Shakeup in DOJ team involved in case of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Numerous U.S. Department of Justice members involved in the federal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office have been removed from the case, according to a court filing late Thursday.

The DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights notified the court that four attorneys, Cynthia Coe, Paul Killebrew, Megan Marks and Aparna Patrie, were no longer assigned to the case that stemmed from racial profiling practices under former Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The department has been under a consent decree ever since that time, which has put a federal monitor to oversee changes within the department, which is the fourth-largest sheriff’s office in the country.

The DOJ was participating in the case as an intervenor.

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order regarding law enforcement, which called for the U.S. attorney general to review all ongoing federal consent decrees and to “modify, rescind, or move to conclude such measures that unduly impede the performance of law enforcement functions.”

Former DOJ Attorney Emily Gunston said that could lead to changes. “The United States would say, ‘We’ve looked at this executive order that was issued. We are now changing our position on the case.’ That would be unusual,” Gunston said.

Gunston spent nine years in the DOJ’s Office of Civil Rights.

CBS News has reported there’s been a mass exodus of attorneys from that division in recent days. “It is really, I think, painful. The Civil Rights Division is historic and storied element of the Department of Justice. The folks who work in that division do the work of protecting the constitutional rights of minority groups in this country,” Gunston said.

She explained that while the DOJ could file a motion to have the case dismissed, the ACLU of Arizona, the plaintiff in the case, would fight it. Ultimately, it would be up to the judge to decide. “It is unfortunate if the United States doesn’t continue to do its part in the case, it’s unfortunate for the division, it’s unfortunate for the case. It doesn’t make the case go away,” Gunston said.

Thomas Galvin, the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, has criticized the length of the federal oversight of the sheriff’s office and its cost to the county. In a recent letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, he called the practice of federal oversight “judicial takeovers of law enforcement” and said the oversight mutates over time “to prevent local governments from ever satisfying their requirements and regaining local control.”

Galvin said they are exploring the county’s options, given President Trump’s executive order. “We have hired outside counsel to examine this issue, and we look forward to exploring all paths in defending Maricopa County’s taxpayers,” Galvin said in a statement to Arizona’s Family Investigates.

Arizona’s Family Investigates reached out to the four attorneys removed from the DOJ’s MCSO case for comment on their departure.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the removal of the attorneys from the case and the status of the investigation involving the Phoenix Police Department.

The cost of federal oversight

The cost of the Melendres case and subsequent oversight has cost the county over $300 million, according to documents from the county.

Arizona’s Family Investigates has reported extensively on the cost of the monitor, which is the county’s biggest expense related to the case itself.

To date, Maricopa County has paid $30 million in monitor fees and a lease for the monitor’s staff to use. Costs to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office have totaled $244.8 million since the start of the oversight.

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