By Staff Reporter |
No investigation was ever made concerning GOP congressional candidate and former Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb by the Pinal County Attorney’s Office (PCAO), says the current administration.
PCAO made an announcement on Friday that disputed former County Attorney Kent Volkmer’s claim that PCAO had conducted a “cursory investigation” into Lamb under his leadership.
Volkmer made the claim to the Arizona Republic as part of their recent investigative report into accusations that Lamb threatened the women he’d engaged in affairs with over the years. Volkmer alleged his office acted on Lamb’s request to investigate possible criminal charges for two women speaking out about his affairs.
Volkmer also alleged that the supposed cursory investigation didn’t lead to any possibility of criminal charges.
PCAO said it could find no records of reports, investigative summaries, witness interviews, referrals due to conflict, or documented findings that could verify Volkmer’s claim. PCAO said their discovery indicated potential issues with the due diligence of past county leadership.
“Even a limited or ‘cursory’ investigation would ordinarily generate some form of documentation or investigative notes. At this time, the PCAO has not located any such records in its files,” stated the PCAO. “[R]equests for investigations by Sheriff Lamb should have been formally documented, appropriately reviewed, and, if necessary, referred out to avoid any appearance of bias or conflict of interest.”
However, PCAO did find records indicating that Volkmer’s office received word on allegations against Lamb over six years ago and failed to act.
In January 2020, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors received a packet of information outlining allegations of sexual impropriety by Lamb. The packet contained nearly 40 pages of text message screenshots and photographs to support the allegations. Tim Gustafson, a local pastor running to unseat Lamb — who was county sheriff at the time — gave the board the packet.
Per board meeting records, the board asked PCAO to review potential limitations to speech in public sessions concerning sexual topics. A deputy county attorney with the PCAO at the time promised to look into the matter.
County Attorney Brad Miller has denied that he was behind the rumor that Lamb was a “swinger” as well as a sexter.
Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), whose district Lamb is hoping to represent, told KTAR in an interview last week that he would “reserve judgment” on the accusations against Lamb. Biggs is leaving Congress to try to unseat Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs.
Both Biggs and Lamb are both members of the Mormon church.
As new developments continue to emerge regarding the sex scandal allegations against Lamb, the former sheriff declined to appear for the Arizona Clean Elections Commission’s Republican primary debate for the 5th Congressional District on Thursday.
Only Lamb’s primary contender, a Christian builder named Daniel Keenan, appeared for the debate. Keenan discussed his campaign platform for nearly half of an hour.
There are three Democratic candidates vying to flip Biggs’ seat: Brian Hualde, Chris James, and Elizabeth Lee.
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