PHOENIX (AP) — A regulatory board warned a Maricopa County constable that he needed to improve his job performance following the discovery that he failed to serve over 80 orders of protection during a nine-month period after taking office last year.
The Constable Ethics, Standards and Training board in December issued Carl Seel a warning letter with the requirement that he undergo additional training, azfamily.com reported Wednesday.
Seel said he wasn’t properly trained on using AZPoint, the state court system for filing and tracking orders of protection, which are court orders used mostly to prevent domestic violence.
Constables use AZPoint to see what cases they have and what court orders need to be served.
Seel, a former state legislator who took office as a constable in January 2021, said he wasn’t aware until the presiding constable for Maricopa County filed a complaint that he was doing something wrong and letting protection orders pile up.
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Michael Branham, the presiding constable, said Seel and other new constables received extensive training on how to do their jobs, including use of the AZPoint system.
“If he’d have done a great job and simply asked for help, I don’t think we would have ever reached the formal stage for a complaint or improvement plan,” Branham said.
Seel said he took responsibility for what happened and has addressed his backlog.
“I wish it hadn’t gone so long,” said Seel. “I wish I would have learned what I didn’t know a bit earlier. I should have seen this problem ahead of time.”
Seel said it was a relief that none of the unserved orders of protection led to anyone getting hurt.
According to Branham, Seel now knows how AZPoint works and no longer has a large backlog of cases.
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