On Monday, former Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller joined attorney and State Representative Alex Kolodin in filing an ethics complaint with the Arizona State Bar against Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre.
The controversial McIntyre last made headlines when he was arrested for drunk driving by Sierra Vista Police.
Miller, who served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors for two terms, filed the complaint on behalf of supervisors across the state, who like her, have found themselves confronting ethical lapses by county attorneys, who “seem to cave to political pressures, not principles.”
Miller and Kolodin urged the State Bar to investigate a potential breach of McIntyre’s attorney-client privilege with the Cochise County Board of Supervisors.
In their complaint Miller and Kolodin allege that McIntyre breached his obligation to the supervisors on two occasions. The first came when he publicly revealed privileged advice that he provided in executive session. The second occurred when he provided such advice to opposing counsel in civil litigation against the Board of Supervisors.
These allegations echo those made two years ago by then Secretary of State Katie Hobbs when she filed a State Bar complaint against former Attorney General Mark Brnovich alleging that he had “received confidential attorney-client communications, provided advice, filed papers on behalf of the SOS, and then withdrawn from representation and appeared in the same litigation on behalf of a different party asserting a position materially adverse to the SOS.” Ultimately, attorney general was forced to admit to breaching the ethical rules.
Former attorney Scot C. Stirling was quick to level criticism. He falsely asserted that county attorneys do not represent individual supervisors even though, under A.R.S. 11-532(A), County attorneys have a duty to “act as the legal advisor to the board of supervisors[.]” Others took issue with the fact that Miller and Kolodin had posted the bar complaint on Twitter and provided copies to the media, much as liberal groups like the 65 Project have done when targeting conservative attorneys.
“The county attorney assigned to the board of supervisors has a duty to represent the board, to give advice as requested and if the county attorney has a conflict in representing the board he could have referred the board of supervisors to an outside attorney,” Miller told the Arizona Daily Independent. “This was common practice in Pima County when I was a member of the board of supervisors.”
The State Bar will now decide whether to open the sort of formal inquiry that was eventually initiated against lawyers for President Trump and Kari Lake.
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