The Arizona Supreme Court on Friday issued a decision upholding a two-year suspension for a former Maricopa County prosecutor. The justices said April Sponsel violated ethics rules.
In 2020, Sponsel was assigned to prosecute 15 protesters who took part in a demonstration after the deaths of George Floyd and Dion Johnson. She charged them with gang-related offenses and other felonies.
She had access to more than 100 hours of body camera footage and hundreds of pages of police reports. But the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office dismissed the case and placed Sponsel on leave after learning she made only a minimal review of that evidence.
“A subsequent internal review into other cases she had prosecuted revealed a pattern of overcharging cases and a similar failure to fully review evidence,” a press release from the Arizona Supreme Court said.
The State Bar of Arizona filed ethical charges against Sponsel and a disciplinary panel suspended her from practicing law for two years.
Sponsel denied any wrongdoing. But the state Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the disciplinary panel’s decision, saying Sponsel violated her duty to act in good faith.
“Indeed, nothing less than this sanction would suffice given the egregiousness of the conduct and the impact on those who were wronged. Sponsel acted knowingly and should not have engaged in this conduct given her experience and the concerns raised by her colleagues,” the justices wrote in their opinion.
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