Barbara LaWall Pima County attorney

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Four years ago Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall easily won re-election over a pair of long-shot opponents from the Libertarian and Green parties.

The controversy that would rock her office over the murder of a local doctor was two weeks from exploding onto the front page.

Although the furor has died down, the fallout from Dr. David Brian Stidham's murder has landed back on LaWall's doorstep, as one of the former prosecutors she disciplined in relation to that case is now running to replace her.

Republican Brad Roach, the former prosecutor, as well as Green Claudia Ellquist are challenging LaWall, a Democrat.

Stidham was murdered on Oct. 5, 2004, outside his office on the city's North Side. Dr. Bradley Schwartz, a colleague, and hired hit man Ronald Bruce Bigger were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and murder for the killing.

Schwartz's former fianceé, Lourdes Lopez, who resigned as a deputy Pima County attorney two years earlier, remained close friends with attorneys in the office after she left and confided concerns about Schwartz and the murder to them.

According to LaWall, she suspended Roach, Nicki DiCampli and Janet Altschuler and fired Paul Skitzki because they failed to immediately tell authorities Lopez had identified Schwartz as a possible suspect in the days after Stidham's slaying.

The Pima County Merit Commission upheld Skitzki's firing but reduced Roach's and DeCampli's discipline to written and verbal reprimands, respectively, awarding them back pay.

Roach, who later resigned, insists he delayed reporting his suspicions about Schwartz because he didn't want Schwartz to be able to say the Pima County Attorney's Office was targeting him. Plus, he said, Lopez had already spoken to sheriff's deputies about Schwartz.

LaWall's office has also come under public scrutiny for the 2004 disbarment of her former chief criminal deputy, Ken Peasley, for eliciting false statements during murder trials in 1993 and 1997 and for having to dismiss charges against a murder suspect in 2003 because David White, another former chief criminal deputy, committed prosecutorial misconduct.

LaWall said those cases are history.

Most people only have a vague recollection of her office's part in the Schwartz case, LaWall said, and she receives enormous positive feedback whenever she goes out in public.

"The people are cognizant of the fact my office is about doing what is right, what is just and what is true," she said. "I've not had a single person in the public ask me about what they read on a blog or on the Internet. I've not ever been asked to defend myself."

Roach, the former prosecutor, now a private defense attorney, says the Stidham case is one example of LaWall making decisions based on politics.

LaWall disciplined him and the others because she was angry at having to transfer the high-profile case to Pinal County due to their relationship with Lopez, Roach said.

She waited until a week after the Nov. 2, 2004, election to announce the transfer to avoid a backlash, Roach said.

LaWall says she didn't make her decision until Nov. 9 because it took that long for her office to gather all the facts.

Besides, "It wasn't a hotly contested race. It's not like if I'd announced it Oct. 20, it would have changed the results," LaWall said. She got 75 percent of the votes that year.

Amelia Craig Cramer, chief deputy county attorney, is outraged that anyone would question LaWall's ethics.

LaWall recently received the Ethical Leadership Award from the Law Enforcement Coordinating Council, which is made up of the heads of state and federal law enforcement agencies, Cramer said.

Besides thorough background checks, she said, anyone who applies for a job in the office must take an ethics, character and integrity assessment test. Attorneys are also required to attend regular in-house ethics training sessions and those put on by the State Bar of Arizona.

The office has an ethics committee that meets regularly as well, Cramer said.

LaWall said she also gives potential employees hypothetical situations to gauge their ethics.

Bob Van Wyck, chief bar counsel for the Arizona State Bar, said the programs implemented within LaWall's office have helped its reputation.

"There's no question that years ago there were considerable problems within the office; however, as a result of a number of things, there have been very, very few complaints over the last three or four years," Van Wyck said. "It's very different there than it was years ago."

Rick Lougee, the defense attorney who filed the complaint that got Peasley disbarred, said he sees a difference.

"I don't think there is overt corruption over there, and I think there used to be in the 1980s into the 1990s," Lougee said. "I think the young attorneys over there really are very professional and very good."

While it's fair for people to hold LaWall accountable for the office's ethical lapses, Lougee said, "She's learned from her mistakes."

Defense attorneys Chris Kimminau, Brick Storts, Laura Udall and Dan Cooper all said that while they may strongly object to some of LaWall's policies, they believe her office is made up of hardworking, ethical attorneys who are trying to be just, for the most part.

When a defense attorney and a prosecutor both nominate one of LaWall's top prosecutors for an open spot on the bench, that pretty much says it all, Storts said.

He and prosecutor Rick Unklesbay nominated Teresa Godoy to fill retiring Judge Barbara Sattler's spot, and Godoy got the position, Storts said.

"For the most part, (LaWall's) attorneys are dedicated people," Storts said. "In all of my dealings with them they have been aboveboard and straightforward."

Roach agreed with his colleagues on the ethics of those who work for LaWall, but he still questions her ethics. When a fake quote from Tucson Police Chief Kermit Miller ended up on her campaign Web site, LaWall blamed a volunteer staff member, Roach said.

"A leader takes responsibility for whatever happens in their office, because that's what leaders do, but if they don't, it destroys morale within an office because they know that when something bad happens, they'll be thrown under the bus," Roach said.