Three top-level Tombstone public officials are under investigation by the Cochise County Attorney’s Office as to whether they have violated Arizona’s open meeting laws.

Those implicated in the investigation include Mayor Dusty Escapule, City Attorney Randy Bays and City Clerk Brenda Ikirt.

Cochise County Attorney Edward Rheinheimer launched the investigation after receiving a YouTube video from a Sierra Vista Herald journalist, of an Oct. 13 Tombstone City Council meeting. At that time, city officials booted Mike Carrafa, owner of Six Gun City, from the meeting for making “personal attacks” against the mayor and council.

The County Attorney’s Office reviewed the tape and decided to initiate the investigation.  Rheinheimer told a reporter that he was disturbed by the way Carrafa was prevented from addressing the council by the city attorney and the mayor in what would seem to have been a completely appropriate manner.

Mayor Escapule said he has already sent a detailed, written report of the incident to the County Attorney’s Office, explaining the actions taken by the council in the altercation.

“We are doing what the County Attorney has asked us to do,” Escapule said.

Cochise County Chief Civil Deputy Britt Hanson admits it is too soon to speculate on any potential punishments in the event that any of the three public officials were to be convicted.  However, there are a wide range of reprimands they could face, ranging anywhere from fines to position recall.

The County Attorney’s Office will be looking into whether Carrafa was treated properly in his open meeting call to the public. Investigators will also explore whether the City of Tombstone has provided enough advanced posting of the City Council meetings and any other special assemblies.

“(Carrafa) was ejected from the meeting for attacking the marshal, myself, and my wife,” Escapule said. “That is not a violation of the open meetings law in my opinion.”

City Attorney Bays did not return multiple phone calls seeking explanation.

Carrafa was the sixth person to address the council on the night of the incident.  He first placed his video camera in the audience to record his own statements (the video is still available on YouTube) and then took his spot in front of the council.

Carrafa’s statement only lasted about one minute before Escapule and Bays interrupted him for making a personal attack upon Marshal Larry Talvy.

According to Carrafa, he was attempting to tell the mayor and council to instruct Talvy to file felony charges against Kenneth Skinner for a July altercation he had with a competing business owner.

“Did I feel it was a personal attack,” Talvy asked afterward.  “I think it became personal because he wanted everybody to hear about it.  Do I hold a grudge against him for feeling the way that he does? No. But I will tell you, I think he could have handled it differently.”

Talvy said that he did not file the felony charges on Skinner based on Carrafa’s medical paperwork that was provided to the marshal’s department.

“After reviewing it, there was no substantial disfigurement on Mr. Carrafa.  He got punched. (Skinner) was arrested for it and I did not see that sending out the report was substantiated so I did not file it as a felony complaint,” Talvy said.

At the council meeting, the city attorney prevented Carrafa from finishing his first statement, but he allowed Carrafa to continue with the second item he had planned to discuss.

This time, Carrafa began asking the council why the stagecoach tour business owned by Escapule’s wife seemed to be exempt from adhering to the solicitation ordinance.

Carrafa was stopped again on the grounds that he was making personal attacks and deputies escorted him out of Schieffelin Hall.

Carrafa has had a well-documented history of confrontations with a variety of Tombstone public officials. But Rheinheimer told a reporter that no individual should be barred from addressing the council because of such incidents.

In addition, according to A.R.S. Section 38-431.02(4), “The public bodies of the cities and towns that have an Internet website shall post all public notices of their meetings on their Internet website and shall give additional public notice as is reasonable and practicable as to all meetings.”

In Tombstone, most often an employee of the city would traditionally post city council meeting agendas at various locations around town: the post office, City Hall, the library and Schieffelin Hall at least 24 hours before any meeting.

“I was not aware that it had to be (posted) online,” admits Ikirt.  “We know that if (the meeting) is not posted within 24 hours, we cannot have it. It’s illegal.  And there have been (short notice) meetings that have come up, but we still (physically) posted it within 24 hours.”

The previous city clerk, George Barnes, who served under Mayor Don Aiton from 2007 to 2008, regularly posted the city council agendas and meeting notes on the City of Tombstone’s website.  However, he would do this from home because the computers available at City Hall were not equipped with the correct program to make those changes to the website.

“We’ve already complied with their requests to have the agendas put online, as of last Monday. We couldn’t do it before. We didn’t have the technology,” said Tombstone City Secretary Laura Jones.

According to Jones, the mayor has most recently downloaded a program to the City Hall computers so that they have the ability to update their website from the City Hall offices.

Though the City of Tombstone is taking all of the necessary steps to absolve themselves from any punishment, the investigation may take months before it reaches a conclusion.