Before he retired in 2019, Dr. John Herrod was a highly respected physician in Sierra Vista. He was also an active longtime member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for which he served several years as a lay bishop of the Bisbee Ward.
Now, Herrod is the plaintiff in two lawsuits connected to his time as a Ward Bishop. The first is a multi-million dollar claim filed in 2020 by a Tucson-based attorney representing three children who are suing Herrod and other LDS officials who knew the children’s father was abusing them.
The second legal action was filed May 25 and pits Herrod against Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre in a yearlong dispute involving whether McIntyre must release communications he and others in his office had with Lynne Cadigan, the attorney representing the children in the lawsuit against the LDS Church.
The legal issue goes back to 2011 when Paul Douglas Adams confessed to Herrod about engaging in ongoing sexual abuse of his young daughter. A similar confession about ongoing abuse of the same girl was made months later to Herrod’s successor, Robert Kim Mauzy.
Adams, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, was excommunicated from the Church around 2013. The abuse of his children did not stop until his arrest in early 2017 following an Interpol investigation of sexual abuse and child pornography. Adams later admitted to investigators he also sexually abused an infant daughter born after his split from the Church.
Following Adams’ arrest, Herrod and Mauzy have consistently said they relied on advice from Church attorneys that Arizona’s mandatory reporting law (ARS 13-3620) prevented clergy members from informing police about a confessional-type communications unless the penitent waives privilege.
Paul Adams killed himself in December 2017 in a federal detention facility while awaiting trial on state and federal charges. His wife Leizza was sentenced in August 2018 for her role in the abuse and molestation of her children.
For the last few years, Cadigan has publicly called on McIntyre to file criminal charges against Herrod and Mauzy, claiming the men violated Arizona’s mandatory reporting law even when acting in their capacity as clergy. It is known that a Cochise County grand jury undertook some activities related to the bishops’ actions from a decade ago, but to date there has been criminal charges filed.
Then in May 2021, an attorney for Herrod filed a formal public records to obtain copies of “all communications” between the Cochise County Attorney’s Office and the two law firms Cardigan is associated with in the lawsuit against the Church defendants.
The public records request by attorney Michael Piccarreta also demanded copies of correspondence between McIntyre’s office and any law enforcement agency that were shared with Cadigan or the other attorneys working with her.
Several documents were disclosed to Piccarreta a few weeks later, but then on Sept. 2, 2021, a deputy county attorney asked Piccarreta to “immediately destroy and delete” several of the documents.
“These documents that were produced relating to the Adams investigation are privileged and were inadvertently disclosed,” the letter from Paul Correa stated.
The Sept. 2 letter also noted other communications with the Cadigan Law Firm about the Adams investigation were privileged and thus no released. Piccarreta responded the next week, questioning Cochise County’s assertion of a legally recognizable prosecutor / victim privilege in Arizona’s public records law.
Piccarreta also noted finding no case law or ethics opinions addressing cooperation when a victim’s attorney has a monetary interest in seeing a criminal prosecution initiated. He demanded the Cochise County Attorney’s Office provide written authority for the privilege claim within 21 days or release the other documents.
But according to Herrod’s public records lawsuit, Piccarreta sent three follow-up letters over the next few months citing the lack of response from McIntyre’s office. The next correspondence from Cochise County appears to have been in February when Correa sent Piccarreta a list of emails and attachments being withheld under various claims of privilege.
Correa’s letter did not address the dispute about the previously released records.
Piccarreta gave the Cochise County Attorney’s Office until May 20 to comply with the Herrod public record request.
“I have exercised the patience of Job as the delays mounted, but my patience has been exhausted,” Piccarreta wrote.
The special action complaint was filed May 25. It seeks a court order finding Cochise County has failed to perform its duty under public records law. It also seeks an order that McIntyre immediately provide the requested documents, and seeks attorneys’ fees.
Once McIntyre is formally served, he will have until the end of June to file an answer with the court.
READ MORE ABOUT THE LAWSUIT HERE
