Wilcox awarded $975K in lawsuit against county
by Michael Kiefer and Michelle Ye Hee Lee - May. 11, 2012 10:05 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
A U.S. district judge on Friday awarded $975,000 to Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox to settle her claim against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas -- and, by extension, against the county itself.
Judge Neil Wake also awarded attorneys fees to Wilcox.
"My family and I have just been through such an agonizing time," Wilcox said. "I will rededicate myself to being the best county supervisor I can be. ... In my case, the justice system really did come through."
In 2010, the county Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to avoid conflicts of interest in resolving supervisors' potential legal claims against the county stemming from actions taken by Arpaio and Thomas. The resolution gave authority to former County Manager David Smith to offer and negotiate settlements in those cases. Ultimately, 10 lawsuits were filed by county officials, employees and retired judges.
Under that authority, Smith settled five of those cases for amounts ranging from $75,000 to $500,000. Four plaintiffs remain in the lawsuit.
A countersuit filed by Thomas was withdrawn, and another filed by former Deputy County Attorney Lisa Aubuchon and former sheriff's Chief Deputy David Hendershott has been thrown out as baseless.
On April 9, Colin Campbell, Wilcox's attorney, reached an agreement with retired Judge Christopher Skelly, who was working as a mediator for the county, to settle Wilcox's claim for $975,000. Smith tentatively approved the amount and noted that it might be subject to further approvals.
But the county disputed whether Smith had the authority to settle with an elected official. County Attorney Bill Montgomery issued a formal legal opinion that state statute required one county supervisor and the county treasurer to sign off on claims made bycounty supervisors against the county.
Campbell disagreed, and he filed a motion asking the court to enforce the settlement.
Smith testified that he believed he had authority to settle the legal claims and that he believed he had settled with Wilcox. Neither Skelly nor any of the non-conflicted supervisors were there to say otherwise.
The county's lawyer, Steve LaMar, conceded that Montgomery's opinion on who needed to sign off on the settlement was invalid.
"This decision is yours," LaMar told Wake.
Campbell said he was "very pleased" with Wake's decision.
"With respect to Mary Rose, this ends all litigation," he said. "And I'm sure they'll be very happy to move on with their lives."
Supervisor Andy Kunasek said he would have preferred the Wilcox case to go to trial.
"I've always felt the board's claims were different than other claims, even prior to the county attorney's opinion," Kunasek said. "My position has always been, for the elected officials, that they need to take it through another process."
Campbell said he will ask the county to pay for his fees from the time of settlement until now.