18 Aug 15th-Aug 21st, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | before, and it was “completely unlike him.” But one of DeNitto’s sons, whose name is redacted in the report, said his father drank “regularly” and that DeNitto and Cash would “start arguments, say horrible things to each other and push each other out of the way.” DeNitto’s fatal rampage has led several of Adel’s friends and coworkers to reassess the fall that precipitated her election night hospitalization. On election night, according to Dominguez, DeNitto ran out of the family home to tell him that Adel was convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Dominguez rushed inside to find Adel pale and uncon- scious. DeNitto called 911, and an ambulance took Adel to HonorHealth John C. Lincoln Medical Center. Dominguez followed them to the hospital, where Adel underwent emergency surgery to remove part of her skull. Adel later told news outlets that doctors did not know if she would survive. In an interview with 12 News’ Brahm Resnik, Adel said the fall — which report- edly happened on Oct. 25, 2020 — was the result of a freak mishap. “I was trying to plug in a light in my bedroom,” Adel said, “and I had my Zoom station set up right next to this light. I tripped on the bottom of the table, the leg there, and I fell and hit my head. At first I just thought, ‘Ow, this kind of hurts.’” However, multiple people who knew Adel no longer buy her explanation. Dominguez is one of them. “I believe (DeNitto) pushed her,” Dominguez told New Times. “And here’s why: You don’t get an injury in the back of your head by falling forward and tripping, you get an injury from getting pushed back and falling.” Goddard also thinks DeNitto pushed Adel, though he admits that’s a conclusion drawn long after the fact and colored by DeNitto’s murder-suicide. But he remem- bers that Adel and DeNitto had different stories about the fall. Adel was “all over the place” but described the table she hit at length. DeNitto’s version “was completely different,” Goddard said. “The dog had jumped on her, and she lost her footing and hit her head,” Goddard said, recalling DeNitto’s explanation. “It was a lot less detail.” Following DeNitto’s violent death, Goddard and other friends and co-workers began to compare notes: drinking, bruises, antianxiety meds, political pressure, a suspicious fall, a husband with a temper. “It’s not reassessing,” Goddard said. “It’s certainty. You just can’t believe in coinci- dences like that.” The friend to whom Adel sent evidence of her alleged abuse also believes DeNitto pushed her. She had her suspicions after Adel’s sudden death, but she said part of her still didn’t want to believe the worst of DeNitto. “But when the murder-suicide happened, that’s when I was like, ‘There’s no fucking way that she fell on her own,’” she said. When asked what he thought caused Adel’s fall in 2020, the former MCAO employee who spoke to New Times simply replied, “Domestic abuse.” The Christmas Eve bloodletting was a shock, he said, but not a complete one. “I think that potential was there for a long time,” he said, “even when Allister was alive.” ‘Looked like death’ So far, there is little evidence to suggest others in the county attorney’s office suspected that Adel was being abused by her husband. The agency has not responded to a request for a comment, and the evidence suggests that Adel largely managed to keep her alleged abuse a secret. One reason for that, said the friend to whom Adel sent photos and recordings, is that Adel worried about what such a reve- lation would mean for her career. “The one woman who’s in charge of prosecuting all sorts of violent crimes across the fourth-largest county in the U.S. couldn’t even control what was happening at home,” the friend said, predicting the hypothetical fallout. “It would politically take her down.” The fear of being shamed is a Bruises, Fights from p 16 >> p 20 Allister Adel was appointed Maricopa County Attorney in 2019 and was a elected to a full term in the position in 2020. (Photo courtesy Allister Adel Campaign Facebook Page)
