Tucson, Arizona – An electronic copy of Tim Steller’s opinion piece that may run in the Star Sunday demonstrates that the writer either misread or chose to distort the two court affidavits that prompted the article … and then misidentified a key photo in his article which his own office took a year earlier. He also misstated County Attorney Conover’s commitment to justice vs politics.
- He states Ms. Trasoff helped write a news release draft, whereas the key point of both of her affidavits was that she had nothing to do with writing the release and only reviewed it for grammar and syntax, not content.
- The photo in his column indicated it was from a press conference Ms. Conover never gave about the Pioneer Fire. In fact, this was a Star photo published in 2021 from a news conference relating to a mass shooting that summer.
- Perhaps most egregious, the writer insinuated Ms. Conover would sacrifice her moral compass and commitment to justice to further her political career, something that is patently false.
Said Ms. Conover:
“The opinion columnist has the right to his own opinions, but not his own facts. A simple review of the public record is in direct contrast to his conclusion. I ran for office and am here for one purpose only: to serve justice. If doing the right thing results in my not being reelected, so be it. I ran for office as a no-name trying to change the approach to justice exercised by the previous regime. If I need to walk away from politics to do the right thing, I’ll do it today, tonight, tomorrow. I could not give this writer an interview because these matters are pending in court, making it inappropriate to discuss it – that is the law and ethical judicial behavior. We asked him to wait, but instead he chose to create his own facts, something that serves neither the community, nor justice.”
