Romley: New investigations focus on prison where standoff occurred

(August 27, 2004) PHOENIX (AP) -- Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley says his office has two new investigations under way in connection with a prison where a 15-day hostage standoff occurred and at least one death at the prison.

Neither new investigation relates to the standoff itself but one resulted from Special Prosecutor A. Melvin McDonald Jr.'s investigation of the hostage crisis and the circumstances surrounding it, Romley said Thursday.

Romley also said Thursday he stands by McDonald and plans to appeal a judge's refusal to release a grand jury report produced by McDonald's investigation into the standoff at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis in Buckeye.

"The public has a right to know what happened there," Romley said. "This grand jury of citizens said there are significant findings, significant things that this public should know about."

Romley would not disclose the nature of either new investigation except that one involves a death and that there are allegations or other indications pointing to possible cover-ups.

Billing records obtained by The Associated Press indicated that in May, McDonald reviewed Department of Corrections records on at least one inmate suicide and did legal research on assisted suicide law. The name of the inmate or inmates involved were deleted from the records before they were released to the AP under a public records request.

Corrections Department spokeswoman Cam Hunter cited grand jury secrecy laws and said she could not comment on the investigations cited by Romley.

"When he alluded to a cover-up, that's a surprise," Hunter said. "We don't know what he's talking about."

Hunter said 17 inmates died at the 4,500-inmate Lewis complex in the past 18 months. Details on those details were not immediately available, she said.

The hostage situation started Jan. 18 when an inmate entered a guard tower and overcame two correctional officers. A second inmate eventually made his way into the tower. Both surrendered Feb. 1.

Romley said Presiding Superior Court Judge Colin Campbell's order criticizing McDonald's handling of the case was unfounded, itself disclosed grand jury matters and shouldn't have been made public without McDonald being able to respond.

Romley also said it "was disturbing to me and beyond perplexing" that Campbell previously notified targets that were subjects of one of the investigations that the investigation was under way.

Campbell declined to comment, a court spokeswoman said.

On Monday, Campbell refused to grand McDonald's request to release the report to the public.

The judge said releasing it would undermine both the secrecy that is the basis of the grand jury system and an ongoing criminal investigation. He also said McDonald engaged in misconduct by releasing his motion requesting release of the report.

Romley said he will ask Campbell to reconsider his ruling before appealing to a higher court after the two new investigations are complete. Waiting for the new probes to be completed would remove them as a consideration in whether the report should be released, Romley said.

Romley said he hadn't seen the report produced by the grand jury but accepted McDonald's assurances that it contains information that the public and policy-makers should know.

Romley also said the grand jury report may contain information helpful to both investigations but that it was wrong for Campbell to permit Romley's office to have only parts of the report and grand jury transcripts.

"The judge hasn't allowed me to do an adequate investigation," Romley said.

Romley put the total cost of McDonald's investigation, including the expense of preparing transcripts ordered by Campbell, at $397,000, with the money coming from salaries for attorney positions not yet filled.

McDonald on Feb. 19 said the investigation would be aimed primarily at producing a public report but that the grand jury also would produce indictments if it learned of crimes.

However, Romley said Thursday that the investigation was "always criminal" and not launched as an administrative inquiry. Producing a report was always an option but not the probe's primary focus, Romley said.

Romley said he would not object to public release of transcripts of secret testimony given before the grand jury but would seek redactions to protect the identify of department employees who sought anonymity.

Campbell said deleting that information and not releasing full transcripts would put an unfair cloud over people named in the report as being investigated but not criminally charged.

Romley appointed McDonald, an ex-judge and former U.S. attorney, to launch an independent investigation of the hostage situation at the request of Republican legislative leaders.

The leaders did not want to conduct their own inquiry but said they wanted to know more about how the situation occurred and how the administration of Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano handled it.

Romley, a Republican, said he could not handle the investigation himself because he may run for governor in 2006.
 

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