Qtown.US News

Martin Brannan, Current Quartzsite Town Attorney

These events today. It is reported and confirmed in other local news sources that a file exists in the Phoenix prosecutor’s office for Martin Ellsworth Brannan. This file exists as the result of a request by La Paz County Attorney Sam Vederman.

There was an incident at the May 22 Quartzsite Town Council meeting where it appears that Brannan may have intentionally assaulted Mayor Jose Lizarraga. This led the La Paz County Sheriff to take a report and make an investigation and report to Sam Vederman for potential prosecution. That investigation is complete.

Mr. Vederman has just stepped aside in his usual duty in evaluating the potential prosecution of this case. He declared that he has a conflict of interest. To be fair to the accused Martin Brannan, another agency must handle this case. So, the Phoenix agency will now consider the Sheriff’s report for formal charges against the current Quartzsite Town Attorney and Prosecutor Martin Brannan.

Vederman once worked in Brannan’s office before Vederman was elected in 2008, defeating Brannan. Hence, it appears proper for a disinterested prosecutor to evaluate the complaint against Brannan.

“You can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride”.  (A police officer to his arrestee. Overheard. Thousands of times over.) A well known expression among cops.  Once charged with a crime, even if the arrestee is innocent, “the ride” for the person wrongly charged is having to endure months of the agonizing and expensive court process.

Dishonest police and prosecutors use this tactic to punish people they deem deserving of punishment. They just arrest and charge them. This is only possible because the public places a huge amount of trust in their police and criminal  prosecutors. A lot of damage can be done to innocent victims by dishonest prosecutors and cops. Reputations and marriages and careers of their victms are wrecked.

With this much power, rarely does a prosecutor ever have to face real justice for his actions. However, like for Al Capone, justice can take many forms. For Capone, justice came as a prison sentence for income tax evasion instead of for violent crimes. For a crooked small town prosecutor, justice can come as an unexpected charge of assault against himself from the Mayor. Even a lawyer/prosecutor can’t beat the ride. His ride could even be worse. [Any similarity to real people or the Town of Quartzsite is purely coincidental. Editor]