By Staff Reporter |

The Arizona State Bar Cochise County Attorney declined to punish Brian McIntyre last week for working against his own county supervisors, and the bar ultimately dismissed the complaint against him. However, the state bar did issue a public admonition against him, according to the Arizona Daily Independent.

The state bar dismissed the complaint because, according to their statements, they felt that lawyer discipline was achievable through “instructional comment,” and because McIntyre had completed a client confidentiality course. The bar admonished McIntyre for airing out his concerns and the county supervisors’ confidential information publicly instead of the more appropriate venue of an executive session. 

During a 2022 public meeting in which the Cochise County Board of Supervisors was discussing a post-election hand count audit, McIntyre revealed that he’d advised the board against the audit. 

After the board was sued over the audit, McIntyre then sent a letter to the plaintiffs’ counsel disclosing a list of laws he believed his clients had potentially violated. 

Former Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller and State Representative Alexander Kolodin had filed the complaint against McIntyre late last year for those actions. The pair alleged that McIntyre violated attorney-client privilege with his remarks during that 2022 public meeting, and that McIntyre had worked against his clients with the letter by providing legal analysis and fodder for the media against his clients.

The controversy escalated amid the state bar investigation after an uncovered document revealed that McIntyre had apparently colluded with Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes against his county supervisors. 

The document was a letter from McIntyre to Mayes, in which the county attorney had asked the attorney general to retract an opinion set by her predecessor, Mark Brnovich, on expanded hand counts. McIntyre sent the letter amid an active appeal by his clients (the county supervisors) to conduct those hand counts. 

“Key to our initial efforts was determining the readily apparent potential conflicts with pursuing a prosecution that might result from that investigation. While I remain satisfied that legally we could move forward if evidence warranted doing so, practically it would create substantial issues for this office’s relationship with the Board moving forward,” wrote McIntyre. “Unfortunately, recent events outside the office may also create the appearance that any prosecution is motivated by less than just concerns.”

After the state bar began investigating McIntyre last December, Mayes brought down indictments reflecting felony-level election interference and conspiracy charges against Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby.

McIntyre would later testify to the grand jury on the controversial 2022 general election audit.

Several months after struggling with his county supervisors over the 2022 audit, McIntyre was arrested and pleaded guilty to an extreme DUI in early 2023. An extreme DUI applies to blood alcohol content (BAC) levels over .15 percent (the Arizona legal limit is .08 percent); McIntyre had a .2 percent BAC.

The arrest video showed McIntyre was refusing to believe law enforcement’s breathalyzer results.

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