Weighing a judge’s baggage

Judging a judge is a tricky thing.

Sure, surveys of people who interact with judges are helpful, but they don’t tell you much about the baggage each judge brings to the bench.

Judges wade through consequential, high-profile cases that make headlines and sometimes stir up a little public outrage. Suffice it to say, there’s a lot more to learn about judges than just what lawyers, witnesses and juries have to say about them.

To truly get your bearings as you decide whether to retain 10 Pima County Superior Court judges, you have to look beyond just the score reports from the Commission on Judicial Performance Review.

Lucky for us, gone are the days when judges are just faceless names next to bubbles on the ballot.

Now, they are mostly faceless names on partisan voter guides.

Those guides can be helpful, especially when they’re coupled with a judge’s career background, political donations, associations and even some eyebrow-raising rulings.

But you still have to pay attention to the details. We went through a few of the guides and spotted at least one flat error — and several places where the guides left out context that matters.

Some of the reasoning used in the voter guides is simple. For example, the Freedom Club PAC, the campaign arm of the conservative Arizona Free Enterprise Club, says voters should reject Judge Sandra Bensley and Judge Randi Burnett.

The Freedom Club PAC didn’t explain its rationale, but the fact that both judges were appointed by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs seems reason enough for a group that warns that “Arizona could become California within a decade” to say the pair should get booted from the bench.

If you like to vote along party lines, then it’s a straightforward choice. But it gets tougher if you’re trying to hash out whether you think a judge has done a good job.

Take the high-profile prosecution of former Pima County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ricardo “Ricky” Garcia, who was accused of sexually assaulting a deputy at a holiday party. The case made headlines during the 2024 election cycle and nearly cost Sheriff Chris Nanos his job.

The Garcia case was cited by Arizona Judge Watch, a group opposing “the conservative capture of the courts,” and by the progressive State + Local Election Alliance.

Both groups urged voters to remove Judge Alan Goodwin for sentencing Garcia to just one year in jail.

But here’s the thing: Arizona Judge Watch said Goodwin “found him not guilty of sexual assault.” That’s not what happened. A jury — not the judge — found Garcia not guilty of that charge but guilty of two lesser charges.

If you think Garcia should’ve gotten a longer sentence, then by all means ding Goodwin for it. But don’t forget about the nuances of complex criminal cases.

Overall, the two liberal groups agreed that three judges should be removed. And wouldn’t you know it, they’re some of our JPR survey winners and losers from last time.

Since we’re already talking about Goodwin, let’s start our rundown with him.

Goodwin, an appointee of former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, scored higher than any other judge in the JPR survey.

He also seems to be getting a bad rap in the voter guides, and not just for the Garcia case.

State + Local Election Alliance cited a 2024 case in which Goodwin sentenced a man to probation after he shot at a car wash worker. The same man went on to shoot and injure nine people in downtown Tucson this summer.

It’s important to note, though, that the sentence was not all Goodwin’s doing. Part of the reason for probation, as opposed to prison, in the car wash shooting lies with the Pima County Attorney’s Office, which lost contact with the victim and made the chances of getting a conviction much shakier.

State + Local Election Alliance also pointed out that Goodwin sentenced former Navajo County Recorder Timothy Jordan to probation after he brandished a gun at two people allegedly tailgating his truck and misrepresented the story to police.

For Arizona Judge Watch, Bergin’s problems come from his vocal opposition to handing over judges’ sentencing data to a county criminal justice reform initiative aimed at reducing incarceration and racial inequity.

State + Local Election Alliance points out Bergin also allowed the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and the Blind board to vote to shut down its campus.

Woods also got into hot water with the State + Local Election Alliance for poor JPR scores.

And it’s worth mentioning that Woods has the dubious distinction of being one of the few judges the JPR voted against retaining. Back in 2014, the commission voted 22-7 to give her a negative recommendation.

Beyond those three, the two groups had some different ideas on judges to keep or boot.

Judge Cynthia Kuhn landed on State + Local Election Alliance’s list for a ruling allowing “controversial politician” Democratic Rep. Alma Hernandez to stay on the ballot, despite upwards of $20,000 in penalties for late campaign finance reports.

Arizona Judge Watch opposed retaining Judge Janet Bostwick, given her past position as in-house legal counsel for weapons manufacturer Raytheon.

And the group advised voters to proceed with caution on Judge Laurie San Angelo, citing her work as a prosecutor for the Attorney General’s Office and her endorsement from the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.

The group advised caution and cited a similar prosecutorial background for Judge Danelle Liwski, who worked at the Pima County Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

And the group notes that Liwski reported a gift worth more than $500 from the Law and Economics Center, a conservative-leaning center at George Mason University’s law school, on her financial disclosure form.

For State + Local Election Alliance, Liwski ended up on the vote “no” list for allowing pretrial release for a man charged in connection with a wrong-way crash that killed two women, despite opposition from the victims’ families.

Under investigation (again): The former head of the civil division of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office and convicted felon, Paul Correa, is under investigation again, this time for recording his co-workers, the Herald/Review’s Terri Jo Neff reports. Last December, he was arrested and charged with filming a young girl inside a Target, and he pleaded guilty in May to felony evidence tampering for deleting the video. That episode led to a review of his work-issued laptop for child pornography, where officials found that Correa also secretly recorded his female colleagues during the work week. The recorded conversations appear work-related, but the camera was apparently hidden on a shelf.

Why the secrecy?: Locals living near the Interstate 19 Border Patrol checkpoint have a lot of unanswered questions about the $63 million contract to expand the facility, the Arizona Daily Star’s Emily Bregel reports. Nearby residents say the feds have shared little about the expansion, apparently skipped an environmental impact study and have given no opportunity for the public to formally weigh in on the project. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors voted to oppose the border wall construction in Lochiel and backed the right to protest federal contractors, the Nogales International’s Graham Krewinghaus reports.

What background check? One of the three finalists to be the next Pima County administrator has a colorful past, the Tucson Sentinel’s Paul Ingram reports. While in California as San Bernardino County’s chief executive officer, Leonard Hernandez resigned in 2023 amid a flurry of allegations he hired his “mistress,” created a “culture of bullying and intimidation” and mishandled a federal grant. He currently works as the county administrator in Thurston County, Washington.

The chamber’s picks: The Chamber of Southern Arizona and its entire board of directors support five local propositions. In an oped in the Daily Star, Chamber President Joe Snell argues Props 421, 422, 425, 427 and 430 are each, in their own way, good for the community. Political observers note the endorsement includes both Pima Community College and JTED’s bonds, which will raise property taxes, but not Prop 429, which extends the Tanque Verde School district’s current maintenance and operations budget override.

Financial bondage: Pima County’s Bond Advisory Committee has begun holding public meetings to hear what voters and other municipalities want to see in next year’s Pima County bond, the Green Valley News and Sun’s Jorge Encinas writes. A final list of recommended projects to be included in the bond is expected to go before the Pima County Board of Supervisors by March 2027.

TEP spends big: Filings with the Arizona Secretary of State show Tucson Electric Power spent $4 million on pushing the new franchise agreement with the City of Tucson, also known as Prop 421. Public Power for Tucson, a group opposed to Prop 421, called the spending “desperate,” arguing the Canadian-owned utility is the only beneficiary of the franchise agreement.

Beyond the Ballot AZ is a weekly show about legendary Arizonans, notable — and sometimes notorious — political events, and the social movements still shaping the arguments we're having today.

A resource of the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission, hosted by Executive Director Tom Collins and Director of Voter Education Gina Roberts, who break down what's happening and how you can actually get involved in it. Same state you've been reading about all morning, with a lot more context.

Turning Point USA’s Tyler Bowyer casually dropped on Twitter that as much as 10% of Republicans in parts of Pima County didn’t get their ballot — and he wants to bring in the feds. Without offering any evidence.

So we asked local politicians whose districts include large Republican areas (including Republican Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy) and Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly yesterday whether they’d heard similar complaints.

The short version? There isn’t a wave of Republicans calling local officials to ask where their ballots went.

Cázares-Kelly says her office is reviewing Bowyer’s complaint but hadn’t received similar complaints from voters.

She said anyone who hasn’t received their ballot should call her office immediately to get it sorted out: (520) 724-4330.