Ex-Pima County Prosecutor Files Lawsuit Alleging Sex Discrimination by County Attorney

A former Pima County prosecutor has initiated legal action against the county attorney’s office, alleging her dismissal in 2014 was due to sexual discrimination.

Theresa Sheridan was terminated from the Pima County Attorney’s Office in June 2014. This followed a Superior Court judge’s ruling that Sheridan had committed prosecutorial misconduct, leading to the dismissal of the related case, according to Arizona Court of Appeals documents.

After her termination, Sheridan appealed through the Pima County Merit System Commission, which upheld the decision. She then took her case to court, where the state court of appeals upheld her termination in November last year, court documents reveal.

In April 2015, Sheridan lodged a sex discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. However, the commission concluded in June 2016 that it could not establish violations of the statutes, as per the lawsuit Sheridan filed in Pima County Superior Court.

In her lawsuit, Sheridan claims her firing was driven by sexual discrimination from County Attorney Barbara LaWall, named in the suit. She contends that two male deputy county attorneys had committed more severe ethical violations but remained employed. These two male attorneys only resigned after the State Bar of Arizona intervened to revoke their law licenses.

“Unlike the two male attorneys discussed above, at the time of Ms. Sheridan’s termination from employment … she had no pending or prior discipline regarding her license,” her lawsuit asserts.

Following her administrative leave in May 2014, the State Bar began investigating Sheridan. She ultimately agreed to a cost reprimand in December of the same year, as stated in the lawsuit.

Sheridan’s firing resulted from an incident where she took unredacted medical documents from a judge’s chamber, which she claims was an error. After returning the documents to the judge’s assistant, she did not inform her superiors, defense counsel, or the court about the mishap, appellate court records show.

The termination letter from LaWall accused Sheridan of dishonesty in handling the records, which led to the dismissal of a DUI case, the lawsuit points out. Sheridan’s lawsuit does not mention a specific dollar amount in damages.

The county attorney’s office declined to comment on pending litigation when contacted.

Contact reporter Caitlin Schmidt at cschmidt@tucson.com or 573-4191. Twitter: @caitlinschmidt