Former minuteman leader and ex, self-described "senior advisor" for J.D. Hayworth's U.S. Senate campaign Chris Simcox allegedly threatened to kill his wife and family according to a petition for an order of protection filed by his estranged spouse Alena Simcox.
A Maricopa County court commissioner granted the petition April 16, and ordered the 49 year-old Simcox to remain 200 yards away from Alena, their two children, and Alena's child from a previous relationship. The order prohibits Simcox from possessing, receiving, or purchasing firearms or ammunition. He was told to "surrender same" to the Scottsdale police within 24 hours of being served.
(Note: I called Scottsdale police today to ask if Simcox had surrendered his weapons. They told me they had no record of him doing so.)
Alena Simcox, 30, petitioned for divorce from her husband of five years on April 19. A judge later granted her temporary legal custody of the kids. The dissolution of the marriage is pending. A reply to the court, filed by Simcox's lawyer John Acer, denies allegations of domestic violence.
And yet, Alena Simcox goes into graphic detail in her order of protection paperwork, describing three disturbing incidents.
"On my husband's birthday, he was drinking," she states of the date November 29, 2009. "When I came home from Christmas shopping, he [threatened] me with a gun. Repeatedly pointed it at me, saying he was going to kill me, and my kids, and the police. Kids were present and saw him. Very verbally abusive to me throughout the incident. Punched my wall in and destroyed [an] office door.
"The incident started 8:00 p.m. went to 2:00 [a.m.] when he passed out. I locked myself in my master bedroom with the kids. I did not call the police because he threatened to kill me and the kids and all police if I did. He was waiting by the door for the police to come, with a gun pointed at me."
She details another incident dated August 22, 2009:
"On our wedding anniversary, he was drinking and angery [sic]. Got a revolver gun and loaded with kids present. Then proceeded to ask me to `shoot him.' I said `no,' so then he said he would shoot entire family and cops."
Alena Simcox also says that, "I have many emails that are harassing in nature, many emails accuse me of phone sex with other men. As well as adultery with many [different] men. All allegations are untrue."
I've yet to hear back from Alena Simcox's lawyer. Chris Simcox's lawyer was unavailable. A phone call to Simcox himself has not been returned.
Recently, in a rambling online newsletter called "The Simcox Report," the ex-head of the now-defunct Minuteman Civil Defense Corps blasted Governor Jan Brewer for her support of U.S. Senator John McCain, offered his "final solution" to Arizona's border problems (yes, he actually uses that phrase), and in the manner of some retiring exec, mentioned that he'll be taking some time off to deal with family matters.
"I was compelled to be a doer," he writes, "to express my love for country through action - to commit to action as my highest form of love. Over the past 9 years of my sacrifice to teach and inform I have struggled to get my whole person behind my love and in reality it has led to falling short in all my relationships, most notably my duty to my wife and family.
"At this stage of my life and after applying my obligation to love my country I now must love with my whole person; I must commit to love my God first, my family second and my duty to country, as important as it is, now comes behind my primary duties to get my whole person behind my nexus of love, my feelings, my thoughts, my actions-my God and my family come first."
According to his recent filing with the court, Chris Simcox is unemployed. Alena Simcox said in her divorce paperwork that her husband's working for Hayworth's campaign. And he was doing so in some capacity after he ditched his own dark horse U.S. Senate candidacy and threw his support behind Hayworth's challenge of McCain in February.
Standing in front of what looks like a campaign office for Hayworth in this YouTube video, Simcox claimed to be working for Hayworth as a "senior advisor."
Hayworth spokesman Mark Sanders said that Simcox did at one point work for Hayworth, but that he hasn't been with the campaign since mid-April. Sanders said he didn't know what Simcox did for the campaign.
Alena is Chris Simcox's third wife. His first two wives have also made allegations against him concerning alleged bizarre behavior on his part.
A 2005 profile of Simcox published by the Southern Poverty Law Center detailed how the second of Simcox's ex-wives, Kim Dunbar, "filed an emergency appeal in September 2001 to obtain full custody of their teenage son because she feared that Simcox had suffered a mental breakdown and was dangerous."
According to the SPLC, Dunbar stated in a sworn affidavit that Simcox "once took a knife from the kitchen and threatened to kill himself...When he was angry, he broke furniture, car windows, he banged his head against the wall repeatedly and punched things."
Simcox's first ex-wife Deborah Crews told the SPLC that, "He tried to molest our daughter when he was intoxicated...When she ran out, he tried to say he was just giving her a leg massage and she got the wrong idea."
Back in 2007, Alena Simcox's mother Barbara Lang-Lyras Auffret sued her daughter over a trust established in Alena's name. In the suit, Auffret claimed her daughter was "ill-equipped to handle the trust and unduly influenced by the head of the dubious Minuteman Project, an organization seeking donations of funds for various purposes."
The suit was eventually dismissed, with each party agreeing to pay its own legal costs.
Simcox has a criminal record. In 2004, he was convicted in U.S. District Court of carrying a semi-automatic handgun onto a national park, and giving a "false or fictitious report" to a federal park ranger about the incident. He received 24 months of supervised probation and a fine of $1,000.
In March, Simcox's old organization MCDC folded. His tenure as president of the anti-immigration group was plagued with controversy, defections, and allegations of financial mismanagement from ex-MCDC members.
Fountain Hills resident James Campbell sued Simcox and MCDC over a $100,000 contribution to MCDC for the building of an "Israeli-style" fence at the border. That suit, too, was eventually dropped.
After Simcox resigned as MCDC head to run for Senate in 2009, MCDC's new leader Carmen Mercer became the subject of a lawsuit by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard's office concerning MCDC's alleged links to a property tax scam.
Simcox is currently seeking joint custody of his children with Alena and an "equitable division" of their joint property.
