Outrage over the claims led a majority of Republican state House members to later join Democrats in expelling the Chandler lawmaker, Republican Liz Harris, from office for lying about her role in allowing the testimony.
Ray Stern
Arizona Republic
A Mesa woman and her mother who were falsely accused by the woman’s ex-husband of leading a political “bribery” operation blame a former state lawmaker for helping spread the claims.
Brittany Thaler and her mother, Dawna Chavez, spoke to the news media for the first time after appearing in a Mesa courtroom Monday for the sentencing of attorney John Thaler on 13 misdemeanor protection-order violations against the women. Facing six months in jail, he skipped the hearing and is currently on the run from police.
The attorney is the source of bogus allegations aired at a legislative hearing in February that a Mexican drug cartel, with the help of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was bribing local elected officials and judges with forged property deeds.
Outrage over the claims led a majority of Republican state House members to later join Democrats in expelling the Chandler lawmaker, Republican Liz Harris, from office for lying about her role in allowing the testimony.
The allegations, which were reviewed and dismissed by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, are essentially the same as John Thaler made in court in 2021 during a child-custody dispute with his ex-wife. A few years before that, he had made similar claims against another former wife and her mother, court records show.
