Criminal Litigation with Former Sheriff

By Criss Candelaria, Apache County Attorney

Some folks have asked about the cost of the criminal case involving the sheriff. The costs of the Attorney General's investigation did not cost Apache County Government because Hounshell's men gave their evidence of corruption directly to that office. The Attorney General's investigation began to develop evidence of a much larger criminal conspiracy to misuse county funds which involved many more people and many other corrupt dealings. The Attorney General's investigation for whatever reason however had focused only on Hounshell. After familiarizing myself with the investigation and considering my ethical duties, I determined that justice required bringing in an attorney who could fully dedicate his office staff and resources to an investigation of this size. With the approval of the Apache County Board of Supervisors, I hired Grant Woods, a respected former Arizona Attorney General and trial lawyer, who was free of local political influence, to inquire into the case without interference and make decisions whether to pursue any civil or criminal matters against anyone.

The real costs of Woods' investigation directly related to the number of Hounshell's separate criminal acts and those of his coconspirators. Each one had to be investigated: witnesses interviewed, documents gathered and analyzed; and decisions made about the strength of dozens of allegations to decide which crimes had enough evidence to charge a crime. Therefore, he alone defined the scope of the investigation and is responsible for all the costs.

Much less satisfying to the community are undesirable delays in completing the prosecution. With the full dedication of his office's resources, Grant Woods was more quickly able to resolve this case. Other county attorneys in similar circumstances have recognized their limited ability to take on such a large labor intensive prosecution. Pinal County, for example, hired the firm of former Maricopa County Attorney, Rick Romley to prosecute its county manager for similar crimes.

Anyone who suggests that another county attorney's office had the manpower and financial resources to undertake such a large prosecution without seriously handicapping its regular prosecution responsibilities to its citizens is sadly unaware of the realities of government legal service and the practice of law.

If another county attorney's office has to juggle its own cases with the management of a large prosecution involving investigators, attorneys, many hours of court time, and a great deal of travel its easy to see that these large and time consuming cases can only be handled by special prosecutors or independent counsel hired especially for that purpose.

The ethical and logistical realities led me to hire Grant Woods. To do anything else would have been extraordinarily expensive and time consuming.

© 2008 Criss Candelaria