Officials for a group home that state investigators want closed because they say the youths at the residences are living in dangerous conditions will not get a chance to argue their case to a jury in Cochise County Superior Court now that a judge has denied their request for a trial.
Instead, Cochise County Superior Court Judge David Thorn is ordering the parties involved in the Mary’s Mission and Developmental Center case to submit a schedule so that an evidentiary hearing can be held in his courtroom. The evidentiary hearing is meant to give each party a set amount of time to present any evidence and testimony that will help the judge make a ruling.
Following that proceeding, Thorn — who last year stayed the opinion by the state to shut down the group homes for boys and girls in Sierra Vista and Hereford respectively — would issue a decision that could dictate Mary’s Mission’s fate.
The Arizona Department of Health Services wants Mary’s Mission shut down because it says there are myriad violations at both group homes and the lives of the young clients who live in them are at risk. The Mary’s Mission residences are for boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 17. The majority of the youngsters staying at both sites, according to Mary’s Mission officials, are troubled youths from Native American nations within Arizona.
Following the state’s decision to yank the facility’s licenses for the two group homes, lawyers for Mary’s Mission filed a complaint against the state’s health department following its decision to put Mary’s Mission’s Cochise County operations out of business.
Chris Russell, a local attorney representing Mary’s Mission, initially asked for a jury trial in early 2022 after an administrative law judge ruled that the boys and girls centers should be closed because of the violations found during numerous inspections.
The decision by administrative law judge Tammy Eigenheer to have Mary’s Mission’s licenses revoked came in February 2022 after a four-day hearing in Phoenix in December 2021 when both sides argued the matter. In March 2022, a designee to the interim director of the health department ordered Mary’s Mission to “cease and desist all actions.”
The state gave Mary’s Mission two appeal options — it could request another hearing with the Health Department, or it could seek a judicial review in Cochise County Superior Court. Mary’s Mission officials have vehemently denied the evidence against them, saying that violations were minor and that none of the children in their care were ever in danger. They also claimed the state’s investigators had personal issues with them and wanted them gone from the community.
The case was assigned to Thorn in April 2022 after at least two other Cochise County Superior Court judges recused themselves from the matter, records show.
That same month, Thorn stayed the decision by the administrative law judge and the health department, allowing Mary’s Mission to remain open until further notice.
In a 30-page brief filed in September, the Attorney General’s Office, which is representing the health department, again asked the judge to close Mary’s Mission, saying the violations are real and that allegations that the state was “out to get them,” are unfounded.
Oral arguments were then set in the matter for Nov. 30 but were later continued.
In an order dated Dec. 14, Thorn denied Mary’s Mission’s motion for a jury trial “de novo,” saying the organization already had a four-day trial in Phoenix in December 2021.
“ ... However, the Arizona Department of Health provided the Appellant with a hearing — a four-day-long trial — which was also transcribed so Appellant is not entitled to a trial de novo under subsection (C) of A.R.S. 12-910,” Thorn’s order says.
A “trial de novo” means a “new trial” by a different tribunal.
The judge also ordered the parties to provide him with a proposed schedule for an evidentiary hearing “within a ‘convenient’ time.”
Attorneys for Mary’s Mission and an administrator for the facility did not respond to emails for comment by the Herald/Review.
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