A Maricopa County Superior Court judge accused county supervisors of engaging in “shenanigans” after it forced Recorder Justin Heap to testify in an open meeting and tried to introduce that testimony in court.
Heap and the board are currently engaged in a monthslong legal fight over control of the county’s elections.
Last month, the supervisors used their legal authority to make Heap testify before the board to address conflicting statements the recorder and his staff made about alleged election issues in the county, including claims that voters were disenfranchised in past elections.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney initially blocked the board’s attempts to subpoena Heap’s staff over concerns that it could affect the ongoing court case.
He ultimately lifted that order and refused to block the board from forcing Heap to testify under a state that allows boards of supervisors to “require any county officer to make reports under oath on any matter connected with the duties of his office.”.
But now Blaney said his initial concerns were justified.
“The court further finds that the court’s initial fear — that the Board of Supervisors was using its extra-judicial subpoenas in part to influence these proceedings — was well founded,” Blaney wrote in an order issued on Wednesday.
The board planned to use the testimony to highlight inconsistencies and contradictions made by Heap and his staff in court.
But Blaney ruled that the board is not entitled to introduce evidence from testimony collected outside of the courtroom.
“The testimony on which the Board now relies was taken in front of the Board — not this court — based upon questioning by a hostile adverse party, without the protection of the rules of evidence, without a neutral arbiter, and without legal representation by Recorder Heap’s attorney,” he wrote.
And he criticized the supervisors for attempting to introduce that evidence in court at all, saying he will “not reward such shenanigans by allowing this extra-judicial ‘evidence’ to taint the record in this case.”
Blaney has grown frustrated with both parties over the course of the case, which Heap filed last year. He has repeatedly implored elected officials on all sides to negotiate their differences outside of the courtroom.
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