Lester Pearce faces judicial investigation

Former Mesa Justice of the Peace Lester Pearce was formally charged Thursday with violating judicial standards in connection with alleged campaign activities during last year's historic recall election involving his brother.

The state Commission on Judicial Conduct filed the charges and said they will be weighed in a formal hearing for which the date will be announced later.

"The charges relate to several instances where it is alleged former Judge Pearce engaged in political activity on behalf of other candidates," a news release from the commission said.

"Judges are prohibited from making speeches on behalf of another candidate for political office, publicly endorsing another candidate for any public office, and actively taking part in any political campaign other than his own campaign for election, re-election or retention in office."

Pearce is alleged to have campaigned last year on behalf of Mesa resident Olivia Cortes, who is widely believed to have been a sham candidate in the recall election in which Russell Pearce, then the Arizona Senate president, was fighting to stay in office.

Petition-gatherers for Cortes told The Arizona Republic during the campaign that the idea was to siphon votes from Pearce's foremost challenger, Jerry Lewis.

Cortes withdrew from the campaign in October, one day before she was to have been called back into county court to testify in a lawsuit that challenged her candidacy.

Lewis went on to defeat Pearce by 12 percentage points, making the longtime Mesa politician, one of the nation's leading opponents of illegal immigration, the first sitting Senate president on any level to be recalled in this country.

Russell Pearce's effort to return to the Senate hit a brick wall in August when he lost to Mesa businessman Bob Worsley by a similar margin in the Republican primary in District 25.

Lester Pearce, meanwhile, had resigned as justice of the peace after 15 years to run for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors. He, too, lost in the August primary.

The Commission on Judicial Conduct said in its news release that "the maximum sanction involving a former judge is a censure and payment of costs and fees associated with the proceeding."

It alleges that Lester Pearce:

Knowingly accompanied a niece in a car while she gathered petition signatures for Cortes and "may have engaged in direct contact with some individuals for the purpose of advocating against the recall of his brother during his niece's activities on behalf of candidate Cortes."

Spoke on behalf of his brother at a Sept. 15, 2011, Republican Party meeting in Mesa, the minutes of which were later edited to remove those remarks.

The complaint lists four counts against Lester Pearce as a result of those alleged incidents: improper political campaign activities, improper public political statements, abuse of the prestige of judicial office and failure to cooperate with and be honest and candid with the Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Through lawyer A. Melvin McDonald, Pearce filed a response in which he claims to have played no role in his niece's political activities; did not engage people in an effort to influence the campaign; and did not speak on behalf of his brother at the party meeting.

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