Judge Rejects Maricopa County's Request for Sanctions Against Kari Lake, Says Election Lawsuit Wasn'

[brooklynite]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Arizona Sun Times

After ruling against Kari Lake in a remanded election trial challenging her gubernatorial loss to Katie Hobbs, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson rejected Maricopa County’s motion for sanctions against Lake on Friday, just three days after their attorneys filed the request. The county’s attorneys asserted that Lake’s team made several false statements to the court. Lake’s attorneys filed a response opposing the request on Thursday.

Thompson laid out the standard for awarding sanctions. He cited A.R.S. § 12-349, which states that sanctions are warranted where a party “brings or defends a claim without substantial justification or primarily for delay or harassment, unreasonably expands or delays the proceeding, or engages in abuse of discovery.” Thompson added, “The statute defines ‘without substantial justification’ as ‘groundless’ and ‘not made in good faith.

Thompson addressed one of the defendants’ claims specifically, but didn’t even bother going over the rest of them, brushing them off in a broad dismissal. The claim he went over was the assertion that “Lake ‘unnecessarily expanded these proceedings’ by intentionally misstating the content of a witness’s testimony in her Rule 60 motion and that she proceeded to trial on a claim she knew lacked factual merit based on her own witness’s statements.” Thompson cited Lake’s accusation that “Maricopa County officials, instead of attempting to cure ballots, systematically pushed mismatched ballots through for tabulation without following the required procedures.”

Thompson disagreed with the defendants’ characterization of the standard for sanctions. He said, “This view mistakenly looks beyond trial to the ultimate resolution of the merits and does not allow for presentation of evidence to prove a disputed claim.”

Read more: https://arizonasuntimes.com/justice/judge-rejects-maricopa-countys-request-for-sanctions-against-kari-lake-says-election-lawsuit-wasnt-groundless/ralexander/2023/05/27/

[emulatorloo]

1. If only Lake had the sense to declare victory here and go home. But of course, no:

Lake said she intends to appeal Thompson’s ruling throwing out her lawsuit.

[Martin68]

7. Maybe the consideration of an appeal will re-open the possibility of sanctions

against her.

[oldsoftie]

2. I'm not a lawyer & therefore understand little of what I read.

But the bottom line? Lake is STILL a loser

[lees1975]

3. But they did sanction Mark Finchem

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2023/05/27/lawsuit-over-result-2022-arizona-secretary-of-state-election-results-in-sanctions/70263361007/

A judge has ordered Mark Finchem and his attorney to pay more than $48,000 in legal fees as sanctions for bringing what the judge had called a "groundless" challenge to the results of last fall's race for Arizona secretary of state.

The ruling, released late Friday, contrasts with a decision issued the same day by another judge who handled Kari Lake's challenge of her loss in last year's race for governor. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson declined to issue sanctions that were requested by county officials.

In the Finchem case, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian ordered Finchem to pay the $40,272 attorney fee bill that Adrian Fontes accrued in defending against Finchem's lawsuit, which alleged misconduct in the Nov. 8 election and sought a do-over of the race.

The Sun Times is a conservative rag, BTW, so take what you read with a grain of salt.

[Ray Bruns]

4. The statute defines 'without substantial justification' as 'groundless' and 'not made in good faith

Which perfectly describes her lawsuit.

[lees1975]

5. Virtually the same lawsuit, but two different judges,

One lowers the boom on Finchem, the other sells out to Lake.

[SouthBayDem]

6. this is a right wing website

https://arizonasuntimes.com/about-us/

Michael Patrick Leahy is the CEO and Editor-in-chief of Star News Digital Media, which owns and operates a family of state focused conservative news sites, including The Tennessee Star, The Ohio Star, The Michigan Star, The Minnesota Sun, The Virginia Star, The Georgia Star News, The Florida Capital Star, The Arizona Sun Times, The Wisconsin Daily Star, The Pennsylvania Daily Star, and The Connecticut Star, The Iowa Star, The New Hampshire Star, The South Carolina Sun, and The Star News Network.

[Omaha Steve]

8. After a review by forum hosts, locking........

Source is right wing. Also OVER 12 hours old when posted.

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