Sgt. Tom Lovejoy claims MCSO officials illegally prevented him from gathering evidence for his own defense.

Since Sgt. Tom Lovejoy’s acquittal last week on misdemeanor animal-cruelty charges, in which a judge concluded “it was simply an accident”, the embattled sergeant has retained attorney Michael Manning who has won previous high-profile cases against the sheriff. Lovejoy claims MCSO officials illegally prevented him from gathering evidence for his own defense. “I have no problem accepting the fact we did go to court and had a trial,” Sgt. Lovejoy said. “That’s not the issue that I have. The issue is what I learned throughout this ordeal of the level of corruption inside the sheriff’s department.”
The most specific allegation involves transcripts of a phone conversation last September between Sgt. Lovejoy’s wife Carolynn and MCSO Deputy Chief Dave Trombi.
Carolynn Lovejoy claims Trombi changed the text of their telephone conversation that was later submitted as evidence. “He took little things of what I said and put them into a different meaning or context and then it looked really bad. He was just trying to discredit us,” Carolynn Lovejoy said. According to Lovejoy, court records prove Trombi kept an audio tape recording of the conversation. But she says the sheriff’s office will not release the audio tape, despite a public records request by Lovejoy’s attorney dating back to last year. The sheriff’s office did not respond to questions by 12 News about the allegation. Another allegation by Lovejoy involves the conduct by the sheriff’s public relations office. Lovejoy describes a series of back-and-forth legal battles to obtain public records pertinent to him receiving a fair trial. “I think their strategy was to bankrupt me with attorney’s fees and hope I would go away,” Lovejoy said. They say some of the records sought would help establish whether Arpaio administered “selective enforcement.” Arpaio arrested Lovejoy on a charge involving “wreckless neglect” but chose not to investigate K-9 deaths within the sheriff’s own office in past years, according to Tom Lovejoy.
Lovejoy says anonymous sources notified him of three specific cases where deputy K-9’s died under suspicious circumstances. But when Lovejoy’s previous attorney filed a public records request for information involving any and all K-9 deaths, “mysteriously their information on (the three MSCO K-9 incidents) was not included,” Lovejoy said. Lovejoy claims MCSO only released K-9 documents after his previous attorney proved he had prior specific knowledge of the 3 deaths. Under public records law, government agencies are required to release all requested documents in a timely manner, with few exceptions. According to Lovejoy, the records showed that MCSO did not investigate the incidents on even a basic level.
Deputy Chief Trombi responded to the allegation in a letter to the editor of Thursday’s Arizona Republic. Trombi writes, “Ludicrous allegations of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office canine deaths ‘not being investigated’ are just that. Sheriff’s investigative reports containing detailed information of these deaths were turned over to Lovejoy’s attorney.” Tom Lovejoy insists no such records of an investigation exist.
“The lies that are told out of the public information office are just appalling,” Lovejoy said

Posted in: Arizona