Pinal judge relinquishing control taken amid problems
By BRIAN WRIGHT | Casa Grande Dispatch
MARICOPA — The reign of Justice of the Peace and City Magistrate Scott Sulley left a dark cloud over the city’s court system.
Since February 2014, Pinal County Superior Court Presiding Judge Stephen McCarville has had administrative oversight of both courts, as ordered by the Arizona Supreme Court. But now that control has been returned to the current justice of the peace, Lyle Riggs.
General court mismanagement, poor professional conduct, falsifying documents, lost records and more than $200,000 in missing court funds led to the end of Sulley’s job, after he was JP and city magistrate in Maricopa since the city incorporated in October 2003.
In June 2014, Sulley resigned as city magistrate and in September 2014, the Arizona Supreme Court removed Sulley from the bench as JP and barred him for life from ever serving as a judge in an Arizona courtroom. Shortly thereafter, Sulley was disbarred.
After more than two years of oversight, control of the Justice Court will be handed back to the court, which is now run by Riggs, who won the November 2014 election.
“The presiding judge of the Superior Court in Pinal County has recently confirmed that his continued administrative oversight of these courts is no longer warranted,” states an administrative order from the Arizona Supreme Court dated April 27.
Riggs said nothing really changes “at a core level,” but he now has the authority to manage his staff and hire his own employees. With that control in his hands, one of the things Riggs wants to do is implement specialty courts in Maricopa.