, it seems — despite making significant progress in her recovery from drug abuse and mental illness. Then things got worse: She was diagnosed with cancer while in prison and soon died.
Dick and Roxy Johnson tell their story in a mailer Feinman sent out last week. They make just the sort of argument that the career defense attorney has been using against longtime Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall.
I’m not convinced that Feinman’s experience lends itself to being our county’s top prosecutor. But the Colleen Johnson case makes a strong argument for change.
