| A m e r i c a n P o s t - G a z e t t e Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona |
| Court of Appeals throws out prosecution for misreporting financials
Since the Supervisors never put in place rules AS ORDERED by the legislature to require their financial reporting, Stapley skates |
 | | Don Stapley's booking photo |
Slimy County Supervisor Don "The Don" Stapley has dishonestly gotten out of another prosecution. Stapley wasindicted on 118 counts in 2008 for filing incomplete or false financial documents. Stapley hired turncoat Republican Paul Charlton as his attorney, who finagled a loophole to get his client out of any punishment. The Supervisors were ordered by the legislature years ago to implement rules requiring them to file financial disclosures - just like any other politician is required to file. The Supervisors never did. So not only did Stapley violate the legislators' order, but he then used his own violation to get out of being prosecuted! Even more telling, Stapley's lawyers apparently only realized that the Supervisors hadn't implemented the reporting rules WELL AFTER Stapley had been indicted. That would mean all along Stapley thought he was supposed to be filing disclosures and didn't.
This stinks to high heaven. Do you think any of the rest of us common citizens could get out of criminal prosecution that way? Of course not. But Stapley is above the law, and will take down anyone who gets in his way and dares try to prosecute him, whether Sheriff Arpaio or former County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Some of the charges were dismissed because the statute of limitations had already run on them. But there were plenty of charges that should have been valid had the Supervisors complied with the law. Stapley's questionable land doings relating to his financial filings have beenextensively covered by the Phoenix New Times. After Stapley was indicted, the Supervisors changed their public records policies to make it virtually impossible for anyone to investigate them. If they didn't have anything to hide, then why did they do that?
Let's not forget, this is the Supervisor who spent $6000 of campaign money raised for a race for Chair of the National Association of Counties - where he had no opponent! - on Bang and Olufson electronics, along with $1300 for hair implants, $400 for candle holders and $10,000 for furniture for his home. He also spent these funds, solicited as campaign money, to buy tickets to Broadway plays and movie theatres, flowers, grocery store bills, massages, department stores and trips for his family to Sundance, Utah to ski, a trip for his son and friends to Florida and a three-week vacation in Hawaii for his entire family at a beach house costing approximately $11,000.
Stapley now has the nerve to sue the County for $10 million! That is 10 million he is demanding that us the taxpayers pay to him and his wife. For what? His corrupt behavior and stonewalling of investigations and smearing of anyone who dares try to investigate and prosecute him. This is outrageous, the Tea Parties have had enough, and will be running their own candidate against him. They have a well-known candidate who can easily beat him.
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