Sep 08

A win for Isabel Garcia and First Amendment Rights

By PMC Human Rights Add comments

Isabel Garcia Co-Chair of Coalicion de Derechos HumanosPima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has found that Pima County Public Defender Isabel Garcia didn’t violate any policy by protesting at a controversial event.

Garcia was present at a protest over Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s July 10 book signing at a local store. Video of Garcia holding the severed pinata head with Arpaio’s face on it has been widely distributed on the Internet

Garcia is a member of Coalición de Derechos Humans, which organized the protest.
Huckelberry’s memo, which was released Monday, states that “no disciplinary action is warranted in this matter.”
According to the memo, Garcia:

  • Attended the book signing protest as a private citizen.
  • Didn’t know beforehand that a pinata was being brought or would be in Arpaio’s likeness.
  • Didn’t recruit or organize the youths who destroyed the pinata.
  • Didn’t strike the pinata,
  • Didn’t participate in any picketing or chanting during the pinata breaking.
  • Complied with police officers to help them move the protest away from the store’s entrance.
  • Didn’t participate in any illegal activity.
  • Hasn’t used her office or county resources for any outside activity.
Deputy Maricopa County Chief John J. MacIntyre complained to Huckelberry that Garcia allegedly violated attorney ethical rules, but Huckelberry said that’s something for the State Bar of Arizona to decide.
Huckelberry said one of the factors that weighed heavily in his decision was that Arpaio was appearing at a private event, not as an official duty.
Huckelberry wrote that county ethical rules don’t cover events outside official duties. After researching other policies at various entities, from other Arizona counties to the Arizona Republic newspaper, Huckelberry noted that such policies “vary in specificity regarding off-duty activities, and use terms that are vague and difficult to enforce.
“What is embarrassing or inappropriate to one person may not be to another,” Huckelberry wrote.
Huckelberry directed the county’s Human Resources department to raise the issue of whether to revise county policy with the Pima County Merit System Commission.

Nativist Talk Show Host Jon Justice of TRUTH 104.1 in Tucson was behind this unsuccessful effort to get Ms Garcia terminated from her position with the Public Defenders office. About all he accomplished was losing advertisers to his Hate Radio Talk Show!

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