Court clerk: Security breach affects hundreds of court cases

“A severe dereliction of duty” is what Clerk of the Superior Court Amanda Stanford is calling a reported security breach that could impact hundreds of criminal cases in Pinal County.

Stanford is alleging her predecessor, Chad Roche, gave the county attorney’s office access to files that had been sealed by the court. Her report released Wednesday also explained a network security issue that allowed “everyone” to access records and even delete them without a password.

Roche said all security issued had been dealt with by the time he left office.

The accusations have the Pinal County Attorney’s Office denying any cover-up and citing the vulnerabilities of the Arizona Judicial Automated Case System.

In 2013, Roche announced a security breach in which sealed documents in two separate cases were erroneously accessed by the county attorney’s office, compromising criminal cases.

“One of those instances,” Stanford said, “was actually a murder case that ended up getting thrown out, and they declared a retrial on it. So all that time that was spent in court by the county attorney, by the judge, by the court staff, all of that was a waste of time because all of it had to be done again.”

But Stanford said the breach was far larger and even systematic for the past few years, involving “hundreds upon hundreds” of incidents. She said Roche’s statement regarding the breach was false.

“Prior to my departure we had resolved the issue from 2013 regarding the County Attorney's office and provided a full report to the presiding judge,” Roche said. “Everything that happened has been addressed multiple times publicly and there were no further issues under my administration.”

But Stanford said then-Presiding Judge Robert Carter Olson was not given all of the information necessary.

The County Attorney’s Office denied the scope of Stanford’s allegation, stating the failure of the chief deputy to lock one file “caused a PCAO staff member to accidentally open a sealed document because the electronic file did not get labeled appropriately. However, upon opening the sensitive material, a PCAO employee realized the mistake, closed out of the file, and notified the Clerk of Court, the defense attorney, the judge involved.”

“I agree an issue exists with the current court records management system that fails to account for human error. My office remains committed to working with Clerk of the Superior Court in working to solve this issue that plagues both of our offices. I strive to get this resolved immediately. We commit to disclosing any accidental, or otherwise known, access of sensitive material, unintended for our office or public viewing,” County Attorney Lando Voyles said.

The breadth of the security breach Stanford alleged has caused alarm and anger. Garland Shreves of Casa Grande crashed a Maricopa Republican Club meeting Thursday night to press Stanford for more clarity.

“When a court seals a legal document, it’s like they’re saying ‘This document has Ebola’ for all, and you’re not allowed to mess with Ebola. That is quintessentially what ‘sealed by the court’ means,” he said. “But our previous clerk of the court gave carte blanche access to those sealed documents to the prosecutor’s office.”

Shreves said the situation will cost millions of taxpayer dollars to retry cases, and some cases won’t be retried and victims will have not justice.

“It’s not just that people won’t get justice,” Stanford said. “Some people got too much justice in being wrongfully convicted because the other side was privy to information that not all parties had.”

She is particularly blaming Roche, the former information technology director and the former chief deputy for what she calls “an elaborate cover-up.”

In a response released Friday, the County Attorney’s Office stated it “adamantly denies any involvement with any alleged ‘cover-up.’ We encourage a thorough investigation into these allegations. PCAO remains committed to helping with any investigating agency.”

Stanford said she and her staff uncovered a concerted effort to withhold information from the public and the presiding judge.

In her report, she stated, “It appears that throughout the term of the former administration, hundreds – yes