The cruelest of cuts: City Attorney Mike Aguirre’s first top deputy and star hire, Rupert Linley, has signed an affidavit supporting the push to throw Aguirre off the Tom Story criminal case.
Aguirre has charged Story with illegally lobbying city employees to try to gain approval for the controversial tower near Montgomery Field.
Not long after he won the 2004 election for city attorney, Aguirre proudly hired Linley to head up his criminal division. Several months later, Linley and Aguirre had an epic falling out.
Now Linley is proactively supporting Story’s contention that Aguirre should be disqualified from the criminal prosecution because of an alleged unethical mixing of Aguirre’s civil and criminal responsibilities.
Aguirre has also sued Story’s employer, Sunroad Enterprises, because of the building’s unsafe height.
From Linley’s declaration:
It is unethical for a prosecutor to use criminal prosecution or the threat thereof to gain an advantage in a civil action. … It was my experience as an Assistant City Attorney under Michael Aguirre that he sought to use the criminal authority of his office to attack people whom he believed to be his enemies. He specifically viewed Mayor Murphy as an enemy. He does not appreciate or accept the fact that his role as prosecutor has any ethical bounds and specifically precludes his use of that authority harass and intimidate those whom he dislikes.
But Linley does not present any specific evidence that Aguirre has tried to use his prosecutorial powers to influence civil litigation.