Prosecution Calls Mecham ‘Habitual Liar’

Gov. Evan Mecham is a habitual liar who behaved in a “grossly offensive” manner by obstructing an investigation into an alleged death threat, the prosecution said today in calling for a conviction at Mecham’s impeachment trial.

Lawyer Paul Eckstein, in his closing arguments before the Arizona Senate on the first article of impeachment, said Mecham is not above the law and is guilty of malfeasance, an impeachable offense.

“This whole course of conduct by the respondent is not just offensive . . . but grossly offensive,” Eckstein said.

The first article accuses Mecham of obstructing justice by trying to thwart an investigation into a death threat allegedly made by one aide against another.

Mecham, who previously attended the historic hearings only on the days he testified, sat at the defense table intensely taking notes as Eckstein delivered his summation. More than 200 Mecham supporters demonstrated outside the Senate building, chanting, “We love Ev.”

Eckstein portrayed the beleaguered Republican as a habitual liar who thought nothing of ruining other peoples’ reputations.

‘Inability to Tell the Truth’

“The respondent has demonstrated for all the world to see his plain inability to tell the truth,” Eckstein said, ticking off several examples of how Mecham lied under oath and exaggerated.

Defense lawyer Fred Craft responded by depicting Mecham as a pressured chief executive who was ill-served by his advisers, the attorney general and the chief of the state police.

Craft said there was a complete breakdown in communications between Mecham and Atty. Gen. Bob Corbin, who was investigating the alleged death threat, leaving the governor “legally naked.”

Mecham, 63, a feisty conservative Republican elected in a three-way race in 1986 with just 39% of the vote on his fifth try for governor, became embroiled in controversy when he abolished the Martin Luther King holiday, a move that was virtually mandated on constitutional grounds by the state attorney general but which infuriated blacks. It also cost the state millions in lost revenue when several conventions were canceled in protest.

His offhand comments later angered women, gays and other minorities, and his troubles split Arizona’s 200,000 Mormons. Mecham, the father of seven, is Mormon.