Dennis McCarthy, Nebraska-Based Attorney, Is Gila County's Pick to Prosecute Stapley/Wilcox Cases

By Sarah Fenske Thu., Apr. 1 2010 at 11:27 AM

Categories: County Craziness

Dennis McCarthy

The Gila County Attorney's Office is recommending that a Nebraska-based attorney prosecute cases against Maricopa County Supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox.

The Gila County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on the appointment of Dennis McCarthy as special prosecutor at its meeting April 6, according to an agenda obtained by New Times.

McCarthy would report to Gila County Attorney Daisy Flores, who was handed the cases by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas after a judge found that Thomas had a conflict of interest and barred him from the prosecution.

Flores would supervise McCarthy much in the way Yavapai County Sheila Polk supervised former Navajo County Attorney Mel Bowers in the original, aborted prosecution of Stapley.

McCarthy, according to listings with the State Bar of Arizona, was admitted to practice in Arizona in 1991 and in Nebraska in 2007. He received his undergraduate degree from Pitzer College and his law degree from Creighton University, and he's currently a partner with Schaefer & Shapiro in Omaha, Nebraska -- specializing in criminal defense, family law, and personal injury.

Criminal defense??? What will Andrew Thomas have to say about that?

But Thomas might not want to get his knickers too twisted: A little googling suggests that McCarthy was a deputy county attorney in Gila County as recently as 2006.

Really, a prosecutor turned defense attorney who just happens to live out of state? What could be better for such a politically fraught task?

You have to give Daisy Flores credit: On first blush, at least, this seems like a pretty smart pick.

We left a message with McCarthy; we'll have more on this breaking news once we get a bit more information.