PHOENIX — Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and other top prosecutors will be subpoenaed to testify in a special evidentiary hearing to determine whether charges against dozens of pro-Palestine protesters were retaliatory.
The court ruled that state law requires county attorney’s office officials to take the stand under an Arizona law that aims to protect people from prosecution for exercising their First Amendment rights.
“It’s this court’s finding that fundamentally the defense has met their burden… warranting an evidentiary hearing,” said University Lakes Court Justice of the Peace Tyler Kissell.
Earlier this year, defense attorneys for more than 60 protesters charged after a 2024 demonstration at Arizona State University filed an Anti-SLAPP motion, which seeks to dismiss the cases. The defense motion alleged the charges are intended to punish them for their political views and are designed to deter future protests.
In court filings, MCAO has strongly denied those allegations and argued the charges were justified.
The state’s Anti-SLAPP law now requires MCAO to prove that its charges are not retaliatory and it means that prosecutors will have to take the stand and be cross-examined by the protesters’ defense attorneys.
It’s not yet clear if MCAO will challenge the ruling or object to top officials, including Mitchell, being forced to testify.
The office declined to comment on the court’s ruling.
But at a recent hearing, MCAO’s head appellate attorney was sitting in court and repeatedly conferred with prosecutors.
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Almost none of the 68 cases against the ASU protesters have been resolved.
Defense attorneys said that’s because MCAO refused to offer plea deals to the class 3 misdemeanors, which are the lowest level in Arizona’s judicial system, just above a civil traffic ticket.
“MCAO loves to push through with plea bargains. They want to resolve every case quickly and efficiently through plea bargaining,” said Jared Keenan, an attorney with ACLU Arizona. “It just doesn’t really make sense unless you acknowledge the fact that MCAO is once again targeting people for their First Amendment activity.”
In a past interview, one of the protesters’ defense attorneys, Steve Benedetto, said the case feels similar to a past scandal involving MCAO prosecutors, who worked with police to invent a gang and falsely charge protesters as members.
“I will say, based on the body cams, based on my knowledge of what happened in 2020, it certainly is starting to look that way,” Benedetto said in an interview with ABC15. “We got the involvement of the top levels of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office guiding and interacting with the ASU Police Department before any arrests have even happened, which shadows what we saw in 2020, and ultimately led to a very large settlement against the county.”
Maricopa County settled with the 2020 protesters for $6 million.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
