Kunasek gets $123,000 settlement from Maricopa County
By Michelle Ye Hee Lee The Republic | azcentral.com Tue Jan 15, 2013 10:39 PM
Maricopa County has agreed to pay Board of Supervisors Chairman Andy Kunasek $123,110 in attorneys’ fees and defense costs to settle a claim against the county stemming from failed investigations into county administrators and judges by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas.
The payment will come from the county’s self-insured risk trust.
Kunasek put the county on notice in 2010 that he might file a claim, signing an agreement to suspend relevant statutes of limitations and allowing him to sue at any time over the actions of Arpaio and Thomas.
Kunasek said he waited to file his notice of claim because he anticipated being a witness in potential criminal prosecutions of various other county officials. However, federal prosecutors last September announced they had closed their four-year criminal investigation and grand-jury probe without filing charges.
“I didn’t want to have any kind of financial interest out there clouding up my testimony,” Kunasek said.
Kunasek was re-elected in November.
He filed his notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, in December. Kunasek was the last to file a claim tied to those investigations, and the quickest to get a payout approved. Most of the related lawsuits took years to settle. Some continue to linger.
The risk trust fund Board of Trustees approved the settlement last Friday. The trustees can settle claims of up to $200,000 without supervisors’ approval. The county would not immediately release a copy of the settlement, saying it will be released publicly next week.
Kunasek’s claim stems from the so-called government-corruption investigations by Thomas and Arpaio between 2008 and 2010 that targeted county administrators, supervisors and some judges. Ten people targeted in those probes sued the county, and seven of their suits were settled for at least $2.3 million, not including litigation fees.
Included in that sum is Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox’s $975,000 settlement, which is under dispute in court. It has not been paid and has been accruing interest since June, increasing the pending amount to over $1 million.
Kunasek signed an affidavit saying the former county manager who signed Wilcox’s settlement did not have authority to do so, and voted to appeal her settlement. He has maintained supervisors should recoup only attorneys’ fees, and has said he believes Wilcox’s settlement exceeded her attorneys’ fees.
“I said all along I think everybody that was victimized by these people should have their fees and costs covered,” Kunasek said.
The new county manager, Tom Manos, has authority to settle claims relating to the Thomas and Arpaio abuse-of-power cases, but deferred the handling of Kunasek’s claim to the risk trust fund Board of Trustees.
“To me, especially given that I work for Supervisor Kunasek, to maintain the public trust, I think it was a better option to have a group of citizens (whose) sole purpose is to review and evaluate claims and settle claims within their authority,” Manos said.
Manos said a state statute requiring one county supervisor and the county treasurer to sign off on claims made by county supervisors, such as reimbursements, would apply to Kunasek’s legal claim.
Thomas pursued indictments against Kunasek, among others, but a grand jury refused to indict. Kunasek testified during last year’s State Bar disciplinary hearings against Thomas and two former deputies that he believed he was the third of five supervisors targeted by Thomas in an attempt to jeopardize the Board of Supervisors’ voting quorum. Thomas ultimately was disbarred.
In Kunasek’s notice of claim, criminal-defense attorney David Derickson outlined physical and financial damages to Kunasek and his family.
“Mr. Kunasek was targeted, not because he had committed a criminal act, but because Arpaio, Thomas and their agents believed they could ‘decapitate’ county government by indicting three of the five supervisors or force the board to give financial benefits to their offices,” Derickson wrote. “Despite the existence of significant physical and financial loss to Mr. Kunasek, he is limiting his demand to the actual attorney fees and costs he has incurred in defending himself for the past four years.”
Worlds largest gun show is in Las Vegas
SHOT Gun Show - Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show
While the "Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show" which is hosted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation of Newtown, Conn. is not open to the public I suspect anybody that is associated with the gun or sporting industry can get in for free if you pre-register.Their web site is here: www.nssf.org
You can register for the show here: www.shotshow.org and here
Defiance, discretion at Vegas gun show
Justin Berton
Updated 7:26 am, Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Las Vegas -- A month after the elementary school massacre that threatens to change the American gun industry, a group based where that atrocity took place mixed defiance with discretion Tuesday in opening the doors to the world's largest gun show.
More than 60,000 gun dealers, retailers and apparel makers are in Las Vegas this week for the annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show, hosted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation of Newtown, Conn.
The four-day "SHOT Show" is not for the public - it's for those who sell to the public. With the killings of 20 schoolchildren and seven adults in Newtown prompting the Obama administration to move quickly on proposing changes in federal gun laws, the attitude in Las Vegas this week is a combination of aggressiveness, attention to image and adaptation to a new environment.
"You didn't cause the monstrous crime in Newtown and neither did we," Steve Sanetti, president and CEO of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, told members in opening-night remarks. A new product
On the floor of the Sands Expo and Convention Center, browsers gripped sleek new AR-15 rifles, such as the latest version of the Bushmaster Predator, which has an automatic option and can fire 30 rounds in a few seconds. Retailers showed off new inventions, including the iPhone case that doubles as a stun gun, a woman's bra that can holster a handgun - and a product from a Florida company designed to protect schoolchildren from a killer with a gun.
Unlike in past years, the SHOT Show isn't going out of its way to attract attention. Foundation officials declined interview requests from non-trade outlets and denied credentials to mainstream media a month before the trade show opened. A spokesman said a large media presence would be a distraction for people trying to do business at the show.
Gun control proponents interpreted the silence as an attempt to limit coverage of the convention, where assault weapons are on display and the latest military-style weaponry is geared up to amaze potential clients. Not 'puffed up' now
Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, said industry executives were "puffed up" last year and happy to be interviewed on the convention floor after they reported record sales and estimated the value of the sporting gun industry at $4.1 billion.
"This industry is circling the wagons now," Sugarmann said. "The last thing the industry wants America to see and to think about right now is that these are the very guns the industry is promoting. Most people today would be shocked by what the gun industry has become - primarily marketing military-style weapons because that's the profit center."
Sanetti, the SHOT Show organizer, was among industry leaders who met Thursday with Vice President Joe Biden, who is leading an administration group that will recommend changes in federal gun laws.
On Monday, Sanetti issued a statement saying, "A prerequisite to any dialogue involving our industry and its products is an honest recognition of the legitimacy of what we do and the important part of the national culture we represent. Hunting and the recreational shooting sports are here to stay. And so are we."
The national debate dominated the concerns of conventioneers on the first day of the SHOT Show.
Gregg Thompson, co-owner of Crye Precision of Brooklyn, N.Y., which makes camouflage-pattern apparel including vests and helmets, said foot traffic appeared to be light.
"We are not in a good environment for what we do," said Thompson, whose sales team wore T-shirts that took a dig at the Obama administration: "Freedom Was Awesome 1776-2008."
Thompson added, "We should be looking for the solutions that give us more freedoms, not take them away."
Bad rap for rifle
For others, the trade show was an opportunity to network and try to put a new face on the gun industry.
Chris Cheng, a San Francisco resident and winner of the History Channel's reality marksman competition, "Top Shot," said he hoped to show that competitive shooters come from diverse backgrounds.
Cheng, an Asian American who left a job at Google to pursue his career as a marksman, uses the AR-15 as his primary rifle. It's the same gun that was used by Newtown killer Adam Lanza, which AR-15 fans say has given it a bad rap.
"Not only do thousands of other competitive shooters use the AR-15, but it is also the most popular modern sporting rifle in America," Cheng said. "That's an important piece of information to understand why talk of an 'assault weapons' ban is resonating with many gun owners."
Cheng was mindful of presenting a positive picture of gun owners. He answered questions through e-mail after his responses were vetted by his History Channel sponsors, and he declined to be photographed next to a poster of hunting rifles at the show.
School market
With the gun control debate focusing on the elementary school killings, Mike Hengstebeck was earning a lot of attention at his booth with a new item for schoolteachers called the LAD - Lockdown and Defend.
The $795 device resembles a fire extinguisher when it's not in use. If a teacher hears gunshots, Hengstebeck said, he or she can unfurl a bullet-resistant 2-by-4-foot sheet from LAD. The device also has two doorstops, which can be used to try to bar a gunman from breaking into the classroom.
Hengstebeck said the teacher can also hang the canvas over the window to protect the class or use it as a shield while students huddle behind it.
He said his company, SRT Supply of St. Petersburg, Fla., had just completed the product days before the show started and had already won the attention of local lawmakers.
"Unfortunately, a lot of times the people who get killed in school shootings are in the hallway," Hengstebeck said. "They hear the shots and they go running. With LAD, we're telling them to lock it down and defend themselves to give them a chance."
Justin Berton is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jberton@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @justinberton