Email Author Tony Ortega

1996 Stories by Tony Ortega

• What's $2.995 Million Between Former Enemies?

  published December 19, 1996

  In 1995, a jury awarded Jason Scott $5 million, ruling that his civil rights had been violated during an involuntary "deprogramming" by Rick Ross,... More >>

• How Not to Make a Shilling in Insurance

  published December 12, 1996

  A decade ago, it was perhaps the ultimate experience for an American Anglophile: What better way to indulge one's fascination for things English... More >>

• A New Apparatchik in Joe's Politburo

  published 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 on understaffing and, more... More >>

• Bagels and Locks

  published November 28, 1996

  Television reporters called in live broadcasts from the Durango Jail complex last Wednesday night when it looked as though a second riot at... More >>

• There's No Accounting for Joe's Posses

  published November 14, 1996

  The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and its posses appear to be violating the Arizona Public Records Law by refusing to disclose information... More >>

• Taken Baby Syndrome

  published October 31, 1996

  The friendly fat woman who brings their baby to them for a few hours each week is regaling Raul and Karla Larranaga with stories from her career... More >>

• Sanitized for Joe's Protection

  published October 24, 1996

  The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has distilled its four-month investigation of jail inmate Scott Norberg's death into a convenient, 137-page... More >>

• Cult Expert Must Pay

  published October 10, 1996

  Rick Ross, the Phoenix-based cult and militia expert, sat in U.S. Bankruptcy Court last week, listening as a judge revisited the facts in a 1990... More >>

• There Goes the Neighborhood

  published September 26, 1996

  The silicon-wafer plant going up in northeast Phoenix has been at the center of a storm of controversy, but only after construction on it had... More >>

• Silly Con Valley

  published September 26, 1996

  In the summer of 1995, the city of Phoenix was locked in a battle with an Oregon town to land the Sumitomo Sitix Corporation's newest... More >>

• Joe's Slush Fund

  published September 19, 1996

  In February, New Times reported that Sheriff Joe Arpaio had made questionable payments from state jail enhancement funds--a source of public money... More >>

• District 5, Civility 0

  published September 5, 1996

  Earl Wilcox, the lanky husband of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, walks into the offices of New Times carrying two notebooks. He'd... More >>

• Road Kill

  published August 22, 1996

  To Ken Parker's father, a cowboy who wrangled dudes in the 1940s, the area south of Sedona was unremarkable grazing land known as Jackass Flats.... More >>

• Hangin' With Sheriff Joe

  published August 22, 1996

  Detention officers at Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Madison Street Jail made a grisly discovery on August 9. In the sixth-floor psychiatric ward, they... More >>

• First Pink Underwear, Now Pink Slip

  published August 15, 1996

  Sergeant Mark Battilana found out last week that Sheriff Joe Arpaio intends to fire him. Battilana had been suspended in May and was the... More >>

• Grave Consequences

  published August 8, 1996

  It's a familiar story: The City of Phoenix prepares to demolish an old building to make way for a new one, and preservationists take the city to... More >>

• Public Theatre

  published July 25, 1996

  Over the past several months, a public drama has been played out in the Valley news media. The drama has familiar themes: the large multinational... More >>

• The Shadiest Guns in the West

  published June 27, 1996

  Joe's Kickback Style It's August 1989, and travel agent Joe Arpaio is sweating bullets. His contract to coordinate travel for the Maricopa... More >>

• Blues Bodhisattva

  published June 13, 1996

  The lounge at the Ritz-Carlton on a Friday night in May looks like a Phoenix version of a Jazz Age speakeasy. There's the maitre d' who looks you... More >>

• Tent City Beating is Nearly Fatal

  published June 6, 1996

  On May 22, as he fielded questions on KFYI radio, Sheriff Joe Arpaio scoffed at accusations that his Tent City jail is inviting catastrophe. ... More >>

• A Cosmic Blunder

  published May 23, 1996

  It played last July like a typical page-three scientific discovery, the slot where daily newspapers normally run the disease of the week or... More >>

• Arpaio Tries to Plug Leaks

  published May 23, 1996

  A recent New Times cover story relied on deputies' accounts and public records to document how a massive shift of resources to the posse... More >>

• Politics: A Smelly, Puking Habit

  published May 16, 1996

  In January, a week after publicly excoriating the tobacco industry, Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza threw his support behind tobacco-sponsored state... More >>

• Lines of Power

  published May 2, 1996

  Some Mesa residents say they expect to have power lines within five feet of their properties because a Tempe city councilwoman doesn't like an... More >>

• Mutiny At The County

  published April 25, 1996

  Maricopa County taxpayers have paid for the training of 2,694 badge-carrying men and women who make up Sheriff Joe Arpaio's posse. They have spent... More >>