Pima County Attorney Laura Conover had planned to exonerate Louis Taylor for his arson and murder convictions in Tucson’s deadly 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire, but decided not to after “threats from Phoenix lawyers,” new court documents claim.
Pima County Attorney Laura Conover
Last month, lawyers for Taylor filed a motion to depose Conover, the county’s top prosecutor, and former county attorney employee Jack Chin regarding the release of public records.
Included in the motion was an affidavit from Nina Trasoff, a former TV news anchor and past member of the Tucson City Council. In the affidavit, Trasoff said she was good friends with Conover and had volunteered to edit news releases for her office.
Shortly after taking office in 2021, Conover told Trasoff that she reviewed Taylor’s case and planned to exonerate him, the affidavit says. Trasoff then helped edit a news release about the exoneration that was scheduled to be issued on May 28, 2022, court records say.
“Early last week, after an exhaustive 17 month investigation, our team reached a conclusion that was perhaps predictable. But as your prosecutor, I don’t act on predictions or suspicions or emotions. And I sure don’t act on political or media pressure. I didn’t take this job to be popular,” the original news release reportedly said. “Last week, I concluded that the Pima County Attorney’s Office could no longer support the criminal conviction against Louis Taylor in the Pioneer Hotel fire of 1970. . . . The wound of injustice continued to bleed until today as we file our motion to vacate the conviction.”
Trasoff said Conover was excited by the fact that the review had shown that the fire was not arson and Taylor was improperly convicted, court records say.
That news release wasn’t issued to the public, however.
Instead, months later, the County Attorney’s Office issued a news release that stated Conover decided to not drop the criminal charges against Taylor. It noted that her office “did not find any new evidence of innocence.”
When they discussed the new decision, Trasoff said Conover told her she decided not to go with the original news release “because Phoenix lawyers had threatened bar discipline and possible disbarment if she went forward with the plan to exonerate Taylor,” court records say.
Neither the names of the lawyers nor their motive for threatening action against Conover over the Pioneer Fire case are included in the court documents.
When asked Wednesday about the allegations in the court records, Conover released the following statement: “High-level prosecutorial decisions made by county attorneys and district attorneys across the nation often draw strong and sometimes fierce opinions. In performing my duties as prosecutor, I’ve proven my willingness and availability to listen to diverse feedback. However, I’ve also proven that I make decisions based on facts and the law. While I carefully consider the opinions of my senior leadership team and the opinions of interested members of the community, the ultimate decisions I make are my own.”
Louis Taylor greets his original attorney, Howard Kashman (back to camera), while surrounded by justice project attorneys in Pima County Superior Court in 2013, just before he was released from prison.
Taylor served 42 years in prison after he was convicted of starting the downtown Tucson fire that killed 29 people. In 2013, Taylor made a deal with former Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall’s office that set aside the conviction, by having Taylor plead “no contest” to the charges, and released him from prison.
Taylor has maintained his innocence. In 2015 Taylor sued Pima County and the city for violating his right to due process and a fair trial, the Star has reported. However, Taylor was prohibited from seeking damages for his time in prison as part of the no-contest plea he made.
If Taylor were to have been exonerated, it would potentially have allowed him to seek compensation for a wrongful conviction.
Controversy surrounding Conover in the Pioneer Fire case is not new. Critics have said her involvement in Taylor’s case poses a conflict of interest.
Before she left office, LaWall’s office hired an outside attorney to represent the county in Taylor’s civil lawsuit, saying it did so because Conover had conducted research for one of Taylor’s parole hearings while she was in law school. The office also said that throughout her 2020 campaign to be elected county attorney, Conover discussed her dismay with how the case was handled, the Star has reported.
Conover has dismissed those claims.
Conover has said conclusions made by LaWall’s team were wrong and that she “never represented or participated in the representation of Taylor, whether in law school 20 years ago or since.”
Photos of the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire in downtown Tucson
The Pioneer Hotel never recovered from the 1970 fire, said Bettina Lyons, niece of the couple who owned the hotel. "Even though they put money into it and put sprinkler systems in, people did not come to stay."
Victims are removed from the front entrance to the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
A injured firefighter is wheeled to an ambulance at the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
In the end, the Pioneer Hotel fire killed 29 people, some of them jumping from windows to escape the flames. Louis Taylor was convicted of arson. The first articles ran in the Star Dec. 20, 1970.
The Pioneer Hotel in 1961.
Firefighters on an old Tucson Fire ladder truck help a woman down from the upper floors during the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
A firefighter sprays water on windows of the upper floors of the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
A man stands at the window on one of the upper floors of the Pioneer Hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970, as the fire rages above.
A firefighter helps an unidentified man after plucking him from a room near the top of the Pioneer International Hotel which caught fire early in Dec. 1970.
Tucson firefighers apply a steady stream of water during the Pioneer Hotel fire in Dec. 1970. Tucson's firefighting equipment was ruled inadequate following this fire when they were unable to aid many trapped on the higher floors.
Flames and smoke shoot from the windows in the upper floors during the Pioneer Hotel fire in Dec. 1970.
Flames and smoke shoot from the windows in the upper floors as firefighters extend the ladder to save those below during the Pioneer Hotel fire in Dec. 1970.
Victims are removed from the front entrance to the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
Victims are removed from the front the entrance to the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
Smoke billows from the upper floor of the Pioneer International Hotel as three firemen work to rescue survivors of the early-morning blaze. The firemen at the bottom is helping an elderly Pioneer tenant to walk down the ladder.
Fireman help the injured at the Pioneer Hotel blaze in Dec. 1970.
A hotel patron is helped down the ladder to safety during the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
Pioneer Hotel Fire
Tucson firefighters climb a ladder at the Pioneer Hotel Fire in 1970. Courtesy of Tucson Fire Department
Tucson firefighters help an elderly patron down the ladder at the Pioneer Hotel fire in Tucson on Dec. 20, 1970.
G.L. Scoggins, catering manager, talks to exhausted Tucson firefighers at the Pioneer Hotel fire in Tucson on Dec. 20, 1970.
An exhausted Tucson firefighter at the Pioneer Hotel fire in Tucson on Dec. 20, 1970.
People draped in blankets outside the Pioneer Hotel in Tucson after a fatal fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
People in downtown Tucson gaze up at the Pioneer Hotel the morning after the deadly fire in Dec. 1970.
People in downtown Tucson gaze up at the Pioneer Hotel the morning after the deadly fire in Dec. 1970.
Aftermath of the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
The aftermath of the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
The bedroom suite at the Pioneer Hotel kept by the Steinfelds, owners of Steinfelds Department Store. The couple died in the massive hotel fire on Dec. 20, 1970.
Aftermath of the Pioneer Hotel in Dec. 1970.
Funeral of victims of the Pioneer Hotel Fire in Dec. 1970.
Louis Taylor in 1970. Taylor was tried and convicted of 28 counts of felony murder in connection with the fire at the Pioneer Hotel, Tucson.
Arizona prison inmate Louis C. Taylor, serving a life sentence after being convicted in the deaths of 28 people in the 1970 Pioneer Hotel fire. A 29th person died later of injuries from the fire.
Louis Taylor shakes the hand of his first attorney from 1972, Howard Kashman, back to camera, as his current defense team from Phoenix surrounds him after a hearing in Pima County Superior Court in Tucson, Ariz. on Tuesday April 2, 2013. Taylor, who was originally convicted of 28 counts of felony murder in connection with the fire, was released from prison after 42 years.
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