By Michael Lacey
November 01, 2012
Editor's note: Michael Lacey is the former co-owner of Village Voice Media. He and his partner sold VVM to senior...
More >>By Stephen Lemons
October 25, 2012
What is it about Sheriff Joe Arpaio that makes the Tea Party animals go wild?
Is it his corpse-like demeanor, his way...
More >>By Ray Stern
February 16, 2012
Late 2005 to October 2007 was not a good time to be raped or molested in El Mirage.
During that time, the town had...
More >>By Ray Stern
May 26, 2011
Soon after becoming head of the Maricopa Anti-Corruption Enforcement team under Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Bill Knight became...
More >>By Stephen Lemons
April 21, 2011
GANG OF THIEVES
Just how dumb does Sheriff Joe Arpaio think the voters of Maricopa County are?
Granted, he's counted on...
More >>By Paul Rubin
February 11, 2010
Sheriff Joe Arpaio's public-relations team issued a joyous press release after winning a civil rights case in U.S....
More >>Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk provided the blade. Now it's up to AG Goddard and President Obama to use it
By Michael Lacey
December 31, 2009
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas have defiled our town square with hanging corpses: five...
More >>By Paul Rubin
December 24, 2009
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe could not be more different from Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Donahoe is as...
More >>By Michael Lacey
December 10, 2009
President Barack Obama gracefully accepted the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
Here, in Phoenix, Arizona, we...
More >>By Stephen Lemons
October 29, 2009
LOCAL HEROES
Ever since the MCSO's contract for police services with the town of Guadalupe was renewed earlier this...
More >>By Sarah Fenske
September 03, 2009
Five months ago, investigators with the Arizona Attorney General's Office raided the home of one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's...
More >>By Sarah Fenske
August 27, 2009
In near-endless posts on our Web site, Captain Joel Fox has waxed on about the media, about his career as a SWAT team...
More >>By Sarah Fenske
July 23, 2009
ANALYSIS (See list of related stories that led up to this piece)
"This situation has absolutely nothing to do with the...
More >>By Stephen Lemons
May 14, 2009
Strapped with a sidearm, carrying an Arizona flag, and wearing a golf cap and ink-black sunglasses, the neo-Nazi...
More >>By Stephen Lemons
April 30, 2009
DUPNIK'S SHARK
Where the right wing meets the sick and surreal. Is this what Arizona's become? Every day in this state,...
More >>By Michael Lacey
March 19, 2009
Elaine Sanchez understands Guadalupe, Arizona, as well as she understands her six children. She was born and raised in...
More >>By Paul Rubin
March 19, 2009
An attorney who recently left a top spot at the State Bar of Arizona says Maricopa County sheriff's detectives recently...
More >>By Sarah Fenske
February 19, 2009
From the beginning, I've been skeptical about the charges against Don Stapley. The Maricopa County Supervisor faces 118...
More >>By Sarah Fenske
January 01, 2009
Behind the year's most shocking indictment — 118 criminal counts filed last month against Maricopa County...
More >>By Sarah Fenske
October 16, 2008
The crime was so heinous, it made headlines across the nation — and sent some animal lovers racing to their phones...
More >>From the beak of The Bird to the ear of Stephen Lemons
March 20, 2008
JABBA-GATE
The bill for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's Honduran scam is at least $157K. This avian accountant...
More >>From the beak of The Bird to the ear of Stephen Lemons
March 06, 2008
EVIL WEED
How does an administration as unhinged as Sheriff Joe Arpaio's flourish? One reason is the acquiescence of...
More >>From the beak of The Bird to the ear of Stephen Lemons
January 10, 2008
Nothing makes this mallard madder than Tyra Banks after someone's said her booty's too big than having the truth-twisters...
More >>Arpaio's lawyer can't explain away his fudged résumé
By Amy Silverman
December 27, 2007
On October 19, the day after New Times' owners were arrested, the county attorney very publicly fired special prosecutor...
More >>If Maricopa County supervisors wanted to go after Sheriff Joe Arpaio, they could. They could focus on his office's finances
By Sarah Fenske
December 27, 2007
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has long maintained that he's accountable to the people — but the people's accountants are a...
More >>Corpses, a flesh-eating virus, the most-sued sheriff in America. Lawsuits against Joe Arpaio have cost us $41 million, so far
By John Dickerson
December 20, 2007
Maricopa County law enforcement violated the constitutional rights of this newspaper's readers in October. Using secret...
More >>Backstabbing in Buckeye, DMX's doggy woes, and nativist grandstanding over Officer Erfle's murder p.o. P-town's prickly pelican
From the beak of The Bird to the ear of Stephen Lemons
September 27, 2007
This witty warbler has been observing with jaundiced peepers the Vick-timization of part-time AZ denizen DMX, a.k.a. ...
More >>Our feathered fiend bombs Trump-haters, racist soccer moms, Uncle Joe and the ACLU. Who's gonna be next?
From the beak of The Bird to the ear of Robrt L. Pela
November 03, 2005
The Bird's nested in Phoenix long enough to know that this place has its share of shady, self-important, half-witted...
More >>Here's an idea, county supes: Audit the freakin' sheriff's office for the first time ever!
By John Dougherty
January 13, 2005
The new year has done nothing to alter the idiotic behavior of too many of our local elected leaders.
But before we...
More >>The Phoenix City Council can't sanction the $350 million, city-owned convention center hotel. By law, a referendum must be held.
By John Dougherty
July 08, 2004
Want to throw the fear of God into Phoenix elected officials, downtown business tycoons and their self-serving...
More >>Arpaio's invested $690,000 in cash in two commercial properties since 1995. Some other investment records are sealed.
By John Dougherty
July 01, 2004
How's this for a get-rich scheme?
You get elected to public office, say, sheriff.
You start scowling like John Wayne...
More >>The 51 may soon become just another crappy little freeway
As told to Patti Epler
February 21, 2002
Squaw Peak PotfallsThe Spike almost hates to break this news since there's a good chance the uproar will again drown out...
More >>It hasn't been cheap keeping the Joe Show aloft. Now, his employees, his inmates and the citizens of Maricopa County are paying the price.
By Robert Nelson
April 05, 2001
Hitmen hurriedly stabbed Jaime Sanchez four times, then dashed for anonymity among the other inmates on the sixth floor...
More >>Will county auditors be Arpaio's Waterloo?
By Jeremy Voas
January 25, 2001
Sheriff Joe Arpaio's neuroses are the stuff of legend, the wellspring of his unquenchable thirst for attention. If ego...
More >>Sheriff Joe Arpaio is trying to fire another deputy who alleges wrongdoing in the sheriff's office
By Tony Ortega
May 27, 1999
Maricopa County sheriff's director David Hendershott ordered detention officer David Cool to produce a false memo...
More >>FBI subpoenas Posse Foundation records of sale of pink boxers
By Tony Ortega
May 13, 1999
In January, the Federal Bureau of Investigation confiscated the financial records of the Posse Foundation as part of the...
More >>County jails are understaffed, but there seems to be plenty of money for the sheriff's pet projects
By Tony Ortega
April 22, 1999
While he spends lavishly on new offices, a bulletproof car and new employees to fight cat mutilations, Sheriff Joe Arpaio...
More >>Is Sheriff Joe's pink underwear in Bureau's drawer?
By Tony Ortega
December 03, 1998
Last week, the U.S. Attorney's Office said it will look into allegations that some of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe...
More >>The county's jails are crammed full. But not with the dangerous felons backers of an initiative to raise money for new jails would have you believe.
By Tony Ortega
September 24, 1998
"No turning around, ladies," says a beefy detention officer to the seven women slumped in plastic chairs.
Behind...
More >>The sheriff's not talking, but records reveal that taxpayers are spending big bucks to defend controversial jail operations
By Tony Ortega
August 27, 1998
Sheriff Joe Arpaio continues to grab airtime whenever he can, whether it's to announce that inmates will help stuff...
More >>By Barry Graham
July 16, 1998
According to the law, a person charged with a crime is presumed innocent until he's proved guilty in court. But, in...
More >>Public shouldn't see Posse Foundation records, judge rules
By Tony Ortega
April 02, 1998
Sheriff Joe Arpaio won't have to reveal how much money his posses have raised and how they spend it.
Superior Court...
More >>By Jeremy Voas
August 28, 1997
When is news not news?
When you don't get it from the Arizona Republic.
Last week, through the wonders of modern...
More >>
July 31, 1997
Why Fife's Defendantsy
If the conviction bug bites Governor J. Fife Symington III, deliberations over his sentence...
More >>
December 05, 1996
PNI Confidential
The Flash has often noted that the Arizona Republic seems intent on offending nobody but its readers....
More >>By Tony Ortega
November 28, 1996
It's the party line since the Tent City riot: Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his detention officers blame problems in the jails...
More >>Sheriff thumbs nose at Public Records Law, refuses to disclose how posses collect and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars
By Tony Ortega
November 14, 1996
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and its posses appear to be violating the Arizona Public Records Law by refusing to...
More >>When it comes to ethics, some of Sheriff Joe's top aides take after their boss
By Tony Ortega
June 27, 1996
Joe's Kickback Style
It's August 1989, and travel agent Joe Arpaio is sweating bullets. His contract to coordinate...
More >>
June 27, 1996
One Spirited Adversary
Jerry Colangelo and his partners may want to consider voodoo economics. Remember Beatrice...
More >>Sheriff Arpaio's deputies say his vaunted posse does little more than waste money and slake their boss's thirst for publicity
By Tony Ortega
April 25, 1996
Maricopa County taxpayers have paid for the training of 2,694 badge-carrying men and women who make up Sheriff Joe...
More >>
March 21, 1996
The Grave Truth About Sheriff Joe
Several abiding mysteries flourish in the Sonoran Desert:
1. What became of the...
More >>The county attorney promises to get to the bottom of Sheriff Arpaio's spending--by asking for a state audit that was already scheduled
By Tony Ortega
February 22, 1996
The same day Richard Romley announced he would seek reelection as Maricopa County attorney, one of his subordinates was...
More >>Sheriff Arpaio used jail-enhancement funds to pay for a lawsuit and videos of hisTV appearances
By Tony Ortega
February 08, 1996
When Sheriff Joe Arpaio sued the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in 1994, challenging its authority to cut his...
More >>