What do you want the boy to do?: For the first time since living in Arizona, I'm truly afraid. After reading the story of how Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his thugs rat-fucked (as the Nixon Administration used to say) Dan Saban and got away with it ("Boob's Tube," Paul Rubin, January 25) and the story on how County Attorney Andrew Thomas went after that teenage boy because he had a spybot on his computer that imported some kiddy porn ("Doubting Thomas," Sarah Fenske, also January 25), I've got to agree with my many liberal friends that we are living in a jackbooted fascist county, if not state.
How can this kind of thing happen in the United States of America? I'm still aghast, yet I've seen nothing about the Adolf Thomas incident in the other media in town, and I've seen only scant coverage of the Saban case in the Arizona Republic.
For Arpaio and his cretin number two, David Hendershott, to try to destroy a political candidate with a false rape story from a person who appears to be a certifiable fruitcake is bad enough. But what Andy Thomas did is truly despicable! Trying to get a 90-year sentence against a boy for looking at kiddy porn (even if he did it) would be reprehensible for Thomas' Nazi prosecutors to attempt. Come on, a kid looking at pictures of another kid.
But this Matt Bandy didn't even do that. Some perv planted the pix on his computer, which could happen to anybody who opens the wrong e-mail. And the almighty Thomas still tries to prosecute this boy, even when this is established to his investigators. See, he's tough on kiddy porn (more like he's tough on little kids).
I looked at the original 20/20 report on the Thomas case, and pasty little Andy said the boy needed to be taught a lesson. Why? Because he looked at naked women on adult porn sites? Because he took a Playboy magazine to school? See, it's apparently a serious crime [for a minor] to take a Playboy to school in the idiot state of Arizona.
Andy, I hesitate to think what you were looking at when you were a horny teenage boy, but I'm around to tell you that there's nothing abnormal, much less criminal, about a teenage boy wanting to look at pictures of naked chicks.
Old buzzard Arpaio is beyond redemption (there's a hot corner of Hell waiting for him), but, Andy, repent before it's too late! You're a young man. If you don't, the two of you may be Hell-mates for eternity.
Name withheld by request
How dare he look for work?: The article you had about Matt Bandy is like what my fianc and I are going through. My fianc went in October 2006 to apply at the Department of Corrections as an officer. As part of the application process is a lie detector test. He never actually got one; the office just asked him questions. One of the questions was: Have you ever watched child pornography?
During the summer while he was downloading music on a Web site, one of the songs came with a video of kiddy porn. As soon as he figured out what it was, he deleted it and went throughout his computer and deleted anything that it might have gotten into. He told the officer, thinking he had to tell the truth.
Well, soon after, police went to his house and took his family's computer and his dad's laptop. After that, about a month went by and nothing was heard. Then, at the beginning of November, he was arrested on one count of child pornography. He was released on bail, but now he has to wear an ankle detector. He had to hire a lawyer and has had four court meetings, and nothing's changed.
We just had a baby at the end of September, and my fianc has missed important doctor's appointments because his probation officer won't let him have the time. This whole situation is very frustrating, because of how long it's been drawn out. Prosecutors are delaying because they can't find enough evidence to convict him of anything.
Name withheld by request
Save yourself, Andy: I'm sorry, I'm all for stamping out horrible kiddy porn, but what County Attorney Andy Thomas' office did cannot be tolerated in a free society! The way these prosecutors went after Matt Bandy, a young teenager, for something he didn't even do should land these county pigs in deep shit. Somebody should organize a recall of Thomas.
I've been reading rants in The Bird, and in other places in New Times, about Joe Arpaio for years, and there's not much that can be done about him. Unfortunately, the county is filled with lame-brained voters who, no matter how many times you explain that Arpaio's jails hold minor offenders and folks waiting to go to trial (for the most part), they just keep crying, "We love Joe around here because he's about law and order!" That his policies have killed so many people being held for minor offenses makes no difference to these hard-heads. A DUI offender is just the same as a murderer to them. Sad thing is, these are the very Joe Sixpacks who wind up getting thrown into Tent City. That's when they change their tunes, but certainly not before.
But Andy Thomas? Didn't this pea-brain go to Harvard? Isn't he supposed to be a religious man, a moral man? How can he sleep at night after what he tried to do to that boy? Thank God the kid's parents had $250,000 to pay lawyers and experts to find him innocent. If they hadn't, an innocent boy would be in Florence for the rest of his life. Thomas' office even fought their attorney's attempts to try to look at the computer's hard drive. You know why? Because they knew their case would be null and void when it was found that somebody had planted the pictures on the computer.
Andy, what ever happened to justice? Have you no shame? Do you really think you are on the side of the Almighty when you try to railroad a young boy? Try to ruin his tender young life for your own political gain? I'm praying that God will help you to be a better man. You certainly are a sorry excuse for a Christian.
Jeff Thompson, Phoenix
