The following column is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
I am writing this guest editorial in response to the previous editorial by County Attorney Laura Conover. I believe the community deserves a different perspective concerning the performance of our county attorney.
Ms. Conover stated that she did not have to fire anyone in her first six months in office. What she didn’t reveal is that there has been a mass exodus of more than 60 experienced lawyers and staff in her first six months in office.
This includes the chief civil deputy, the chief ethics lawyer and the entire unit responsible for defending Pima County against lawsuits. As a result of these losses, Pima County will have to expend hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire outside private lawyers to handle the suits against the county.
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Beside all the senior leadership of the civil division, many of the more experienced and gifted prosecutors have gone elsewhere. Demotions of some of the more qualified prosecutors, a questionable management style, the public ridicule and the filing of a frivolous bar complaint against one of the most respected prosecutors in Arizona led to the flight from the office.
Tim Steller and Caitlin Schmidt from the Star have chronicled the many reasons for the departures. The office has not only lost highly qualified lawyers and staff; it has lost the experience they brought to the job.
As far as reform is concerned, the pre-indictment drug diversion program mentioned by Ms. Conover was initiated by her predecessor. It is a good program and I am glad that she is continuing the work of the prior administration.
My greatest concern is how she is handling prosecution on a daily basis. Conover has no experience as a prosecutor and she has alienated many who could have helped.
The homicide rate is soaring and she doesn’t have enough experienced prosecutors to handle them. Ms. Conover has been publicly called out by a Superior Court judge for attacking a prominent former prosecutor and another judge has reprimanded her for filing deficient pleadings.
That judge went so far as to refer her to the ethics rules on proper and ethical filing of pleadings. Ms. Conover has joined with criminal defense attorneys in attempting to reduce the sentences of the worst of the worst. These cases involve first-degree murder and horrific child abuse.
Conover says her policies are data-based. It appears her policies are based on the ideology of a former criminal defense attorney.
She is about to announce new policies which I believe will include probation for repeat offenders, pretrial release for burglars and serial offenders, and a continued assault on the sentences imposed on the worst offenders.
This is not the reform Pima County needs.
David Berkman was the former chief criminal deputy of the Pima County Attorney’s Office for eight years. He left in 2020.