Tucson’s lawyers ask former state Sen. Justine Wadsack to pay legal fees after dropped lawsuit

She dropped her civil rights claim against Tucson.

But an attorney for the city is telling a federal judge that doesn’t excuse former state Sen. Justine Wadsack from having to pay for their costs in preparing for the case — especially as she was a no-show at one of the hearings.

In new filings, Joseph Williams tells U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Zipps that lawyers with his firm spent time preparing arguments in their bid to have Wadsack’s claim dismissed and attending hearings. When Wadsack didn’t appear at one of them — he says intentionally — Williams said it took more than nine hours of legal work preparing motions to have the case tossed and ask that the court impose financial sanctions on her.

And then, on top of all that, she asked the case be dismissed.

All totaled, he said, he and his firm are entitled to $7,838.

Wadsack, asked for comment, responded, “pound sand,” and said “aggressive hit jobs on me are inappropriate.”

Williams also told Zipps that the fact Wadsack is no longer pursuing her claim does not excuse her from having to pay the costs she forced the city to assume in defending it. And he noted that, even in moving to drop her claims that her rights were violated when she was pulled over in 2024 for speeding in Tucson, Wadsack asked that the case be dismissed “without prejudice,” leaving open the opportunity for her to refile it at some point.

“The court has the inherent power to punish those who litigate in bad faith before it by ordering the violating party or its counsel to pay the opposing party’s attorneys’ fees,” Williams said.

In this case, he said, it was more than Wadsack simply not pursuing the case after she filed it earlier this year. Williams also said there was her failure to show up in court for an Aug. 26 hearing which was to hear the question of whether Dennis Wilenchik, who she had retained as counsel, could drop her as a client — something an attorney cannot do without court permission.

“Wadsack knew the date, time, and location of the hearing and understood the court ordered her to attend,” he said.

In a signed affidavit filing explaining her absence, Wadsack acknowledged she was aware of the hearing in federal court in Tucson. But in a signed affidavit, she told the judge she is “experiencing a family health crisis that is physically and mentally draining.”

“Consequently, I will at time lose focus and mix up specific dates and times,” Wadsack wrote. “That is what caused my failure to appear.”

Williams sniffed at that explanation.

“She was not too drained or forgetful to attend a scheduled personal event, a fact she does not dispute,” he told Zipps, pointing out the fact she posted on X the afternoon of the hearing saying she was attending an event in Phoenix.

All this stems from the 2024 traffic stop during the legislative session on East Speedway where an officer said he clocked her doing double the posted limit. She responded she was trying to get home quickly because her all-electric Tesla was about to run out of battery charge.

But Wadsack also claimed she was targeted because she was a state senator and it was in retaliation for her “investigating the Tucson police, was an outspoken critic of the Tucson city government, was a member of the legislature’s Freedom Caucus, and because she is a woman and her primary opponent was a man who TPD officials felt could be controlled better.”

The officer, after consulting with superiors, did not cite her at the time as the Arizona Constitution protects lawmakers from arrest during the time the Legislature is in session, which it was.

But that provision is not immunity. And she was given a citation after the session.

Eventually Wadsack had the charge dismissed after taking a defensive driving class.

She then turned around earlier this year and accused the officer and various Tucson officials of violating her civil rights and being part of a plan designed to undermine her reelection bid. As it turned out, Wadsack did lose the 2024 GOP primary to Vince Leach who she had defeated just two years earlier.

Wadsack has since moved to Gilbert.