The legal battle between Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be waged in public after a judge ruled the case should not be shielded under the guise of a grand jury investigation.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Anna Baca rejected arguments that grand jury secrecy should apply to the criminal investigation into Goddard’s office being conducted by Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

Ed Novak, a private lawyer hired to represent the attorney general’s office, had argued that since the case is in front of a grand jury, secrecy should apply to all aspects of the investigation.

Arpaio and Thomas announced in April that they were investigating whether Goddard allowed former state Treasurer David Petersen to plead guilty last October to a misdemeanor after an eight-month investigation in return for authorizing a $1.9 million payment to the attorney general’s office.

Goddard maintains the payment for legal fees in an unrelated case was required by statute and had no bearing on decisions made by his prosecutors in the Petersen case.

The latest tiff began last month when Thomas filed a motion in Superior Court asking that a judge issue an advisory opinion that sheriff’s investigators do not need to notify Novak before interviewing current or former employees of the attorney general’s office, a condition Novak sought to impose.

Baca said she lacked the authority to rule on that issue.

Novak filed his responses under a grand jury case number, arguing that since a grand jury was investigating the case, the legal arguments related to it should be hashed out in secret. Baca concluded the overall investigation being conducted by the sheriff’s office is separate from specific proceedings going on in the grand jury, and therefore should be public.

In legal motions, Thomas argued Goddard is attempting to stonewall the investigation, refusing to provide relevant documents and potentially intimidating witnesses by requiring Novak to be notified before employees of the attorney general’s office are interviewed. Novak insists it would violate ethical rules of the State Bar of Arizona if his request is ignored.

Arpaio said he would confer with prosecutors to decide whether to contact attorney general’s employees without notifying Novak.

Andrea Esquer, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said the agency is cooperating with sheriff’s investigators, and has already turned over about 45,000 pages of documents. Additional records are being turned over as they are retrieved, she said.

Sheriff’s detectives have interviewed one person in the attorney general’s office and have not asked for additional interviews, Esquer said. She did not know who was interviewed or whether Novak attended the questioning.

“If the county attorney believes it’s ethical to interview an attorney general’s office employee without an attorney then he should go ahead and talk to those employees directly,” Esquer said.

Employees have not been told they should refuse an interview with sheriff’s detectives unless Novak is notified, Esquer said.

Barnett Lotstein, special assistant county attorney, said Wednesday investigators have held off interviewing Goddard’s employees because of Novak’s threats to complain to the State Bar. Prosecutors will decide whether to proceed with the interviews without notifying Novak, to ask an appeals court for an opinion or seek clarification from the State Bar.

Novak could not be reached for any comments.