Andrew Thomas, Maricopa County Attorney, has announced that he is resigning his post as the chief prosecutor of the county of 4,000,000 people to run for Attorney General of Arizona. Thomas, an alleged graduate of Yale Law School, suffered a serious setback to his effort to sue AND prosecute everyone in the known universe, when he was held to have engaged in a conflict of interest (a possible career-ender) by simultaneously prosecuting two county officials on dubious bribery charges, while simultaneously suing them in his personal capacity seeking money damages.
This finding led in short time to the dropping of Thomas' POS racketeering suit (among other things, this alleged that the defendants had "laughed" when one of Thomas's lackeys was making a presentation to a court), and the dismissal of the charges against the county officials. And as for Sir Andrew, Defender of Justice?
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Now these officials, along with a whole lot of other people, including the Mayor of Phoenix, are lining up to sue the pants off the county. Thomas, desperate to salvage whatever might be left of his reputation, very badly needs to have the two county officials, Wilcox and Stapley, recharged and convicted. But, one slight problem: under Arizona law, Wilcox and Stapley, as members of the County Board of Supervisors, would appoint his replacement.
No problem for respected legal scholar Andrew Thomas. In his resignation letter, Thomas accuses the entire Maricopa County board of supervisors of having a conflict of interest and therefore being debarred from selection of his successor. Instead, he thinks the attorney general (the somnolent Terry Goddard, who managed to do a WHOLE FREAKIN' LOT OF NOTHING while Joe Arpaio and his yippy Pomerianian Thomas did their level best to have Arpaio declared El Duce), should pick the next county attorney.
Funny thing is, Thomas can't even resign right. From the Phoenix New Times (full disclosure: Arpaio and Thomas arrested at least two of the editors of the New Times on some BS charges, which were dropped, and, like a good number of people in the county, they are about to sue the County for a bazillion dollars):
As [Board of Supervisors attorney] Swanson writes, state law requires that county officers must make their resignations to the chairman of the Board of Supervisors.
But Thomas -- either out of sloppiness or an unwillingness to so much as acknowledge his nemeses on the board of supervisors -- made his resignation to the clerk of the board instead.
Suffice it to say, the supervisors were all too willing to accept it anyway.
"Despite the fact that you have arguably failed to follow the law when submitting your resignation, we will consider your cc'ing Chairman Don Stapley on your letter to the Clerk of the Board to be sufficient," Swanson wrote.
Since as a result of the Judge's having found there was a conflict of interest involving Thomas, the Arizona Bar Association is investigating the situation, there is excellent chance that Thomas will be driving a cab, picking lettuce, or any other thing besides practicing law, which might harsh his mellow should he be elected AG.