Arizona’s Public Safety Personnel Retirement System voted to give Democratic former Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting a $5,700 monthly pension last month. Whiting was removed from office after a grand jury indicted him on multiple public corruption charges, centered around the misuse of public funds.
The grand jury also indicted Whiting’s wife Joyclynn, who served as the county school superintendent, and Daryl Greer, the county attorney’s lead investigator, last August. Four of his key employees, including his Chief Deputy Celeste Robertson, obtained restraining orders against Whiting. On September 30, Whiting agreed to an interim suspension of his law license. As a result of the suspension, Attorney General Kris Mayes took over control of the office on November 1.
One of the counts in the indictment was for harassment. It alleged that Whiting and Greer intimidated Fernando Madrid out of running for Apache County Superintendent of Schools. A second count was for sending a threatening or anonymous letter, alleging that the pair sent Madrid an anonymous letter threatening criminal prosecution against him if he did not drop out.
The counts for misuse of funds, class 4 felonies, cited the purchase of a 2023 Ford Expedition for $80,000 using funds from his wife’s budget at the Apache County Superintendent of Schools’ office. However, the indictment said Whiting ended up driving the vehicle, not his wife, who is also a Democrat.
Other items Whiting was accused of purchasing using his office’s funds included over $8,000 for fitness equipment and $5,495 for shirts for his wife’s office. The indictment stated he wrongly received trade-in credit for vehicles seized in RICO cases that he turned over to car dealerships while the status of the money was still pending. The indictment also charged Whiting with one count of stealing, destroying, altering or secreting public records for deleting emails.
An investigative article in October from The Arizona Republic, which has been extensively covering the case, reported, “Expense reports obtained through Arizona’s Public Records Law detail nearly $200,000 in reimbursements to Whiting since 2019. They appear to show Whiting routinely violated Apache County policies that restrict reimbursement for items such as airfare, hotels, meals, mileage and supplies, often cloaking expenses with a description of ‘legal issues.’”
A second report from The Republic in October found that Whiting’s spending “suggests Whiting for years wrote off personal purchases as county work-related expenses. … spent tens of thousands of tax dollars on lunches and dinners, vehicles and promotional items that kept his name in the county spotlight.” It said Whiting and his wife spent over $138,000 in county money on promotional material since 2019.
The article examined a trip Whiting and some employees took to California that appeared to be an unnecessary expense, since the business could have been conducted remotely. The excursion was ostensibly to meet with the family of a woman killed in an ax attack. On the trip to Santa Cruz, “They explored the coast, stopped at Shark Fin Cove, drove across the Golden Gate Bridge, dined in San Francisco’s Chinatown and attended an Oakland A’s game” at a cost of $2,500,” the article said.
The married grandfather reportedly doted on Norwegian pop star Dagny, 16 years his junior, creating videos for her and traveling to Norway to see her. He sat in the front row of her concerts and hung out with her at events. He provided anti-bullying gear to Dagny, so it was apparently done under the auspices of his office’s anti-bullying project. The Republic stated that “Whiting used county facilities and material to aid his double life as a fanboy” of the singer.
Before Christmas in 2022, The Republic said Whiting checked into the ritzy Camelback Inn Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, letting taxpayers pick up most of the tab, which included two $300 dinners for him and his wife. “The Christmas trip wasn’t the only time Whiting let the county pay for stays at luxury hotels that appear to have involved his family.” The article said Whiting charged many meals for himself and other colleagues to the county, and took various trips billed to the county that appeared to be thinly veiled personal trips, including several to Europe.
Whiting (pictured above), his wife, and Greer all pleaded not guilty to the charges. Whiting served as DA in the heavily Democratic county for 16 years, and was never challenged for reelection.
A previous Arizona official was prosecuted in the late 2000s for similar activity. Former Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley raised $140,000 in a race where he had no opponent, president of the National Association of Counties, then used most of the money for personal luxury items and vacations for his family. However, he was able to turn the prosecution around on prosecutors, getting conservative Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas disbarred, and his colleagues on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors awarded him $3.5 million for the stress of being prosecuted.
Another Democratic county attorney in Arizona, election fraud denier Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre, was arrested for a Super Extreme DUI in January 2023, but was given a secret diversion agreement by the State Bar of Arizona and allowed to keep his position.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “Michael Whiting” by FansofDagny.
