Sexual Innuendo Scored at Mecham Trial

A prosecutor accused one of Gov. Evan Mecham’s lawyers Tuesday of using innuendo to delve into the sex life of Arizona’s top law enforcement officer, a subject ruled off limits at Mecham’s impeachment trial.

Attorney Fred Craft was trying to undermine the credibility of Director Ralph Milstead of the Public Safety Department as the key witness against Mecham on an obstruction of justice charge.

The 63-year-old governor, who has not attended any sessions of the impeachment trial since it began last week, is accused of ordering Milstead not to help the attorney general investigate an alleged death threat to a grand jury witness by a Mecham aide.

The governor has acknowledged he may have given such instructions to Milstead but says he was not fully informed about the situation. And Milstead has said he cooperated with the attorney general’s office.

Craft was interrupted several times by objections from House prosector William French as Craft tried to delve into the relationship between Milstead and a one-time department informant, Christina Juell Johnston.

Milstead said they had a professional relationship, adding: “I counted her as a friend.”

But he denied he escorted her on dates in his state vehicle or paid for her meals out of state funds.

Craft previously had asked: “Did you ever travel to Mrs. Christina Juell Johnston’s home in your state vehicle?”

“I believe I did, yes,” Milstead said.

“Did you ever stay overnight at Mrs. Christina Juell Johnston’s home with your state vehicle?” Craft asked. “No, I did not,” Milstead said.

As Craft continued to pose questions about the relationship, asking if Milstead paid for her meals at restaurants, French arose and addressed Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank X. Gordon, who is presiding over the impeachment trial.

“Mr. Presiding Officer, this is cross-examination by innuendo. It’s improper,” French said.

Gordon noted that he had ruled out questions about Milstead’s alleged sexual affair as irrelevant. Milstead, who is now divorced, was married at the time of the alleged affair, while Johnston was single.

But Craft insisted he was merely seeking information about possible misuse by Milstead of a state vehicle or possible improper listing of meals on his expense account, and Gordon permitted the questions to continue.

In other questioning Tuesday, Craft suggested that Milstead purposely kept Mecham in the dark about the investigation of the alleged death threat.

But Milstead insisted: “The relevant information was in his hands.”

Milstead acknowledged that he never told Mecham he was planning to disobey the governor’s orders and take the case to the attorney general.

“I was in shock from his anger . . . his insistence we not cooperate,” Milstead said. “He was not to be reasoned with.

“When his words were, ‘Don’t give them any help whatsoever,’ I said: ‘OK,’ and that was the end of the conversation.”

Asked whether Mecham might have assumed that Milstead was agreeing to obey his order to keep quiet, Milstead said: “He could have construed it that way, yes.”

Besides charges that he obstructed the attorney general’s investigation, Mecham is accused in the impeachment trial of concealing a $350,000 campaign loan and misusing $80,000 in a state fund by lending it to his car dealership.

Mecham, the first U.S. governor to undergo an impeachment trial in six decades, also faces a criminal trial March 22 on felony charges of concealing the campaign loan and faces a recall election May 17.