Sen. Justine Wadsack, R-Tucson, in June 2024. Photo by Gage Skidmore (modified) | Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0
By Howard Fischer | AZ Capitol Times
Defeated state Sen. Justine Wadsack is making a federal case out of being stopped for criminal speeding last year by Tucson police, accusing multiple officers and unnamed city officials of violating her civil rights by stopping her in the first place and then later giving her a citation.
The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Arizona claims all of that was part of a conspiracy to silence her politically. It also alleges the whole incident, with Wadsack being stopped near the University of Arizona campus, was designed to “target her for prosecution on trumped up and phony charges, chill Ms. Wadsack’s political free speech, and knowingly and wrongfully interfere with her right to hold public office and pursue her chosen occupations.”
And Dennis Wilenchik, her attorney, said the negative publicity surrounding all of this amounted to a $9 million gift in free media for Vince Leach, who after Wadsack was stopped and later cited, defeated her in the Republican primary last August in Legislative District 17, which covers portions of eastern and northern Pima County into Pinal County. Leach then went on to win the general election.
