Prosecutors in Arizona’s most populous county have dropped nearly 200 criminal cases because charges were not filed before the statute of limitation expired.
A supervisor never delegated 180 misdemeanor cases to prosecutors, Ryan Green, a division chief in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, told The Arizona Republic.
The cases include drunk driving, domestic violence, assaults, and criminal damage incidents that happened in 2020.
Most were initiated by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the county sheriff’s office. Arizona law requires misdemeanor cases to be filed within a year of the alleged crimes.
“It was human error. However, it was human error that happened in the context of high volume, heavy caseload, and not enough staffing,” Green said.
He confirmed that Karen Sciarrotta was the bureau chief who failed to inform anyone about the problem. All of those cases sat untouched in a virtual queue for more than a year. She has since received a written reprimand, Green said.
Letters to alleged victims about the failure to prosecute the cases were sent at the beginning of the year.
But they did not contain an explanation or an apology, the newspaper reported. They simply stated, “an attorney has reviewed the report and has made the decision that the case cannot be prosecuted.”
The lapse in case handling came as County Attorney Allister Adel continues to be questioned about her abilities to lead the office.
Some, including Green and former County Attorney Rick Romley, have urged Adel to resign. They say her sobriety struggles have caused her to be absent from crucial day-to-day tasks.
Adel told the newspaper a failure of “a few employees” does not mean she cannot do her job.
“I reached out to the most significantly impacted law enforcement agencies, provided them detailed information about the problem, owned the mistake, and committed to ensuring it does not happen again,” Adel said.
Adel, a Republican, has previously vowed that she will not resign.
When she was elected in November 2020, Adel underwent emergency surgery on election night for a brain bleed after a fall.
She was back at work full-time the following spring, but in August, she went into treatment for alcohol abuse, an eating disorder, and other issues.
Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
