Mecham’s Impeachment Trial Begins Today

PHOENIX —  Charges of obstructing an investigation into an alleged death threat will be the first to be heard against Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham when his impeachment trial begins today in the state Senate.

The trial is expected to take up to eight weeks on 23 individual counts in the articles of impeachment drawn up by the state House.

The articles are broken into three main charges--trying to block a state investigation into a death threat made by one former gubernatorial aide against another, trying to conceal a $350,000 campaign loan on state reporting forms and misusing state funds by lending $80,000 from his protocol fund to his car dealership.

Mecham’s new team of lawyers has had only a few days to prepare his defense. Attorney Jerris Leonard of Washington and Phoenix lawyer Thomas Crowe were hired Wednesday. They joined Phoenix lawyer Murray Miller on the case but Miller quit late Thursday.