8 Oct 17th-Oct 23rd, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Barred From View State Bar knew Allister Adel may have been domestic violence victim. BY STEPHEN LEMONS T he State Bar of Arizona may have possessed information indicating that former Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel was being abused by her husband, even as the bar forced her resignation from office. In August, Phoenix New Times reported on evidence that Adel may have suffered domestic violence at the hands of her husband, David DeNitto. Though some close to Adel harbored suspicions, Adel success- fully hid her alleged abuse from many in her office even as her issues with substance abuse spilled into the public sphere. However, the State Bar had reason to suspect Adel was a domestic violence victim, according to a document included in the bar’s 2022 investigation into Adel. In a sworn affidavit submitted to the bar in March of that year, county attorney’s office Director of Communications Karla Navarrete described a phone conversation with Adel — which Adel made while hiding in a closet — in which the county prosecutor revealed that DeNitto was abusing her. In the affidavit, Navarrete relates how a month earlier, Adel told her that “her husband was physically abusive and that her security detail had seen her bruises.” According to Navarrete, Adel also told her that “her husband was following her in the house, which required her to get into a closet in order to continue our conversa- tion.” Navarrete added that “Ms. Adel’s husband could be heard in the background.” The bar denied a public records request for its investigation of Adel, copies of which were provided to New Times by a third party. While the State Bar has not confirmed their authenticity, New Times was able to verify several details in the investigation through other sources. Adel died of organ failure on April 30, 2022, a little more than a month after leaving office. Roughly 20 months later, DeNitto snapped in a drunken rage, murdering his girlfriend and her mother before turning a semiautomatic rifle on himself. His violent demise led several county attorney’s office staffers to reap- praise their memories of Adel, including hints that she was being abused. Navarrete’s affidavit aligns with suspi- cions about her possible abuse held by friends and former colleagues. It is not clear what, if anything, Navarrete or the State Bar did with the information about Adel’s alleged mistreatment. Navarrete did not respond to several requests for comment from New Times. State Bar spokesperson Taylor Tasler did not answer questions about whether the state bar acted on information that Adel was being abused. In an email, Tasler wrote that while “the State Bar had several open charges on Ms. Adel at the time she passed,” those files are public only for six months following the date of dismissal. “Thereafter,” Tasler wrote, “the matter becomes confidential.” “As a general matter however,” Tasler added in a follow-up email, “the State Bar would never use the fact that someone is a victim of domestic violence to take an adverse action against them.” The State Bar did take adverse action against Adel, though nothing suggests they used her alleged abuse as a cudgel to do so. Adel’s nearly 30-month tenure as county attorney was marred by her public battles with anxiety, alcohol abuse and an eating disorder. Adel spent 19 days in rehab facilities in Wickenburg and Malibu and later confessed to relapsing. On the same February 2022 day that Adel told Navarrete that she was hiding from her husband, five division chiefs at the county attorney’s office sent Adel a letter calling for her resignation and citing her issues with alcohol, forgetfulness and absences from the office. (None of them claimed to have witnessed Adel drinking at work.) The division chiefs forwarded the letter to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the State Bar of Arizona, which began investigating Adel. The letter was also leaked to the press. Adel fired back with a letter to the divi- sion chiefs, vowing to stay in office. But a month later, Adel announced her resigna- tion, and the State Bar helped change her tune. According to Rudy Dominguez, a former Phoenix police officer who served on Adel’s security detail, Adel told him the bar was the reason she was resigning, noting that the bar would allow her to keep her law license if she left office. Dominguez said that when he asked her why she didn’t fight the bar, Adel told him it wasn’t possible. “’If they don’t like you and you go against them, they take your certification away,” Dominguez said Adel told him. “They can do that. They just do whatever they want.” In an email to county attorney’s office staffers on the day of Adel’s resignation, the attorney leading the bar’s investigation wrote that “the information that was developed in our investigation largely influenced today’s actions and was part of the SBA’s negotiations with her.” The attorney also wrote that other investiga- tions into Adel’s conduct would continue. On May 6 of that year, the investigator sent a follow-up email to county attorney staffers. That the bar was dismissing and closing Adel’s case “due to Ms. Adel’s recent death” the week before. Other investigation details revealed The State Bar’s investigation included several other sworn affidavits from county attorney’s office employees, including from current Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell. Ryan Green, one of the division chiefs who signed the letter asking Adel to resign, confirmed to New Times that he had submitted an affidavit to the bar as part of its investigation. He also confirmed one of the details in it: that he attended an intervention for Adel. A friend of Adel’s family, who asked to remain anonymous, told New Times that the intervention was organized by DeNitto. Green said he had not heard about Adel hiding in a closet from her husband. He said he and Adel were “friendly” but more colleagues than friends. He did not think it was odd that he was invited to Adel’s intervention. “I knew what Allister Adel and her husband, David DeNitto, embrace after Adel was sworn in as Maricopa County Attorney in 2019. (Courtesy of Allister Adel Campaign Facebook Page) >> p 11 | NEWS | | NEWS |