Arizona Governor Won’t Be Charged on Past Expenditures

Gov. Rose Mofford will not face charges in connection with gifts she gave as secretary of state or financial disclosure statements she filed as a public official, Maricopa County Atty. Tom Collins said Friday.

Collins said technical violations in her statements were not “significant, in that they did not involve large amounts of money or personal gain for Gov. Mofford.”

The gifts, Collins said in a written statement, were “given in the state interest” and in Mofford’s official capacity.

State Atty. Gen. Bob Corbin had asked Collins to investigate omissions from financial statements Mofford filed over the last 10 years, and to study thousands of dollars in expenditures of state money for gifts and office decorations while she was secretary of state.

Before the announcement, sources close to the inquiry said investigators had concluded Mofford had broad authority to spend money. They also said the investigation was concentrated on fairly narrow areas. They said no one was able to discover to whom most of the gifts went.