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October 7, 2008 - 6:58PM New Times’ suit against county attorney tossed From Staff and Wire Reports A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office by executives of the New Times newspaper. The suit accused County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his office of negligence, conspiracy and racketeering, and violating the constitutional rights of two journalists by arresting them for publishing details of a grand jury subpoena. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton additionally ruled that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and private attorney Dennis Wilenchik did not violate the free speech or First Amendment rights of editor Mike Lacey and publisher Jim Larkin. New Times was the subject of a criminal investigation last year by Wilenchik, who was hired by the county attorney’s office as an independent prosecutor. He was asked to secretly explore whether the newspaper broke an obscure state law by posting Arpaio’s home address on its Web site. The story landed the editors in jail for illegally revealing a secret grand jury investigation, but it also caused Thomas to fire Wilenchik and end the investigation. The investigation ended in October 2007, when the newspaper published a story revealing Wilenchik had obtained a subpoena seeking Internet records for all users of the paper’s Web site. In a statement, Thomas said, “I am grateful that Judge Bolton has dismissed … the county attorney’s office from this frivolous lawsuit.” Neither Lacey nor Larkin could be immediately reached for comment.
June 5, 2008 - 9:30PM Thomas cites 'immunity' in New Times lawsuit Nick R. Martin, Tribune Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas wants a high-profile lawsuit against him thrown out because he believes he has "absolute immunity" from such cases while in office. Thomas asked a federal judge last week to dismiss the lawsuit from Phoenix New Times, which accused him, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and a private Valley attorney of a years-long conspiracy to target the newspaper. Arpaio and the private attorney, Dennis Wilenchik, have also in the past week asked the court to throw out the lawsuit for similar reasons. New Times was the subject of a criminal investigation last year by Wilenchik, who was hired by the county attorney's office as an independent prosecutor. The attorney was asked to secretly explore whether the newspaper broke an obscure state law by posting Arpaio's home address on its Web site. The investigation came to a halt in October when the newspaper's editors published a story revealing Wilenchik had obtained a subpoena seeking Internet records for all the users of the newspaper's Web site. New Times never turned that information over and the matter was later dropped. The story landed the editors in jail for illegally revealing a secret grand jury investigation, but it also caused Thomas to fire Wilenchik and end the criminal investigation. New Times and its editors, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, filed the lawsuit April 29 in Maricopa County Superior Court, accusing the trio of officials of abusing their power and working together to suppress the paper's rights to free speech. Last week, Wilenchik asked that the suit be moved to federal court because it deals with civil rights issues, generally within the federal purview. New Times' attorney, Michael Manning, said on Thursday that the change of venue means the case will probably move more slowly, given that the U.S. courts are currently clogged with cases. "But we're happy in either place," Manning said. In asking the judge to dismiss the suit this week, Wilenchik also said he should have immunity because he was doing county business when he made the decisions in question. While the lawsuit "is long on bluster and accusations," wrote his lawyer, Scott Zwillinger, "it fails to establish a violation of (the newspaper's) constitutional rights." Manning said he is planning to respond to each of the motions one at a time, but declined to say what he would argue. Said Manning of Thomas' and Wilenchik's claims of immunity: "I think they may have a different view after they read our response."
'New Times' lawsuit against county dismissed Oct. 8, 2008 12:00 AM Associated Press A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Maricopa County Attorney's Office by executives of the Phoenix New Times newspaper. The suit accused County Attorney Andrew Thomas and his office of negligence, conspiracy, racketeering and violating the constitutional rights of two journalists by arresting them for publishing details of a grand jury subpoena. U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton said the decision to hire outside counsel due to conflict of interest "falls within the prosecutorial function because it is intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process." The court additionally ruled that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and attorney Dennis Wilenchik did not violate the free speech or First Amendment rights of editor Mike Lacey and publisher Jim Larkin.
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