Discontent with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas' and Sheriff Joe Arpaio's legal battles with county officials moved to a public forum Monday and received a boost from an unexpected source with inside knowledge of their cases.

Hundreds of attorneys gathered on the courthouse steps in downtown Phoenix to protest Thomas and Arpaio's public campaign against public corruption. And, in a scathing letter to The Arizona Republic, the Yavapai County attorney, who previously handled some of Thomas' cases against county officials, blasted the prosecutor and sheriff as "a threat to the entire criminal-justice system."

Sheila Polk, a Republican and career prosecutor, spent six months working on two of the cases sought by Thomas and Arpaio in their ongoing battle against county officials and the courts. Her office handled the first criminal case against Supervisor Don Stapley and the investigation into the disputed Superior Court tower project.

In her letter, Polk wrote that although Maricopa County isn't her jurisdiction, she can't sit by and watch the abuses from a distance anymore.

"I am conservative and passionately believe in limited government, not the totalitarianism that is spreading before my eyes," she wrote. "The actions of Arpaio and Thomas are a disservice to the hundreds of dedicated men and women who work in their offices and a threat to the entire criminal-justice system."

Polk had stayed out of the legal drama in Maricopa County, and her remarks offer the first insight from an outside law-enforcement official who has some knowledge of the cases Arpaio and Thomas have lodged against county officials.

Maricopa County Sheriff's Chief Deputy David Hendershott said that the Yavapai County Attorney's Office mishandled the allegations and that Polk wasn't as familiar with the cases as she implied.

But Polk's words appeared to shock Thomas, who learned about the letter the same day a rally was held near his office.

More than 250 people, mostly attorneys, gathered in front of the Superior Court complex in downtown Phoenix on Monday to protest criminal charges filed against a Superior Court judge who is accused of hindering prosecution, obstructing a criminal investigation and bribery.

Thomas laughed off the rally with a quip: "They predicted 1,000 people would turn out, and obviously that didn't materialize. So, I guess I'm not as big a draw as the sheriff."

He said he could not comment on Polk's letter.

Hendershott spoke on behalf of Arpaio. Hendershott said that Polk's office repeatedly failed to issue subpoenas the Sheriff's Office needed.

"It seemed clear to us that this case was being deliberately stalled," he said. "We basically let her know that her work product was ineffective."

Hendershott implied that Polk was interested in becoming a judge and was trying to curry favor with attorneys and politicians by stalling the investigation. Polk declined to comment, saying the letter speaks for itself.

Hendershott said that, after learning of Polk's letter, he also notified the FBI of his concerns about Polk's handling of the investigations.

Criminal inquiries

In April, Thomas asked Polk to take over Stapley's prosecution, which involved his financial-disclosure forms, and the grand-jury investigation into the planned court-tower project in downtown Phoenix.

Hendershott said that his office also was trying to get Yavapai County to issue subpoenas in an investigation of Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox.

When the cases were handed over, Polk told The Republic, she had no personal relationship with Thomas.

Polk said she worked with the Sheriff's Office on the cases for the next six months, then returned the cases to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

In Polk's letter, she wrote that she was "happy to remove myself from the cases and from contact with Sheriff Arpaio. My discomfort grew daily and my role in restraining potential abuses of power increasingly more difficult."

The letter does not specify details about the potential abuses.

In a letter Thomas sent to The Republic to defend his office and complain about the newspaper's editorial opinions, he said he went to great lengths to show fairness in the investigations and sought help from outside agencies - to no avail. He said his only option was to pursue the cases himself at a "great personal and professional cost."

"While we do not ask for accolades, we must defend ourselves from repeated public attacks," he wrote. "These attacks, quite unlike our own actions, genuinely threaten the foundation of our government."

Similar message

The attorneys who rallied Monday also criticized Thomas and Arpaio for what they see as heavy-handed tactics.

"I think all Maricopa County citizens need to be very concerned about this attack on the independent judiciary," defense attorney John Curry said, "because without an independent judiciary, there is no rule of law."

Thomas has fought Superior Court judges for several years. In 2006, he took Presiding Judge Barbara Mundell to federal court in a successful bid to stop a probation program conducted in Spanish for DUI offenders.

And on Dec. 10, Thomas charged Presiding Criminal Judge Gary Donahoe with bribery, obstructing a criminal investigation and hindering prosecution over Donahoe's rulings in the court-tower probe.

Donahoe had ordered that Thomas remove himself from that case, given the infighting with other elected county officials.

Thomas then passed the court-tower investigation and the first Stapley case to Yavapai County.

Earlier this month, Thomas filed a civil suit in federal court accusing several judges, the Board of Supervisors and private attorneys with racketeering over the investigations.

Among the speakers at the rally was Judge Timothy Ryan's brother Tom Ryan, a civil attorney.

"By your very conduct, Mr. Thomas, you have become a threat to the rule of law and the Constitution you swore to uphold," Tom Ryan said.

Among the protesters were a few judges, Hispanic community activists and some of Thomas' and Arpaio's political rivals.

Not all defense lawyers approved of the rally.

"You've got lawyers like me who have been fighting excesses by the state for years, and the courts have allowed the accumulation of power that has occurred," attorney Adrian Fontes said.

"Then, when one of their own gets charged, they expect the entire community to come to their rescue."