I am a paralegal who worked with Mike Jette. I know first hand that he has the character, leadership skills, and prosecution experience to be an outstanding Pima County attorney.

I had been employed by the Office of the Arizona Attorney General for 10 years in the Child and Family Protection Division when I accepted a position in the Criminal Division. I was assigned to be the paralegal on Mike’s team. He and I got along immediately. Mike was more than my assigned prosecutor; he was a mentor because I had zero experience in criminal law. I imagine a lot of prosecutors wouldn’t want to take on someone as green as I was, but Mike was up for the challenge. I learned so much from him – from the basics of charging cases to the complexities of the sentencing statutes.

Mike was always approachable and never treated me like a subordinate. I always felt like an integral part of his team. When Mike realized I like to write, he started giving me more projects preparing for him first drafts of motions, opening statements, and sentencing memos. Working with Mike meant seeing the case through from investigation to sentencing. Since I worked alongside him in the office and in court, I can attest personally to Mike’s integrity, expertise, and passion for compassionate criminal justice while protecting the rights of crime victims. 

Mike has a good humored personality, and he brought a lot of laughter to our whole team. One Christmas he was the victim of an office wide prank when someone stole his prized crown (yes, an actual Queen Elizabeth-type crown that he had received in the office’s white elephant gift exchange) and had left Mike a ransom note. He good-naturedly grilled us individually in his attempts to discover the culprit in what soon became known as The Michael Crown Affair. Mike was able to enjoy the prank and laugh at himself.

Mike didn’t find so-called menial tasks beneath him when the rubber hit the road. If I was running out of time to assemble trial notebooks, Mike would be found copying and collating exhibits.

Mike truly cares about crime victims and colleagues. He once lost a case after a particularly contentious jury trial with a difficult defense attorney who took every opportunity to poke the bear (the bear being Mike). Although he was sad for the victim – and losing may have been disappointing given his pride in his work – the next morning he took his secretary and me out for breakfast to thank us for our hard work.

I am 100% confident that Mike has the character, leadership skills, and prosecution experience to make an outstanding county attorney, and the office will flourish under his leadership.