MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — Community members across the Valley have been expressing confusion over why multiple cases involving child sex crimes have either been turned down or sent back to police for further investigation. Three cases 12News has reported on in recent weeks are coming into focus.
When a criminal case is turned down by the Maricopa County Attorney's office, it means there will be no future prosecution. This is typically done when there is no reasonable likelihood of getting a conviction in a future trial.
When a case is furthered back to police, it means prosecutors need additional evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, the bar to get a conviction in a criminal case.
In the past three months this has happened multiple times. In each case, an alleged child sexual predator has been arrested, booked into jail, and had a mugshot taken. They all even went to court within hours of their arrest to be advised of their alleged crimes.
However, when it came time to formally charge them, they were all released because charges hadn't been filed.
“What we're looking at is whether the elements of the offense, meaning the different things that we have to prove in court can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, or if there is a possible defense," Mitchell said of what her prosecutors look at when they receive a case from law enforcement.
The people involved in these three cases are: Cody Weaver, Karl Komorowski, and Joseph Kinney.
Queen Creek police swarmed Weaver's home this past spring, executing a search warrant on his home after they received information he was allegedly uploading child sexual abuse material to a Gmail account.
His case was furthered back to Queen Creek PD by Mitchell's office in July and remains with police today. That decision drew the ire of one victim advocate.
“Why is Maricopa County sitting on this," Kayleigh Kozak questioned. "They found these videos compiled on this man's devices that were in his home. This man to the police, admitted that he has, in fact, watched underage porn."
In Glendale last week, police say Komorowski fired a gun at them outside of his home. When they returned fire, police say he was killed.
In July, Glendale PD arrested him on allegations of sexual exploitation of a child. However, that case was sent back to police by MCAO to gather more evidence. When Komorowski returned home from jail, his wife told 12News he wasn't the same person. She explained why she had to file for a protection order against him.
“Threats of violence and keeping our daughter safe and also physical violence. It has torn me up because he is not the person that I married," his widow said.
Mitchell says the additional evidence that needed to be examined was forensic.
"In those two cases, we felt like we needed to get that solidified, because often times it involves examination of phones or digital evidence that we have to make sure it's there, we know what it is, before we go ahead and file charges," Mitchell said.
In Buckeye, the community there express their outrage over the case against former Buckeye Union High School Principal Joseph Kinney being turned down by MCAO. The FBI alleges Kinney was engaging in sexual conversation with an undercover agent who Kinney believed was a 12-year-old girl.
Mitchell says prosecutors could not prove that Kinney knew he was talking with a 12-year-old girl.
"There was an age regressed photo that certainly could have been taken to be an older person, and caused them to question whether that was actually true," Mitchell said.
The top prosecutor in Maricopa County says her office is working tirelessly to protect the community from alleged child predators, even if the timeline to prosecute them isn't appeasing everyone.
“When they say, we need additional evidence that should be taken seriously. They know what is required in court. They've are trying to shore up the case so that we can best protect the community," Mitchell said.
She says her prosecutors have filed 37 cases involving child sex abuse allegations just in the month of August alone. Mitchell says this shows how "aggressive" they are being towards these types of crimes.
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