PHOENIX (AP) - A personnel board for Maricopa County has upheld a decision to fire a prosecutor who won convictions in the Jodi Arias murder case and other notorious killings in Phoenix after he allegedly retaliated against women accusing him of harassment.
The Maricopa County Merit Systems Commission voted unanimously Tuesday, upholding the decision by the county attorney’s office to fire Juan Martinez in February, The Arizona Republic reported.
Martinez had accused Chief Deputy Ken Vick of not having the authority to fire him, and also argued that the office fired him because he reported a co-worker recording him with her phone inside court.
Martinez was accused of filing complaints against two women involved in an internal investigation in late 2017 and 2018 that found Martinez made inappropriate sexual comments to multiple female employees going back a decade.
The Republic published an investigation earlier this year that documented the accounts of 17 women who have made allegations against Martinez, including law clerks, judicial assistants, a prosecutor, a defense attorney and others. The newspaper also reported that past county attorneys, judges and regulators at the State Bar of Arizona wrote of allegations of misconduct and reports of sexual harassment against Martinez.
Martinez has denied the previously reported harassment allegations.
He also agreed to be disbarred in July, ending an investigation into allegations involving the Arias trial and claims he sexually harassed co-workers at the attorney’s office.
Martinez’s attorney Don Wilson and the county attorney’s office did not immediately respond to The Republic’s requests for comment.
Arias is serving a life sentence after her first-degree murder conviction in the 2008 killing of her boyfriend Travis Alexander.
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