But ignoring the court and acting on his own to jail us backfired. Public outrage forced County Attorney Thomas to "fire" Wilenchik. And while Thomas' response was mostly cosmetic, it freed us from the grand jury probe and put Wilenchik on the hot seat.
On October 25, one week after our arrests, Wilenchik issued an eight-page press release that foreshadowed the defense he will raise in the State Bar's investigation into allegations that he committed ethical abuses.
The attorney offered not a single sentence of justification for his attempt to bankrupt the newspaper. He did not mention the financial sanctions he sought from the court.
But while Wilenchik went into detail regarding our arrests, he avoided the truth.
"The arrests of Mike Lacey and Jim Larkin were the result of miscommunication," wrote Wilenchik. "My knowledge and intent was to have them cited for violating A.R.S. 13-2812, understanding that if they refused to accept the citations, they could be taken to jail and booked, then cited."
Apparently believing that no one would pore over the dense paperwork of the grand jury proceeding, Wilenchik's public statement ignored his own pleading with the judge on the day of our arrests.
In his request to the judge for an emergency hearing, Wilenchik asked "that the court issue a warrant FOR THE ARREST AND CONFINEMENT OF RESPONDENTS . . ."
The respondents are clearly identified: Michael Lacey, Jim Larkin, Tom Henze, Janey Henze, and Steve Suskin.
The newspaper's office is down the street from the sheriff's. Arpaio's handpicked Selective Enforcement Unit could easily have served us there with the misdemeanor ticket. Instead, two teams drove halfway across town and arrested us in the middle of the night, took me downtown and drove Larkin all the way out to Mesa in an SUV with Mexican license plates.
What does he mean by "if they refused to accept the citation, they could be taken to jail . . ."? Did he think two journalists were going to get into a shootout over a ticket?
After demanding in writing that the judge "arrest and confine" us, Wilenchik then attempted to lay the blame for our arrests and confinement on a "misunderstanding" by a junior associate in his firm.
"The direction from me was apparently misunderstood," wrote Wilenchik in his press release referring to the other lawyers in his firm.
Nonsense.
Wilenchik had requested an "emergency hearing" before Judge Baca to have us arrested and confined.
He was so filled with vengeance that he could not wait for Judge Baca to even schedule the hearing; he took the law into his own hands.
Now we are supposed to believe that he asked the judge to arrest and confine us, but when he took the law into his own hands later that same day and contacted the Sheriff's Office, he merely wanted to serve us with a ticket? What does a reasonable person conclude after this grotesque circus?
Dennis Wilenchik had us arrested, then lied about it.
Lost in the drama of mug shots and a 4 a.m. release from jail, Wilenchik sought from the court a series of five escalating financial sanctions, beginning with a $100,000 fine and moving onto $10,000 for every hour our story was on the Web, and $10,000 for every hour the issue was on the street.
He meant for us to choose between bankruptcy and the First Amendment.
And this is what makes Thomas' press conference such a farce.
The county attorney took Wilenchik off prosecutions but retained the untethered lawyer for civil actions. After all, "he's an excellent attorney," said Thomas.
So the lawyer whose sound judgment sought to put a newspaper out of business over a misdemeanor, sought to jail the papers attorneys, sought to, and did, lock up the paper's leaders can still represent the county in civil matters.
When you examine the behavior of Wilenchik, Thomas, and Arpaio, it is apparent that only arrogance explains their attack on the constitutional right of readers to look at any newspaper without government interference.
Wilenchik, Thomas, and Arpaio were arrogant because they'd successfully mauled the constitutional rights of prisoners, Mexican migrants, political opponents, judges, writers, and editors. And if Wilenchik is willing to jail journalists who buy their ink by the barrel, can you imagine how he treats the little guys stuck in his dragnet?
We are all on Dennis Wilenchik's enemies list.
And Dennis Wilenchik remains County Attorney Andrew Thomas' hit man.
I wish he had arrested you and had you made bankrupt. Then you would suffer like the people you tell lies about in your gutter-press newspaper. Sue me!
Which of the statements of fact made do you consider to be lies? Name one, and explain in what way it is false.
Here's how we take care of them! Get 'em, too, mr. Lacey, we're with you!
THE AGGRIEVED AND IRREPARABLY INJURED CLASS OF UNITED STATES ANDPHOENIX CITIZENS,
P.O. Box 2811Phoenix, AZ 85002-2811Phone: (623) 561 - 1634
______________________________, Class Member
______________________________, Class Member
______________________________, Class Member
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA
THE AGGRIEVED AND IRREPARABLY INJURED Case # 2:07-cv-02513-MHMCLASS OF UNITED STATES ANDPHOENIX CITIZENS, MOTION TO INTERVENEPURSUANT TO FRCP RULE 22 AND Plaintiffs,FRCP RULE 24
vs.
JESSICA (JESSIKA) RODRIGUEZ,CITY OF PHOENIX, ARIZONA,
Defendants.
____________________________________/
The AGGRIEVED AND IRREPARABLY INJURED CLASS OF UNITED STATES AND
PHOENIX CITIZENS moves this Court to intervene in this action pursuant to FRCP 22 and FRCP 24
and states:
1. The AGGRIEVED AND IRREPARABLY INJURED CLASS OF UNITED STATES AND
PHOENIX CITIZENS is a �class� as defined by FRCP 23 and is hereafter referred to as �The Class.�
2. �The Class� clearly has many members, some of whom have suffered grave and irreparable injuries, damages, pain, and suffering as a direct and proximate result of the intentional, negligent,
grossly negligent, and criminal acts of the defendants as more fully described in the attached �Exhibit
A,� a Demand Letter that was sent and received by the defendants on or about August 27, 2008.
3. �The Class� has a vast amount of official documentary evidence and witnesses to support the
allegations made in the Demand Letter.
4. �The Class� may have total compensatory, special, and punitive damages totalling approximately
$250,000,000.00 and requests permission to amend and increase the amount of damages listed in the
Demand Letter, �Exhibit A.�
5. �The Class� delivered a request for investigation of these matters to United States Vice
President Dick Cheney on on or about August 25, 2008. Mr. Cheney came to Phoenix personally on or
about August 27, 2008.
WHEREFORE, �The Class� respectfully requests to intervene in this action as a class of Citizens to
be defined and certified by this Court pursuant to FRCP Rule 22 and FRCP Rule 24. �The Class�
further requests that this Court order such other, different, and further relief as seems just and proper in
the proposed premises listed in the Demand Letter.
Dated: ______________________________________________________________
The Aggrieved and Irreparably Injured Class of
United States and Phoenix Citizens
byClass Member ______________________________ Class Member ______________________________
Class Member ______________________________
Class Member ______________________________
Marlene wants to sign the recall petitions for Joke and Candy, but I don't think that is practical. IF it was successfull and lead to a recall election, that would be next year and both idiots come up for reelection next year anyway. -A recall is just a waste of money when we can just try to vote them both out, starting with the primary election. There is also the risk that not enough registered voters signatures check out on the petition, so if it failed, that could give both dirtbags a boost in the election. We need to get out and vote 'em out.
Do you guys at new times have any legal redress for these abuses? should there not be a federal investigation into the attempted subversion of the consitution?
Good for you guys!
The sheriff is an IDIOT.
Even the Phoenix City Police act and a criminal gang.
I personally was arrest and detained (and put in Sheriff Joe's jail for two days) for CALLING the cops (by using 911 i.e. because dispatch hung up on me three times) to stop the drug dealing on my corner of 5th Street and Portland ... something they steadfastly still refuse to do anything about to this day!
F' the Police!
Demand reform!
Wow. it is really amazing what is happening there, and I thought China, Texas and Africawere the only places I would never want to visit, now I have to add Maricopa County Arizona to that list.
Based on this information, it looks like New Times could have a pretty goodfoundation for a Malicious prosecution lawsuit against Wilenchik and possiblyothers involved in this continuing drama. Probably would make a fine good movieas well.
Only one question about Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas remains:Where are the recall petitions? I wish to volunteer to get signatures to help promote the very honorable act of recalling these two criminals from the offices the people put them into to protect our rights and serve our needs.
After this is done I think we should focus on passing a law to limit politicians to one term in office, period. That would eliminate their having to focus entirely upon their own re-election so they could focus on improving our lives instead. We elect a sheriff to keep the peace for us. End of story. We have a county prosecutor for the purposes of presenting evidence to prove the guilt of those accused of having committed crimes. I'd really like to know who thinks Thomas's tweakings of the laws in order for him to be able to turn misdemeanors into felonies carrying excessively and inappropriately long sentences because he wants to be re-elected? See what I mean about the need to limit the terms for prosecutors and sheriffs and the legislature to one?
To the editors of the New Times, I applaud you and I thank you for your courage, honor, and righteous act to protect our Constitution right to privacy (i.e., our right not to be put on a hit list for Joe Arpaio and his nazis). You are everything these ethically challenged, arrogant, and dangerous __________ ( fill in the blank with the description of your choice)-- and thank you for publishing the only intelligent newspaper in the state of Arizona, which is why there is a list Arpaio wants in the first place. We are informed of the facts on issues that affect our lives every week by the New Times that we would not be reading otherwise. I seriously doubt that people running other papers in this state would have been arrested rather than give us up to that madman.
Marlene Keller
Get used to it Erika.This is what happens when you live in a police state run by Nazi's.
I am really upset with this guys. We have to vote them out. They have no morals and they are creating too much hate and fear in our communities.
What a bunch of F-en PIG's Wilenchik, Thomas & Arpaio are.They should be going to jail at the very least.What a bunch of major PIG's they are.
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