Evidence that prosecutors improperly kept from grand juries in a Maricopa County murder case has led to the acquittals and dismissals of all charges in the case, which went to trial earlier this month.
Michael Kiefer, who wrote a terrific four-part series on prosecutorial misconduct in Arizona last year, reported this morning for the Arizona Republic that all remaining charges in the case of Jonathon Cobian and John Mena were dismissed by Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s office yesterday due to a lack of evidence.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has been at the center of controversy over prosecutorial misconduct in Arizona in recent years, with the Debra Milke case and other death penalty cases in particular suggesting a pattern of withholding exculpatory evidence.
911 calls that supported Cobian and Mena’s claims that they killed members of a gang in self-defense were not played for the grand juries that indicted them in 2007, 2008 and 2009, leading to all three sets of indictments being thrown out. Kiefer reports,
A former prosecutor on the case was found to have committed prosecutorial misconduct for ignoring judges’ orders to inform three different grand juries that 911 tapes made at the time of the attacks were potentially exculpatory and that the defense attorneys wanted them to listen to them.
Those calls ultimately saved the brothers from conviction.
Assistant County Attorney Eric Basta went so far as to refile the brothers’ case so that it might be heard by a different judge, but was unsuccessful. According to Kiefer, one judge who presided over the case found Basta to have committed prosecutorial misconduct:
Superior Court Judge George Foster threw out the indictments and wrote, “The court finds such an argument to be disingenuous. The 911 tapes contain evidence that is clearly exculpatory and the prosecutor should have informed the grand jury of the exculpatory evidence and the defendant’s request that the grand jury hear the tapes.”
When the case finally went to trial, the jury found the brothers not guilty of some of the alleged murder and assault charges, but were unable to agree on two counts of murder and other charges. The charges on which the jury hung were those dismissed yesterday by the Maricopa County Attorney.
WELL FINALLY THE SHIFT IS COMING!!!! MARTINEZ AND FLORES HAVE SWAYED THIS THEORY OF ALL IN 2 minutes and forgot to admit FULL DISCLOSURE on a prosecution witness,Lisa,an ex girlfriend of Travis who did testify he enjoyed grabbing touching her consistently wanting sex AND by the way,what you did not here in her testimony because MARTINEZ viewed that it would it INFLAME the case,so Martinez QUASHED DISCOVERY testimony that Lisa’s ex STEVE,who has an extensive CRIMINAL record,was very angryand very upset getting dumped for Travis/TDOGG.FRIENDS OF TRAVIS THOUGHT AT THE TIME OF CAR TIRE SLASHI G AND SOME OTHER INCIDENTS TO TRAVIS,IT WAS STEVE,LISA’s ex, BUT, MARTINEZ HID ALL THE TRUTH AND SUBMITTED LIMITED QUESTIONING. this is an officer of the court and it is a violation of the highest level to deny FULL DISCLOSURE, AND ESPECIALLY DEATH PENALTY CASE. MARTINEZ IS THE MAN TO ALWAYS GO FOR DEATH..
Fascinating how this “evidence” comes out AFTER Arias was convicted. Where were you during the trial? Laughable.
Fascinating how many uneducated idiots there are . the biggest one being the above poster, PESKY VRMT
Rather than laughable it’s pathetic at best.
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