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New prosecution rules helped office, Hyder saysBy JOE COLEDiscretion to prosecute criminals is finally being returned from law enforcement agencies to its rightful place — the prosecutor, Maricopa County Attorney Charles Hyder said Wednesday.New laws, a betterbudget and changing attitudes are making this possible, the prosecutor said at a morning meeting of the Valley ot the Sun chapter of the Society For Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi.The change is coming, Hyder said, in part as a result of his policy of setting published standardsStar deniesknowing ofland fraudActor Cesar Romerosaid Wednesday that he was unaware that anArizona land firm wasoperated by crooks when he agreed to promote the company’s subdivision.According to records uncovered by law enforcement authorities, Romero was paid $12,000 in 1971 for 12 days of work for Consolidated Mortgage Corp., then controlled by con man Ned Warren Sr.‘'How the hell was I to know they were crooks,’* Romero asserted. “If the government didn’t know, how was I to know?”The company allegedly was involved for several years in fraudulent investor prosecution — “we will not file charges unless there is a probability of conviction on the face of it when the case is brought in,”That policy is causing some strain between the county attorney’s office and law enforcement officers, he acknowledged.“The chiefs don’t like it,” he said, but investigating officers in the field are corning to approve thepolicy because it gives them clear guidelines for conducting thoroughinvestigations.Discretion to prosecute has drifted out of the hands of prosecutors locally In the past 25 years because of politics at both the county and state legislative level, he said.In what amounted to a one-hour Informal press conference, Hyder also observed;—New legislation making his staff investigators peace officers will enable his office to assist police agencies more effectively in initial stages of investigations.—This peace officer status makes it possible for Ills office to InvestigateGuard unitshifting rolesin KingmanKINGMAN (AP) -Kingman’s Army National Guard unit will be coit verted from military police to an ammunition company Nov. 1, officials said, Wednesday.The 1057th Ordnance Comoanv will hold itsgovernment and Iaiv enforcement agency corruption, areas the county attorney couldn't touch previously because it meant the police were investigating themselves.Investigation and the prosecution.— Efforts are being made to educate law enforcement officers In theproper way to use the so-called Miranda rights warning; too often, criminal suspects are “read their rights” too early, at tli© investigative stage instead of at the point theyare taken into custody assuspects, thwarting the—The relationship' between Hyder’s office and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, quite often stormy, is atthe moment one in which “they don’t love us, but they do respect us.” He praised the supervisors for the relatively favorable treatment the county attorney’s office received at budget time.tehees, which are “a .legislative and judicial cop-out” — not every burglary is the same, and the policy is impossible to enforce because Arizonadoesn’t hake , the prisonsystem to handle those sentenced.move to rented space in a private building soon and the county grand jury too exposed to the news media because it Isn’t next to the county attorney’s office.— the legislature, thepublic and the newsmedia have failed to face up to facts In getting a social policy on prostitution.— The new state criminal code has “a lot of disturbing things in it,” including mandatory sen-— The biggest problem his office faces is lack of space, with the nonsupport division scheduled to— Arizona is a refuge for heroin addicts who flee from California’stough policy of “puttingthem in jail.”— Fraud and other whlte-colliar crime is difficult to prosecute because In most cases victims are only too happy to have their money Wick rather than testify.Alex Colman’sStreamlinerPantOriginally ?18Now11.99• Fall colors • 100% Poly• The Pull-On Pant with the great fit• Brown • Black • Camel• Forest Green• Pant Sizes Averagep. DrttUn e.ifi
Newspaper Details
Phoenix Arizona Republic
Phoenix, Arizona, US
Thu, Oct 20, 1977
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Charles H.
AZ, USA 31 Dec 2019
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