Arizona Court of Appeals

How to Avoid a Marijuana DUI in Zero-Tolerance Arizona

For the millions of people who now use marijuana legally under their states' laws, driving in Arizona is a technically a crime. Motorists with pot metabolites in their bloodstreams who want to avoid a marijuana DUI -- which comes with nasty fines and a one-year suspension of driving privileges, in ... More >>

John Vigileos, Well-Known Tempe Attorney, Accused of Child Molesting (UPDATE)

In 2006, police searched nationwide for a Queen Creek man accused of a machete attack on his estranged wife and her boyfriend.  The manhunt ended within days after Chandler cops arrested 33-year-old Armando Lopez Jr., who was accused of assaulting the pair inside the woman's home in Magma Ranc ... More >>

Andrew Thomas Wusses Out of Disbarment Appeal; Judge May Order County to Pay Mary Rose Wilcox; Conley Wolfswinkel Wins Again

Here's a quick rundown on Maricopa County news today:* Andrew Peyton Thomas, former Maricopa County Attorney, failed politician and author of right-wing books, won't appeal a state Supreme Court Disciplinary Panel's decision to cancel his law license. We've cut-and-pasted his wussyish comments about ... More >>

Jeffrey Martinson Wins New Trial As Judge Cites Juror Misconduct, Legal Errors: UPDATE

A Superior Court judge yesterday afternoon granted a defense motion and ordered a new trial for convicted child killer Jeffrey Martinson. In so doing, Judge Sally Duncan overturned last year's guilty verdicts of first-degree murder and child abuse against the 47-year-o ... More >>

Moral Of This Little East Valley Yarn: Kill [Most of] The Lawyers

As far as lawsuits go, the Maricopa County Superior Court case of Alice and George Kaplan v. Chandler was anything but monumental. Heck, all it concerned was a broken water pipe at an unoccupied building that the couple own in the East Valley city.​The Kaplans claimed that the city was negligent b ... More >>

Local Woman Who Represented Self In Med-Mal Suit Gets Second Crack At Allegedly Wayward Doc

The old saw that he who represents himself in court has a fool for a client carries weight with us, having seen the usually sorry outcomes of such endeavors.   ​But an Arizona Court of Appeals decision filed last week gives a local woman hope that her self-composed lawsuit against a bo ... More >>

Waitress Blew Out Knee When Checking On Her Dogs, but Appellate Court Says No to Worker's Comp Benefits

Merry Shaydak went to work as usual at the Mexico border on a very chilly March day in 2010. Cute dog photo #6,432 ​She was a waitress at the Turquoise Valley Golf and RV Park in Naco, which sits right on the line a few miles south of Bisbee.   Shaydak brought her two dogs to work with ... More >>

Retired Arizona Public Officials Sue to Keep "Hundreds of Millions" in Pension Payouts Being Denied Because of New Law

Image: Ray SternColin Campbell, retired Maricopa County Superior Court judge, is representing a group of retired judges suing a state pension plan in an attempt to reverse a law that shrinks pensioners' cost-of-living adjustments.​ Retired judges are fighting a new law that reduces their pensi ... More >>

Planned Parenthood Won't Challenge Court Ruling on Abortion Laws; New Regulations Go Into Effect Today

​If you live in a rural part of Arizona and want to get an abortion, best of luck to you -- new abortion laws that pro-choice advocates say will make it extremely difficult for people in the boonies to get an abortion go into effect today, compliments of the Arizona state Legislature and Governor ... More >>

Russell Pearce's Legal Challenge on Recall Kicked to Arizona Court of Appeals

Hauser, denied by the Supremes for nowThere's been yet another development in the saga of loserdom being perpetuated by state Senate President Russell Pearce's attorney Lisa Hauser in the legal challenge to the recall.Today the Arizona Supreme Court declined to review Hauser's appeal of Superior Cou ... More >>

Meth Toting Driver Gets Free Pass After Court Says Mesa Cops Went Too Far

 The Arizona Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court's key ruling in a methamphetamine-possession case against a local woman, concluding that the Mesa police "coerced" her into admitting she was carrying the drug. ​In a unanimous ruling issued last Wednesday, the panel agreed with ... More >>

`Fish Pedicures' Case Overturned In Part By Arizona Appellate Court

We are a sucker for the odd court case, and the April 29 Arizona Court of Appeals decision in Cindy Vong and LaVie, LLC v. the Arizona Board of Cosmetology more than fills the bill.   These guys loved to nibble on toes​ Vong owns LaVie, a nail salon out in Gilbert. In 2008, s ... More >>

Foot-Feasting Fish Case to Be Heard by Court of Appeals

www.barfblog.com Dinner is served. ​Goldwater Institute wants nothing more than to protect your right to have hundreds of small fish suck dead skin off of your feet. Later this week, the Arizona Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear a lawsuit filed by Goldwater on behalf of a Gilbert spa ow ... More >>

Phoenix Kidnapping Statistics: Review Panel Includes Retired Judges, FBI Agent

Karen Thoreson will chair the committee charged with reviewing Phoenix kidnapping stats​A panel of independent experts charged with reviewing Phoenix's kidnapping statistics will be headed by Karen Thoreson, president of Alliance for Innovation. The other members are retired FBI Agent Larry ... More >>

Gary "Dr. Buzzard" Karpin's Criminal Convictions Upheld--See Ya In About 12 Years

The Arizona Court of Appeals has upheld the criminal convictions of Gary Karpin Jr., aka "Dr. Buzzard," a disbarred attorney who preyed on people, mostly women, who hired him as a "mediator" in their pending divorce cases.   ​The unanimous appellate decision upholding Karpin's conviction ... More >>

Havasupai Tribe Win Nice Settlement From ASU In Scandalous Blood-Sample Case

Back in May 2004, we published a cover story entitled "Indian Givers," which broke the news about a remarkably devious study conducted by genetic researchers at Arizona State University. ​The piece described how those researchers, led by Dr. Therese Markow, a nationally known geneti ... More >>

Sheriff's Office Gets More Time to Sort Through Recovered E-mails in Racial Profiling Case

Image: Arizona Court of AppealsU.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow​ A federal judge today allowed the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office more time to sort through recovered e-mails for confidential info that doesn't pertain to an ongoing racial-profiling lawsuit. The company that saved the recov ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Curious Case of the Sneaky Detention Officer Goes to Appeals Court

We just returned from the Arizona Court of Appeals, where a three-judge panel heard arguments in the curious contempt case of Adam Stoddard.   ​Readers surely remember the unprecedented (as far as we can tell) case -- about a sheriff's detention officer who got into a pickle last October ... More >>

Arpaio and Thomas Thwarted Again in Quest to Read Court E-mail

Sheriff Joe Arpaio is thwarted again in his quest to read Barbara Mundell's e-mail. For now, anyway.​The Arizona Court of Appeals has jumped into the middle of the so-called corruption probe that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas have been attempting to esc ... More >>

County Attorney Thomas and Crew File "Special Action" in Arpaio Detention Officer Flap

We've just gotten word that the Maricopa County Attorney's Office has filed a "special action" with the Arizona Court of Appeals in legal protest of Judge Gary Donahoe's recent jailing of county Detention Officer Adam Stoddard. ​We haven't yet seen the pleading, filed on behalf of Stodd ... More >>

Metadata in Electronic Government Records Must be Released to Public, Arizona Supreme Court Rules

Phoenix police Sergeant David Lake may get to find out whether his supervisors screwed him over, thanks to unanimous pro-public-records ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court. As we related back in January, Lake was halted twice by the court system in his quest to obtain the metadata embedded in a Micr ... More >>

Bitter Lawsuits Between Arizona Prison Employees Costing Forest Many Trees

We bumped into this wild 48-page Arizona Court of Appeals ruling, which was issued earlier this month. ​  It concerns a complicated and somewhat troubling set of back-and-forth lawsuits involving a former correctional officer and a criminal inspector. The inspector, whose name is D ... More >>

Arpaio and Hendershott Order Troops to Seize County Computers Containing Data That a Judge Ruled Arpaio Couldn't Have

Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott​ The county feud took what is perhaps its ugliest turn yesterday as deputies with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office seized county computers with data a court already ruled the sheriff couldn't access. County Manager David Smith called Sheriff Joe Arpaio a "thug ... More >>

Goldwater Institute Attempts to Intervene in Coyotes' Bankruptcy

​Saying that bankruptcy court might be the only place to stop a deal that forces taxpayers into subsidizing the Phoenix Coyotes, the Goldwater Institute filed a motion this afternoon asking to the judge to allow them to intervene in the case.The motion is filed on behalf of eight Glendale taxpayer ... More >>

Brewer Picks Tucson Republican as New State Supreme Court Justice

​ Governor Jan Brewer put out a news release this afternoon announcing she's picked A. John Pelander III to fill a vacancy on the Arizona Supreme Court. The vacancy was created by the upcoming retirement of Chief Justice Ruth McGregor. As the Arizona Republic notes today, Pelander is a Repub ... More >>

Hot Links: Fires, Schoeneweis' Wife, and Bee Swarm Warnings

In the latest four-alarm fire at a Valley structure (Richardson's restaurant was completely destroyed last week), firefighters are battling a huge blaze at a recycling plant in Glendale. The fire broke out at 8 p.m. last night at the Tempe-Inland Inc. facility, and crews are expected to battle the b ... More >>

Harold Fish to be Freed From Prison After Three-Year Stay for Shooting; No New Trial to be Held

  A schoolteacher who fatally shot a man while hiking alone in Arizona's high country, becoming the poster boy for self-defense rights, won't face another trial and will soon be freed from prison. The Payson Roundup reported yesterday that Coconino County Attorney David Rozema&nb ... More >>

Hendershott Files New Records Request With Maricopa Superior Court That Looks Like Old Request

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott asked for e-mails of Superior Court staff in a fresh public-records request this month and was promptly told to bug off.A similar records request went nowhere earlier this year, spurring a lawsuit from the Sheriff's Office that was shot ... More >>

Lawsuit Roundup: Bank Sues Goodyear for $15M Over Failed Ballpark Deal; Blind Students, ASU and Kindle; Ballplayer Ordered to Pay Child Support

Image: www.goodyearaz.gov A trio of Valley stories this morning from Courthouse News Service: * The failed deal to build a fancier spring-training ballpark in Goodyear has blossomed into a lawsuit. The moneybag behind the deal, M&I Marshall Ilsley Bank, wants Goodyear to get the ballpark up and run ... More >>

Appellate Court Rules Against Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- Says Records Request Has "No Discernable Public Benefit"

The Arizona Court of Appeals today smacked down Sheriff Joe Arpaio, ruling that administrators at the Maricopa County Superior Court do not have to turn over thousands of e-mails, as Arpaio had demanded.In a unanimous decision released this morning, the three-judge paneled found that Superi ... More >>

Supreme Court to Hear Phoenix Appeal in CityNorth Case

Sarah FenskeThe $97 million CityNorth tax giveaway supposedly paid for this parking garage.This just in: The Arizona Supreme Court will revisit the appellate decision that struck down the city of Phoenix's $97 million subsidy of the CityNorth development.Today's decision to grant review is a victory ... More >>

Arpaio's Web Site Keeps Valley Informed -- About E.J. Montini Columns

  Standoffs, suspected kidnappers, burning bodies, high-speed chases, animal abusers -- the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office sure has a lot going on. But you'll see none of those cases on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's taxpayer-funded Web site. You can, however, read a column by Arizona Re ... More >>

Arizona Court of Appeals Mercifully Rules Against a State Agency That Told a Poor Woman She Didn't Need Dentures, That She Could Just Exist on a Liquid Diet

Some years ago, Bridget Sharpe became eligible for AHCCCS, the state's health-care program for the needy. She enrolled with the program's Mercy Care Plan to receive medical services.  What remained of Sharpe's teeth were in a state of "rampant decay," according to an Arizona Co ... More >>

Feedback from the Issue of Thursday, February 5, 2009

What are Metadata? (And Why You Should Care When Government Won't Let You See Them)

We've never even tried to obtain metadata from a government agency, and now the Arizona Court of Appeals tells us we can't have them.   What the hell are megadata, anyway? (And isn't it annoying they must used in plural form?)   Well, it turns out that every keyst ... More >>

CityNorth Development Threatened After Appeals Court Blasts City's Tax Giveaway

The Arizona Court of Appeals today struck down Phoenix's giveaway of $97 million in sales tax that was promised to a developer in exchange for building the Kierland-Commons-like CityNorth center. A few months ago, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of Phoenix's be-kind-to-de ... More >>

Court Ruling on Havasupai Blood Case Good News for Tiny Tribe

A state appellate court ruling has given new life to a lawsuit filed by the tiny Havasupai nation over blood samples that the tribe was told would be used for the study of tribal diabetes but instead were used for other research. Back in 2004, we wrote "Indian Givers," a chilling ... More >>

When Can Cops Pat You Down? State Takes Case to U.S. Supreme Court Today

The case of an Arizona police officer who found a gun after she patted down the passenger of vehicle who had committed no crime goes before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. The state, as represented by the Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, will argue that such pat-downs -- and&nbs ... More >>

Arizona Appeals Court Upholds Conspiracy Conviction for Illegal Immigrant

$5 million (and counting) to jail "human cargo" of smugglers under AZ law

How do you spell Wal-Mart? Try H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y

A legal battle with Wal-Mart over injury benefits broke this elderly store greeter’s spirit

Spiked

The legal community is abuzz about who will be Arizona's next Supreme Court justice.

Snake Killer

They call it "Snake Farm." Lawyers like Cal Thur battle State Farm to protect consumers from their own insurance company. Moral of the story: Don't have an accident.

A Case to Be Made

Poison Penance

Man whose tainted hot dogs sickened cat loses bid to be tried by jury for "moral turpitude"

Letters

THE RULE 11 REVOLVING DOOR

A LOOPHOLE HAS ALLOWED THE MENTALLY INCOMPETENT TO COMMIT CRIME AFTER CRIME, WITHOUT BEING PUNISHED OR PLACED UNDER SUPERVISION

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD

MAN INJURED WHILE PLAYING HACKY SACK WINS WORKERS' COMPENSATION BENEFITS

JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDESELDON-INVOKED LAW LEADS TO OVERTURNING OF MURDER CONVICTION