Maricopa County Sheriff Deputy Update

A lit­tle while ago I posted a video show­ing a Maricopa County Sheriff Deputy “secur­ing” files from a defense attor­ney when her back was turned. Well that same deputy was ordered by a judge to pub­li­cally apol­lo­gize, or go to jail. He refused to apol­o­gize. I won­der if he’s going to actu­ally show up for jail in the morning.

Officer Misses Apology Deadline, Says I Will Not Lie

PHOENIX — Officer Adam Stoddard was ordered to make a pub­lic apol­ogy or be thrown in jail by Nov. 30. But late late Monday he defended his actions, say­ing, “The judge there­fore puts me in a posi­tion where I must lie or go to jail. And I will not lie.”

MCSO deten­tion offi­cer Adam Stoddard was caught on tape snatch­ing a priv­i­leged doc­u­ment from the desk of a defense attor­ney last month.

Stoddard was held in con­tempt of court for tak­ing the note from Joanne Cuccia’s desk. It hap­pened dur­ing the aggra­vated assault sen­tenc­ing hear­ing for Antonio Lozano.

“He is to give Ms. Cuccia a sin­cere ver­bal and writ­ten apol­ogy for invad­ing her defense file and for the dam­age that his con­duct may have caused to her pro­fes­sional rep­u­ta­tion,” said Judge Gary Donahoe. Judge Donahoe said that his dead­line for the apol­ogy is Nov. 30.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio says that Stoddard was just doing his duty and is in oppo­si­tion of the judge’s order.

Full Statement by Officer Stoddard

“I am Maricopa County Detention Officer Adam Stoddard. I work in the Court Security Division of the Sheriff’s Office and have been with the Sheriff’s Office for five years.

“Recently, Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe ordered me to hold a press con­fer­ence to pub­licly apol­o­gize for doing the job I have been trained to do.

“Part of my job in pro­vid­ing secu­rity to the court is to inspect doc­u­ments brought into the court­room. On October 19^th, I saw a doc­u­ment that I had not yet screened, and that raised secu­rity con­cerns. I retrieved that doc­u­ment in plain sight and had court per­son­nel copy it to pre­serve it as evi­dence in case it was a secu­rity breach.

“It was a split sec­ond deci­sion and I do not regret my actions.

“Judge Donahoe has ordered me to feel some­thing I do not and say some­thing I can­not. I can­not apol­o­gize for putting court safety first.

“The judge there­fore puts me in a posi­tion where I must lie or go to jail. And I will not lie.“

Watch Deputy Stoddard’s state­ment on the Fox 10 News Arizona’s website.