Board of Supervisors stalling Stapley prosecution

Some excerpts from the East Valley Tribune article -

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has refused to ratify the appointment of special prosecutors to work on a criminal case against Supervisor Don Stapley.

Barnett Lotstein, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, said the board's action is reminiscent of Watergate, when President Nixon fired a special prosecutor who was looking into the scandal.

"This is a shocking, brazen, unprecedented attempt to derail the investigations of Supervisor Don Stapley and Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox," Lotstein said.

Wilcox, a Phoenix Democrat, has come under fire for her own alleged wrongdoings. A recently published investigation by the Goldwater Institute alleges she used her political connections to land and keep a lucrative restaurant contract at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and she violated federal rules while doing so.

Chief Deputy County Attorney Philip MacDonnell addressed the financial issues in a letter to the county Friday.

"The cost of investigation and prosecution of allegations of criminal conduct is not subject to specific prediction," MacDonnell wrote.

Providing an arbitrary limit on a prosecution would allow the defense to delay the case until the money ran out, MacDonnell said.