Former prosecutor, April Sponsel of the Maricopa County Attorney’s office, was recently dismissed after being found to have wrongfully charged a man identified as Ryder Collins. Collins, a nurse with a fondness for photography, was photographing a passing protest in Phoenix when Sponsel inaccurately charged him as a ‘gang member’ involved in the protest despite video evidence to the contrary. According to a story breaking on local news site ABC 15, Sponsel has exhibited no remorse for her erroneous indictment in her recent state bar trial.
In a remarkable statement, Sponsel was quoted by her attorney as saying, “People can be out there taking photos of the sunset and then go home and murder their spouse.” This bizarre rationalization appeared to equate being present at a public gathering with the potential to commit a crime.
The bar disciplinary proceedings are examining a wide range of misconduct by Sponsel, with the initial focus on the allegations surrounding the wrongfully charged photographer. Notably, in addition to adding Collins to the slate of protesters she charged in connection with the ‘gang’, Sponsel, alongside the police, was found to have invented the existence of the gang altogether. It is to be noted that the protest itself might have been associated with several infractions, but the ‘gang’ aspect was entirely made up.
In the notice of her dismissal, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office commented: “You wrongfully indicted an innocent person because you presented inaccurate evidence to a grand jury, you failed to review available evidence, and when you were made aware that you may have an innocent person under indictment you did little to ensure that your prosecution was just.”
Beyond the case of Collins, the dismissal notice goes into detail about several other instances of trumped-up charges brought by Sponsel, discovered by the office after it reassigned her cases due to administrative leave prompted by the Collins incident. For the present, it seems the former prosecutor will continue to face scrutiny for her questionable practices.