Pinal judge investigated over sex abuse claim

www.pinalcentral.com/casa_grande_dispatch/area_news/pinal-judge-investigated-over-sex-abuse-claim/article_110597f5-a046-509d-a1f6-754d5aa85f0c.html

FLORENCE — A Pinal County judge is being investigated on allegations of sexually abusing a girl from when she was 13 until she reached adulthood, now 25,she told investigators last year that Pinal County Superior Court Judge Steven Fuller touched her genitals and buttocks repeatedly and also showed her pornography. The woman said she and the judge knew each other before the alleged abuse occurred.

Deputy James Allerton, the spokesman for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, confirmed that an investigation of the judge is underway but declined further comment on the probe and the allegations. Fuller’s lawyer, vehemently denied the allegations against his client, a former prosecutor who has served as an elected judge for the last seven years in Pinal County. Fuller, through an assistant, declined a request from the AP to comment. Matt Long, a lawyer for the woman who made the allegations, said Fuller presided over criminal cases after the allegations were made against him, raising questions about whether the investigation would affect his judicial decisions. “It’s something I would want to know as a prosecutor or defense attorney,” Long said.

Fuller was reassigned to handle civil cases in an order signed Tuesday by Judge Stephen McCarville, the presiding judge for Pinal County. the administrator for Pinal County Superior Court, said in a statement that Fuller requested the reassignment while the allegations are pending. The alleged abuse occurred years ago and was reported in late September to police in Mesa who said the alleged victim revealed the alleged abuse to her bishop. She spoke with investigators several weeks later.
The woman told investigators that she first told her mother when she was around age 13 that Fuller had touched her inappropriately. Woman said the abuse continued on an almost weekly basis for years with Fuller touching her genitals and rubbing against her, the police report said. She told police Fuller separately showed her pornography. The lawyer for the Mormon church went to police in Mesa, thinking that was where some of the alleged abuse had occurred. Mesa police initially investigated but turned the case over to Pinal County authorities after discovering the abuse allegedly had happened in Pinal County. Pinal County officials seeking to avoid a conflict of interest handed the case to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

The alleged victim made a “confrontation call” to Fuller in early February in an attempt to get him to admit wrongdoing, Long and Wilenchik said.

s. Heather Murphy, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates allegations of misconduct against judges, declined to say whether complaints stemming from the sexual abuse allegations have been filed against Fuller or whether the agency is conducting an investigation of the judge. McCarville did not respond seeking comment on Fuller’s status as a judge. Zweig said the court is prepared to take steps to maintain public confidence in Pinal County’s court system.