Arizona Court of Appeals rules Hamadeh can't have a new trial for failed election lawsuit
Abe Hamadeh is not entitled to a do-over of his trial in his bid to overturn his loss of the attorney general's race, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
In a split decision, the three-judge panel noted that Hamadeh's own attorney admitted to a judge that the evidence presented at his trial was insufficient to actually get a ruling that he had outpolled Democrat Kris Mayes.
Appellate Judge David Gass, writing for the majority, acknowledged that Hamadeh later came back and claimed to have "newly discovered evidence'' that should entitle him to a new trial. But Gass said that Hamadeh never really explained how any of this would have affected the final outcome to show that he lost to Mayes by 280 votes.
The appellate court also said that Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen did not err in rejecting various requests by Hamadeh for information from Maricopa County, including a list of people who cast provisional ballots but whose votes were not counted. Here, too, Gass said Hamadeh failed either to act promptly or to show that any of this was relevant.
And the court rebuffed claims that Jantzen acted improperly in limiting the amount of time he had to prepare his legal arguments for his trial.
Tuesday's ruling drew a stinging reaction, with Hamadeh calling the ruling "a display of a neutered justice system that not only defies common sense, but defies the rule of law.''
"The ruling illustrates that one of the most disgraceful elections in the history of our state will never face accountability or honor the true will of the people,'' he said in a prepared statement.
He called the split decision "very confusing'' and "ripe for Supreme Court review,'' even though he is actively running to be the Republican nominee for the U.S. House in CD 8 to replace Rep. Debbie Lesko when she retires from Congress at the end of the year.
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