Rick Romley
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Rick Romley (Richard M. Romley) (born 1949) was the Maricopa County, Arizona, USA attorney general (Republican).
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[edit] Early life
Romley is a native of Tucson, Arizona. He was the youngest of three children in a middle class household and his parents divorced when he was young. Romley is currently estranged from his mother and has been since shortly after the divorce. He joined the Marines in 1968 and fought in the Vietnam War as a squad leader. He received numerous commendations for his service in that war, including the Purple heart medal. He was severely wounded by a landmine, losing both legs above the knee and suffering other injuries. Following the war, Romley went to Arizona State University in Tempe as a business management student, and graduated in 1974, the same year he divorced his first wife Patti. Afterwards, he opened a store but sold it to return to ASU, from where he graduated as a lawyer in 1982. He met his 2nd wife Carol, also a single parent, in 1984, and they married in 1985.
[edit] Career highlights
In 1989, Romley was elected county attorney (the equivalent of a district attorney) of Maricopa County--currently the fourth most populous in the United States, with approximately 3.4 million people. His office, the fifth largest in the country, is responsible for more than 40,000 cases a year. One of his highest publicized cases was when he was the prosecutor of the infamous AzScam scandal of the early 1990s, the largest public corruption scandal in Arizona history. His numerous policies, reforms, and programs have been nationally featured and generally well received. In 2001 he received the DAV's Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year. In 2002 he initiated an investigation of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and their part in the pedophile priest scandals, that led to an admission of wrongdoing by the then Bishop Thomas O'Brien.
[edit] Controversies
Romley's tenure as county attorney in Maricopa County has had a few scandals, and some of his views have proven controversial. He has publicly protested against terrorism, domestic violence, rape, drugs and other issues. He is viewed as either principled or inflexible and hardnosed by various people throughout the area.
His office was hit with a scandal in January 2004, when a female who used to work for Romley accused a male co-worker at Romley's office of sexual harassment, which the co-worker was acquitted of, but it was found that Romley had retaliated against her.
[edit] Home life
Romley currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his 2nd wife Carol. They have three sons, Darin (by Carol - previous marriage), David (by Patti), and Aaron (by Patti).
