public money is stolen and tucson burns while mayor walkup celebrates chocolate chip cookie day

8/4/2019 Public Money is Stolen and Tucson Burns While Mayor Walkup Celebrates Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

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ARIZONA COMMON SENSE

September 03,

2011

Volume 1, Number 2

The professionof the law, in its

nature thenoblest and

most beneficialto mankind, is in

its abuse andabasement the

most sordid andpernicious

--Bolingbroke

GILMARTIN TRIAL TRANSCRIPT REVEALS

CORRUPTION AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF THE

TUCSON POLICE DEPARTMENT.

On September 14, 2006, after three weeks of trial in whichDefendant former Tucson Police Chiefs Smith, Miranda and

Ochoa took the stand and lied under oath, and then liedagain, again and again, seasoned trial attorney Richard

Martinez knew better than to ask the jury for a specific dollaramount: as things turned out, anything he might have dared

ask them for would certainly have been dwarfed by the awardthey gave.

Instead, Martinez appealed to the jurys sense of right and

wrongand their sense of disgust and dismay, as he put

itand, after looking at and listening carefully to DefendantsSmith, Miranda and Ochoa for three weeks, the jury must

have had a whole lot of disgust and dismay in their mindswhen they awarded Plaintiffs Gilmartin and Harris a cool 9

hundred thousand dollars in compensatory damages, and

nearly 2 million dollars more in punitive damages.

The jury found that in 1998 the Defendants had stacked thedeck and perjured themselves to deny Plaintiffs renewal of a

contract they had to provide counseling services to theTucson Police Department Behavioral Sciences Unit, all in

retaliation for Plaintiff Gilmartin providing testimony on behalfof Tucson Police Officers in a suit against Tucson Police

Department Officials.

The punitive damage award itself was particularly significant:the jury found that the Defendants engaged in aggravated

and outrageous conduct, or otherwise acted with an evilmind, intending to defraud or injure.

The jury was comprised of local citizens who gave up three

weeks of their lives, examined the evidence and went on to

hold the Defendants personally liable for the largest amountof punitive damages ever awarded against public officials inArizona history.

The jury took an oath to uphold the law. They did their duty.

And after they did Tucson City Manager Mike Hein declaredthat Defendant Miranda had unquestioned moral compass
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and hired him as Assistant City Manager, Tucson CityAttorney Mike Rankin went ahead and unlawfullyspent more

than half a million dollar in public money to satisfy thepunitive damages, Mayor Walkup said he was pleased with

Mirandas new position and the City Council signed off on thewhole deal.

In other words: to hell with the federal judge and jury. We

Tucson Public Officials hold ourselves above the law wevesworn to protect.

How can any honest minded person reconcile the jurys effort

and verdict in 2006 with the decision the Good Ole Boysmade several years later when they promoted a guy who the

jury found acted with an evil mind, intending to defraud or

injure, from Police Chief to Assistant Tucson City Manager ata whopping 50% increase in pay?

In 2006 the Gilmartin Jury found that Tucson City Officials,and especially Miranda, got rid of Gilmartin and Harris for

standing up, telling the truth, and doing the right thing.

What kind of a message does it send to the public and to cityworkers themselves when the City of Tucson actually

promotes someone who has been found liable for lying,cheating and stealing?

Thats a question Tucson community activist Roy Warden

intends to ask when he addresses the Tucson City Council onWednesday September 9, 2011.

The Tucson City Council and Mayor have sworn an oath butthey have failed their duty to protect the public interest,Warden says.

Warden also says that members of the local bar and public,

every elected Tucson public official, should go to the TucsonCity Clerks Office and read for themselves the entire

Gilmartin Trial Transcript.

We have 200 million dollars of Rio Nuevo funds unaccountedfor, the FBI seizing Rio Nuevo files, Tucson City Manager Mike

Letcher telling the public, Oh, dont keep looking to the past,

we got to move forward, proven liars, cheaters and thieves

like Richard Miranda promoted to high office, the unlawful useof public money to pay punitive damage awards, furlough

days at the municipal courthouse, the 911 system in collapse,firefighters laid off, the erosion of public confidence, etc.

Rome burns, public officials steal money while the City

Council dithers and Mayor Walkup decides to proclaim July 202011 as Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, Warden says.


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Something is very, very wrong in the Old Pueblo. And itstime our elected officials did something about it.

Roy Warden,

PublisherArizona Common Sense

1015 W. Prince Road#131-182

Tucson Arizona [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]