Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney denied the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ (MCBOS) request for extrajudicial subpoenas in an election lawsuit. America First Legal (AFL), representing Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap, sued the MCBOS last June for taking away sections of Heap’s office after he was elected but before he took office.
AFL posted a screenshot of part of the ruling on X, stating, “The Maricopa Superior Court DENIED Maricopa County’s last-ditch attempt to delay a decision in our elections lawsuit. The court said it will not ‘reward such shenanigans’ or ‘allow this gamesmanship to interfere with or jeopardize the integrity of these proceedings.’
Blaney said in his order, “The Court … finds that this Court’s initial fear — that the Board of Supervisors was using its extra-judicial subpoenas in part to interfere with or jeopardize the integrity of these proceedings — was well-founded.” He concluded, “Even if Defendants’ request actually constituted a proper use of the rule (it does not), the Court would still not reward such shenanigans by allowing this extra-judicial ‘evidence’ to taint the record in this case.”
The MCBOS previously subpoenaed Heap to testify regarding the feud at one of their meetings last month. Maricopa County Supervisor Mark Stewart disagreed with the rest of the board, stating that the board should return parts of Heap’s office back to him.
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