Tag: Curtis Fiorini

Now, Noah Phillips' attorney says the attack ad Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert aired ahead of Tuesday’s election accusing her rival of misconduct is enough to have her office thrown off of the controversial 2016 murder case Phillips took to trial. The TV ads run by the DA about this case have moved this into the realm of egregious conflict of interest,” attorney Steven A. Lewis argued at a Friday hearing before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Curtis Fiorini, adding later, “If the head of a public agency is accused of a conflict, the whole office must be recused.” The unique Friday motion asked Fiorini to remove the DA’s lawyers from the case, though Phillips is no longer involved in the matter. Schubert’s campaign seized on the defense attorneys’ charges in a heavily-aired television ad that cited the misconduct claim, suggested that Phillips could face felony charges connected to the allegations and branded Phillips as “Unethical. Attorneys for the DA and the state attorney general’s office argued Phillips has no standing to demand the DA's removal, but Phillips’ attorney pushed ahead, calling the case “an unprecedented situation.” “Every court in every matter has the power to disqualify,” Lewis told Fiorini, adding later, “This just doesn’t happen every day. “I don’t believe there’s a basis to take the case out of the hands of the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office,” saying the campaign for the June election had no bearing on the case she took over from Phillips. Fiorini said Phillips may be called to testify at the July 27 hearing. Related stories from Sacramento Bee Ad Watch: Schubert’s ad claims against challenger are ‘iffy’ Sacramento DA Schubert declares victory, calls it 'a good day for the people' Sacramento DA Anne Marie Schubert promised to be more transparent. Schubert, he said, was “using this case not just to call Phillips unethical, but to release an embarrassing email that predated the (Kumar) murder by six months.” Bladet said she played no role in the email’s discovery: “This wasn’t a dirt-finding mission on behalf of the campaign,” Bladet said. She defended the office’s investigation into Phillips’ alleged conduct at trial and added Phillips was not forthcoming with DA officials who wanted to talk with him about the misconduct allegations. Phillips failed to come to us with his version of the truth.” An embarrassed Phillips in May said he took “full responsibility” for the email which trafficked in ugly racist and sexist stereotypes of women of a variety of races and nationalities and his response that the email was “work appropriate anywhere.” He also attacked the email’s leak as late-campaign subterfuge by Schubert operatives, calling it “as low as politics goes.” District Attorney’s officials said the offending email was retrieved by a tech staffer during an internal investigation into the defense attorneys’ claims of prosecutorial misconduct, later clarifying that the scouring of Phillips’ workplace email server recovered messages dating back to 2013.