Tribune: Thomas accusations against Nelson wrong

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is erroneously accusing his political opponent, Democrat Tim Nelson, of misusing his post at the governor's office to funnel taxpayer business to his wife's law firm.

Thomas made the charge publicly during a debate Tuesday night.

Andrew Thomas faults rival for contributors

His re-election campaign continued to spread it by press release later in the week and characterized Nelson's denial as a lie. The allegation gained additional prominence on Friday, when Rep. Russell Peace, R-Mesa, called on the Arizona Attorney General's Office to investigate the matter.

However, many of the details in Thomas' allegation are based on inaccurate information or are wholly unsubstantiated, a Tribune examination found.

"I have not enriched myself," Thomas said during the debate, aired on "Horizon" on KAET-TV. "My opponent did."

Specifically, Thomas' campaign charges that Coppersmith Gordon Schermer and Brockelman, the law firm where Nelson's wife, Julie, is a partner, received $326,000 in work through a questionable no-bid contract to represent the Arizona State Veteran Home in early 2007.

Nelson was Gov. Janet Napolitano's chief legal adviser. When he joined the governor's office in 2003, he declared a conflict of interest, which prohibited him from being involved in deciding what law firm received the work.

Thomas dismissed the fact that Nelson had declared a conflict, and, at the debate, said the idea that Nelson played no role in the law firm's selection "does not pass the smell test."

But Thomas' campaign has not produced any evidence that Nelson influenced any decision to hire Coppersmith Gordon.

Billing records and interviews with state agency officials and members of the legal community support Nelson's position that he played no role in awarding contracts to the firm where his wife works.

"My wife's law firm is its own independent firm that has won business on its own accord, they've done it on their own merits," Nelson said during the debate. "They've been chosen by every major hospital organization in this county, including Maricopa County, to represent it when they have legal issues."

A Thomas campaign press release distributed on Thursday said Nelson lied during the debate about how Coppersmith Gordon won state government business.

The Tribune found multiple inaccuracies within statements made by Thomas and his campaign. They include:

Thomas says the governor's office selected Coppersmith Gordon to represent state agencies. In fact, the attorney general officially awarded every contract for state government work that the law firm has received, according to AG spokeswoman Anne Hilby.

Thomas says Coppersmith Gordon received $326,000 as part of a questionable contract involving the state veterans home, which was then under investigation for patient mistreatment. But most of that money - $222,000 - actually came for legal work on a federally funded project to digitize health care records, documents from the state Department of Administration show. The firm received $92,000 to represent the veterans home.

Thomas says Napolitano hired Coppersmith Gordon to investigate the veterans home at the same time the firm was already working to defend its practices. But the firm did not investigate the veterans home. It was hired by the AG's office to review and help the veterans home correct problems, in addition to serving as its defense lawyers.

The attack on Nelson's integrity comes at a critical juncture in the race for county attorney, with Election Day just more than a week away.

Thomas has used Coppersmith Gordon's work representing the veterans home to justify questions about whether Nelson would act ethically if elected county attorney.

"There is nothing that will prevent him from similarly enriching his own household by sending work to his wife's law firm," Thomas said at the debate.

"Mr. Thomas, you have absolutely no shame and you know that's a bogus claim," Nelson responded.

While Thomas' campaign has characterized Coppersmith Gordon's work as primarily involving the veterans home, a majority of the firm's state invoices are for the Arizona Health Privacy Project.

That project, funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is working to digitize health records in a manner that protects patients' privacy.

The state Government Information Technology Agency selected Coppersmith Gordon from a list of firms provided by the attorney general's office, said D.J. Harper, a spokesman for the state Government Information Technology Agency.

"The legal stuff behind that is quite complex and they're national experts in that," Harper said.

Gary Birnbaum, an associate dean at Arizona State University's law school, said Coppersmith Gordon is one of the state's top health care law firms.

Gordon Lewis, an attorney at Jones Skelton & Hochuli, which specializes in health care law, agreed Coppersmith Gordon is among the best firms in his field.

"I am certainly aware they do a substantial amount of work for hospitals, health care institutions and physicians," said Lewis, who contributed to Thomas' re-election campaign. "And they have a good reputation in that regard."

Barnett Lotstein, a spokesman for Thomas' campaign, said the campaign doesn't dispute the law firm's qualifications.

Private law firms apply every year to the attorney general's office to serve the state as outside counsel on various legal specialties, said Hilby, the AG's spokeswoman.

Sam Coppersmith, managing partner of Coppersmith Gordon, said his firm reapplies each year to be one of the state government's health care law specialists.

Coppersmith Gordon was already representing the veterans home in March 2007 when Napolitano hired Beth Schermer, then a partner at the firm and Coppersmith's wife, to assist the home in correcting possible violations.

"We weren't brought in to do a separate inspection," Coppersmith said.

Thomas' campaign cites newspaper articles from March 2007 - one of them in the Tribune - that argue a questionable arrangement existed. The Tribune corrected that information in a follow-up article.

To substantiate its contention that Coppersmith Gordon shouldn't receive any state work, Thomas' campaign points to a legal opinion Napolitano wrote in 1999.

Napolitano wrote "it could be argued" that laws forbidding the state from contracting with an employee's private business should apply to spouses as well.

While Nelson declared a conflict of interest and remained out of decisions regarding Coppersmith Gordon, Lotstein and Rose say that isn't sufficient. Nelson should have also argued against Coppersmith Gordon, they say.