Maricopa prosecutor ‘bizarrely targets’ conservative attorney

The State Bar of Arizona targeted conservative Arizona attorney Vladimir Gagic for tangling with RINO Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, and as more details come out, the story is getting more bizarre.

The feud started when Gagic, who was working as a contract public defender for Maricopa County, became convinced that one of his clients being prosecuted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) for allegedly molesting a minor was innocent. But his efforts to establish his client’s innocence were repeatedly thwarted by the office.

The client, Jamaal Pennington, has appealed his conviction to the Arizona Supreme Court. The alleged minor victim, who is now an adult, came out and said Pennington never touched her.

Gagic, a Marine with an unblemished record of over 20 years practicing law, was not even provided a hearing by the bar, and the results – a one-year suspension – were hidden from the public. He told me, “That was done to shelter corrupt Maricopa County judges and bureaucrats from being exposed to the public.”

The bar has a lengthy history of targeting conservative attorneys, going back to a political witch hunt against popular conservative Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas in 2010, and now targeting Republican election attorneys. Many consider it the most corrupt state bar in the country.

Gagic has been highly critical of Mitchell on X, which he believes sparked the retaliation. He started an account on X to expose the corruption, @ToxicVlad. He told me that Mitchell warned him he’d better stop the public criticism, or Pennington’s prosecution would not be sent to integrity review for a second look.

But things got really weird when Mitchell’s fiance, Paul Stout, started trolling Gagic on X with burner accounts. Gagic told me that Stout mocked him repeatedly for being the victim of an aggravated assault, lied that he’d been caught plagiarizing in law school, had a criminal record and committed domestic violence against Mitchell. Gagic bashed Stout right back and outed him as being behind the accounts.

Stout asked the court for a restraining order against Gagic, which was granted even though the two have never met, and even though X never took any action against Gagic, despite Stout reporting Gagic as many as 10 times. The hearing brought out an admission from Stout that he was behind the accounts. Gagic told me, “While Stout claimed he was not @ti1denkatz, he testified that he trolled me in July 2023, which is four months after he had deleted @azjaypaul in April 2023, proving Stout is @ti1denkatz.”

Stout admitted to the court, “It probably started at the end of 2023, and I had seen some very negative posts directed at Rachel Mitchell, my fiancee, and so I responded.”

The burner accounts also attacked former Sheriff Joe Arpaio and newly elected Rep. Abe Hamadeh, R-Ariz. – not exactly the behavior of a conservative but something a RINO would do.

Gagic said Mitchell asked the bar to discipline him last July due to his public criticism. Mitchell has also said she wants him disbarred.

In August, Gagic said Mitchell got the FBI and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to serve an injunction against him to stop him from using social media on the pretext he was harassing Stout, i.e., retaliation by proxy for criticizing Mitchell. Gagic requested public records from the incident, and after initially being told there weren’t any, said he believes the deputies deliberately turned off their GPS “to hide what they are doing.” When the office finally turned over public records, a body cam video showed one of the deputies practicing drawing his gun. Gagic said all three deputies are now under an Internal Affairs investigation.

After obtaining public records about the incident, he discovered that Phoenix Police arrested him for a Class 6 felony. Gagic believes Mitchell urged the police to charge him, and records show she spoke with the assistant chief of police. However, he said the police reports stated that Stout “did not provide specific examples or elements of specific threats,” he seemed “confused” and the section for drug use, which contained boxes for yes, no or unknown, was marked unknown.

When a local journalist covering the story called Stout for comment, Stout reported him to the police. Phoenix New Times contributor Stephen Lemons began his article about the incident, “Hell hath no fury like Rachel Mitchell’s fiancé. Especially after a journalist calls him for a quote.” Lemons obtained the police reports afterward and discovered that “the 63-year-old Stout complained that I had retweeted Gagic on X and then called Stout to ask for an interview.”

Lemons had reposted a response from Mitchell’s conservative primary challenger, Gina Godbehere, replying to Gagic expressing her disgust that Stout posted a crude remark about her, using a burner account. The @AZ1Patriot account apparently run by Stout had responded to a post by Godbehere wishing Happy Mother’s Day, “So is your overly too tight shirt. #powerful”

Lemons said the “conflict of interest” for Mitchell is “obvious.” He said Stout’s actions have “put Mitchell in the position of prosecuting Gagic – or journalists on whom Stout sics the cops – for making her fiancé uncomfortable.”

Gagic has had difficulty getting justice due to Mitchell’s cozy relationship with the power players in town. Law enforcement is overly accommodating to her since she is ostensibly a Republican. Until earlier this month, the sheriff was a moderate Democrat, so they aligned quite well. The bar and RINO judges love her since she’s a Republican who acts like a Democrat.

Lemons doesn’t believe the bar will allow Gagic to practice law again. “His persistent criticism of the State Bar would make this a tall order,” he predicted. “Mitchell has sought to make it insurmountable.”

Gagic told me he believes he’s being disciplined for free speech and is the subject of “bizarre targeting” by Mitchell abusing the power of her office. Mitchell angered conservatives by representing the Maricopa County supervisors asking for sanctions against Kari Lake and her lawyers for bringing election lawsuits.