PHOENIX — The former Maricopa County Attorney’s Office prosecutor who helped falsely charge a group of police protesters as a criminal street gang is set to face a disciplinary trial next month.
The State Bar of Arizona’s case against April Sponsel will begin on October 3 with nine additional hearing days scheduled throughout the month, according to a recent scheduling order.
If additional days are necessary, the trial could run into November or December.
Sponsel, who was fired by MCAO last year, previously turned down a settlement offer and will fight to keep her law license after working with Phoenix police to bring bogus charges against demonstrators in October 2020.
All of the charges were eventually dismissed.
POLITICALLY CHARGED: ABC15 investigates Phoenix protest cases
The State Bar received multiple complaints against Sponsel following the scandal.
Since State Bar records are confidential until disciplinary cases are finished, Sponsel’s response to the allegations are not yet public.
But she also sued MCAO after she was fired, and a recent filing in her lawsuit laid out her version of what happened.
Primarily, she believes the charges were legitimate and she was made the scapegoat to protect her supervisors, including former County Attorney Allister Adel.
“Sponsel realized that she would become Adel’s scapegoat in order to blunt the criticism leveled by the news media, to absolve herself and the MCAO of any responsibility for bringing the charges, and to blunt the politically damaging consequences of the MCAO making or approving the decision to bring the charges,” according to her lawsuit.
The lawsuit further claims, “Adel soon began a campaign borne of personal and political self-interest to falsely blame Sponsel, and Sponsel alone, for purportedly failing to follow MCAO policies and procedures and purportedly committing professional misconduct by filing the Violent Protest Case Charges, supposedly without Adel’s (the MCAO’s) review or approval.”
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Sponsel names several high-ranking Phoenix police officers and MCAO officials who she said signed off on the plan and didn’t raise any concerns until after ABC15 launched its ‘Politically Charged’ investigation.
ABC15 has learned some of the people falsely charged in the protest case will testify in the disciplinary trial.
The county has approved up to $350,000 to fund Sponsel’s defense against the State Bar.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
