PHOENIX — Maricopa County's top prosecutor will support a news-media request for public release of material related to a grand jury investigation of a newspaper, a spokesman for the prosecutor said yesterday.

Phoenix Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Arizona Republic, and KPNX-TV filed a motion asking a Superior Court judge to release documents related to the grand jury investigation of the Phoenix New Times and a transcript of a closed Oct. 11 court hearing.

PNI and KPNX filed the motion on Oct. 19, one day after two New Times executives were arrested and briefly jailed after publishing an article that reported a sweeping grand jury subpoena demanding information from the alternative weekly on preparation of articles dealing with county Sheriff Joe Arpaio and on the New Times' online readers.

State law prohibits unauthorized disclosure of grand jury information, though courts can release information "in the furtherance of justice."

Thomas has "no objection" to unsealing the grand jury material and will support the media outlets' motion, spokesman Mike Scerbo said. He declined to elaborate, citing the legal restrictions on discussing grand jury matters.

Superior Court Presiding Criminal Judge Anna M. Baca has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow on the media outlets' request.

"That record will provide a full accounting of what has happened to date, and will enable the public to judge for itself whether the officials have acted appropriately, and whether the grand jury process has been abused," attorney David Bodney wrote in the media outlets' motion.

Though the subpoena covered multiple articles on Arpaio, Thomas has said the investigation was triggered by New Times' publication of Arpaio's home address.

State law prohibits online publication of personal identification of law enforcement officers. New Times reported Arpaio's address in a 2004 story, published both online and in print, on Arpaio's real estate holdings.

Thomas announced he wasn't aware of how a special prosecutor he'd appointed was conducting the investigation, that key aspects of the investigation were mishandled and that he was dropping the case and dismissing the special prosecutor.

The former special prosecutor, Dennis Wilenchik, did not respond to telephone and e-mail requests for comment in time for this story.

However, Wilenchik told the Republic in an Oct. 20 e-mail that he did not botch the case and that information on New Times' online readers was sought to prove whether Arpaio was "endangered or (in) imminent threat of danger" as a result of the publication of Arpaio's home address.

Wilenchik also said the Oct. 11 closed-door court hearing before Baca concerned a desire to open a dialogue between Thomas' office and the court, not the New Times matter.