Maricopa County Attorney's Office to Oust 'ACAB Gang' Prosecutor
"April Sponsel, the prosecutor who ignited a major scandal when she brought bogus gang charges against Black Lives Matter protesters, is on her way out of the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
After keeping Sponsel on paid leave for more than a year, the county informed her on Monday that they plan to fire her, citing multiple cases that she had egregiously overcharged. ABC15 broke the news of the county's plans on Tuesday evening.
The details of these new cases are damning.
> In one, Sponsel charged a man with felony assault on an officer with a "dangerous weapon." It turned out to be a nearby ballpoint pen, which no one saw the man holding. . .Sponsel is being investigated by the Arizona state bar over her conduct in this case and others, according to court documents obtained by New Times that contain emails from a state bar investigator requesting grand jury transcripts of the cases.
Other Sponsel cases highlighted in the letter suggest similar issues.
Though the county has now formally informed Sponsel that it plans to dismiss her, the termination is not yet finalized. Sponsel will be allowed to respond at a meeting with the county next week. Asked about Sponsel at a press conference Wednesday morning, interim Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said because it was an "active personnel matter," she couldn't get into details.
Phoenix New Times obtained a copy of the 16-page dismissal letter against Sponsel, however, that details the key failures of the 2020 gang prosecutions, which have been widely reported. But, notably, it also exposes serious flaws in several other cases Sponsel handled over the last few years,. .Before that, though, Mitchell took over the division in September 2021 and, she claims, reviewed Sponsel's record. "I was the person who identified those cases," she told press on Wednesday.
NOTE: The letter, and the county's review, only dealt with Sponsel's most recent pending cases from 2020 and 2021, when she was part of the now-disbanded first responders unit.
> Though she held a key role, Sponsel was just one of multiple prosecutors and law enforcement officials at the county and the Phoenix Police Department who worked to bring the charges. After public outcry began to mount, the county attorney's office dropped the charges. In March 2021, it placed Sponsel on leave. An investigation commenced, culminating in Monday's decision.
THE STORY CONTINUES: . . But Sponsel has an 18-year tenure as a MCAO prosecutor. For years, she was a lead counsel on cases involving aggravated assault on law enforcement officers. She received glowing performance reviews as recently as last spring, she has alleged in court documents in her ongoing defamation lawsuit against the county.
In her lawsuit, which was filed in February, Sponsel claims that the county attorney's office and former County Attorney Allister Adel scapegoated Sponsel for the gang prosecutions — when, in fact, the entire chain of command approved of the charges.
"Everyone on the MCAO executive team, including Adel and others in her chain of command, was aware that Sponsel would be handling the [gang case] and approved of her handling the case," the civil complaint alleges.
Sponsel was informed by her supervisor, she alleges in court, that Adel and her second-in-command, Ken Vick, had approved of the gang charges. There was "no question" that Adel was aware of the charges, Sponsel claims. Vick is now facing a state bar investigation over his role in the prosecutions.
>> But armed with the evidence in this letter, the county seems to be making a case that the gang prosecutions were not an isolated event.
Mitchell said Wednesday that the county is open to looking back at older cases that Sponsel handled, but is not doing so proactively. "If there are some additional cases from the past, beyond the time that [Sponsel] was in the First Responders Bureau, that people have concerns about and want us to look at, we can certainly do that," Mitchell said.
The complete notice of intent to dismiss Sponsel, with some redactions by the county attorney's office, is shown below:
Please read more / go there >> https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/april-sponsel-embattled-acab-gang-prosecutor-to-be-ousted-from-attorneys-office-13792647
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