Pima County official approves actions by employee at demonstration

Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry has excused the actions of Pima County Public Defender Isabel Garcia at rally to protest a Tucson appearance of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arpaio, sometimes criticized for his department’s tough stand against illegal entrants, was in Tucson for a book signing July 10 at an East Broadway bookstore.

In his memo, Huckelberry said he received 775 public comments favoring Garcia’s appearance and actions and 229 against.

Beside her legal duties for the county, Garcia is also head of the Coalici—n de Derechos Humanas, a civil rights organization.

During the bookstore demonstration, someone exhibited a pinata painted to look like a sheriff’s deputy with a photograph of Arpaio’s face on the head. The head was later knocked off, and Garcia held it briefly.

There was no violence.

At a subsequent meeting of the County Board of Supervisors, more than a score of speakers called for discipline of Garcia.

Also later, John J. Macintyre, deputy chief of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office, wrote, objecting to Garcia’s actions.

And Pima County Supervisor Ann Day asked Huckelberry to investigate.

Huckelberry said one of the questions raised was whether Garcia had improperly taken part while she was supposed to be on the job.

He said he had reviewed her time records and “Ms. Garcia has diligently taken vacation time, even when county rules and policies may not have required it, in order to avoid a claim of improperly using county resources to promote a private activity.”

The Maricopa County sheriff’s office had called for “Pima County to remove this hate-mongering provocateur from its upper management.” But Huckelberry said he reviewed more than 10 minutes of videotapes of the demonstration and said such action “cannot be supported and is grossly exaggerated.”

He also said that from the tapes, “I cannot conclude that Ms. Garcia is condoning or inciting violence against a law enforcement official.”

Huckelberry said Garcia attended the demonstration “as a private citizen,” did not know there would be a pinata depicting Arpaio there, didn’t strike it or organize the destruction of it and didn’t participate in illegal activity.

He ended, “Therefore, no disciplinary action is warranted in this matter.”

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749