New Times files a prelude to a lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, County Attorney Andy Thomas and a discredited ex-special prosecutor on behalf of its readers and the Constitution

Though Romley would not touch the sheriff's desired prosecution of New Times, Arpaio refused to let the matter drop. When County Attorney Thomas took office, he had a political ally, and again he asked for the legal action. Thomas, however, had already borne the brunt of critical articles in New Times by the time the complaint reached his desk so he handed it off to Pinal County, citing a conflict of interest.

After two years, Pinal County returned the matter to Thomas last spring. As Manning put it in New Times' notice, "the Pinal County Attorney's Office did not share the Defendants' passion for political revenge."

This time, despite Thomas' already-declared conflict, he appointed his friend Dennis Wilenchik as special prosecutor in the New Times matter.

A lawyer who had made his name in toxic-mold litigation, Wilenchik was known for his bull-in-a-china shop approach to civil law. He used the same tactics against the new objects of his prosecutorial zeal.

As Lacey and Larkin revealed in the grand jury subpoena article, Wilenchik demanded "every note, tape, and record from every story written about Sheriff Arpaio by every [New Times] reporter over a period of years."

Acting on his own (remember, no grand jury ever existed in the matter), Wilenchik hit New Times, as well as reporters John Dougherty and Paul Rubin individually, with subpoenas.

Rubin's personal subpoena was especially egregious, as it sought everything Rubin had used to write his cover story "Below the Belt" (September 20, 2007), which documented Buckeye Police Chief Dan Saban's failed lawsuit against Arpaio for the 2004 smear involving his adoptive mother. Wilenchik defended Arpaio in the case, and his unsavory out-of-court activities were criticized in the article. The Rubin subpoena, sent the day after New Times published the article, sought records that had nothing to do with the home-address matter.

"Rubin's only 'misstep' was in criticizing Arpaio and Wilenchik," reads New Times' notice. "His story was not even remotely relevant to the matter Wilenchik had been hired to pursue (a 2004 story Rubin did not author).

"In the column disclosing the profound corruption of the investigation that led to their arrest, Lacey and Larkin succinctly summarized what was all too clear: 'It is impossible to view Rubin's subpoena as anything other than what it was: an act of vengeance.'"

Wilenchik also demanded in overarching subpoenas sent to New Times and to Dougherty all information on New Times' online readers from 2004 to 2007, including IP addresses, browsing habits, cookies, and domain names. Wilenchik had cast a wide, unprecedented dragnet. The targets were not just journalists and publishers, but readers and anyone who had pointed their Web browser toward New Times' Web site.

But it took something else to push Lacey and Larkin to write "Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution." It took Wilenchik's attempt to establish ex parte communications with Judge Anna Baca, who presides over county grand juries. Wilenchik telephoned political fixer Carol Turoff, a recent two-term member of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, and asked her to set up a meeting with the judge, a close friend. Turoff's spouse, Larry Turoff, is a senior member of County Attorney Thomas' management team.

Carol Turoff's late-night call to Baca did not sit well with the judge. She called the stab at a behind-the scenes conversation "absolutely inappropriate."

But the mold-litigation specialist was unbowed by even a presiding judge's admonition. After all, he had just emerged from a battle with another powerful Superior Court judge.

He had publicly attacked Judge Timothy Ryan, an associate presiding criminal judge, as part of Andy Thomas' assault on the local judiciary. Thomas was annoyed over certain judges' failure to deny bail to illegal aliens in Proposition 100 cases. He was particularly miffed at Judge Ryan, whom Wilenchik termed a "danger to public safety." Incredibly, Wilenchik asked Ryan to recuse himself from all cases brought by Thomas' office. Also, he sought the recusal of all 93 Superior Court judges on the question of whether Ryan should step aside.

The move failed, but Wilenchik was emboldened. So much so that he asked for the secret meeting with Baca while the New Times case was pending.

Lacey and Larkin felt that the pugnacious lawyer's flagrant disregard of the rules left them no choice but to engage in their act of civil disobedience.