The family of a woman who was killed in a mass shooting during an eviction at the Tucson apartment complex she managed can no longer proceed with their lawsuit against Pima County, the Arizona Court of Appeals has ruled.
Angela Heath-Fox, 28, accompanied constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay in August 2022 for the eviction of Gavin Lee Stansell, 24, from his residence at Lind Commons, an apartment complex near East Fort Lowell Road and North Dodge Boulevard.
Stansell opened fire, killing Heath-Fox, Martinez-Garibay and Elijah Miranda, a 25-year-old bystander, before turning the gun on himself.
In March 2023, the family of Heath-Fox filed a $50 million claim seeking damages against Martinez-Garibayโs estate and the county. Also named in the claim was the Pima County Board of Supervisors, the Pima County Constableโs Office, the Pima County Attorneyโs Office and the Arizona Constable Ethics, Standards and Training Board.
In a Feb. 14 ruling, the Arizona Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that allowed the case to proceed against the county. The ruling, blocking the lawsuit against the county, cites judicial immunity for both the county and Martinez-Garibay.
While the previous ruling โwas correct to conclude that legislative immunity does not protectโ the Pima County Board of Supervisorsโ decision to appoint Martinez-Garibay, it โerred, however, by finding that the constableโs acts in service of (an eviction notice) were not protected by judicial immunity,โ Arizona Court of Appeals Judge Christopher OโNeil said in the ruling.
โAlthough the law assigns responsibility for appointment of constables to county boards of supervisors under limited circumstances, there is nothing uniquely legislative in the act of appointing a person to fill a vacant office,โ OโNeil wrote. โWe conclude that service of a writ is necessarily a judicial function, closely tied to the judicial decision to issue the writ in the first place... It is, therefore, protected by the doctrine of judicial immunity.โ
David Abney, who is representing the family of Heath-Fox, said they plan to file a โpetition for reviewโ with the Arizona Supreme Court, which he says the court can choose whether or not to take on.
โThis issue is really very simple: do you read the plain word of the statute and enforce them?โ Abney told the Star on Friday.
โThe statute says that a constable is liable for any misconduct while serving an eviction notice if that conduct injures somebody. And here, the conduct resulted in the deaths of three people,โ Abney said. โSo, the plain words are what youโre supposed to enforce, and the Court of Appeals is not doing that. Itโs going out of his way not to enforce the plain words of the statute, which is wrong.โ
Abney said the petition to the Arizona Supreme Court is of principle and that thereโs โnothing sophisticated about it.โ
โThe whole point of the petition review to the Supreme Court is to say, โif we have a principle that if a statute is plain on its face, you enforce the plain words,โ he said. โYou donโt do anything else. You donโt go look anywhere else. You enforce the plain words.โ
