Jim Larkin

New Times Rolls With Joe Arpaio's School-Patrol Posse; Nobody Dies

"You play golf?" we ask 69-year-old John van Steinburg, as we roll past the entrance to Anthem's country club, riding in a Maricopa County Sheriff's Office patrol car.He doesn't, but since Sheriff Joe Arpaio's PR staff let us hop in the car with Steinburg -- one of Arpaio's posse members now on arme ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's Early Christmas Gift from President Obama and the U.S. Attorney's Office

See also: Andy Thomas Needs a Perp Walk With His Papi, Sheriff Joe Arpaio See also: No Charges for Arpaio: U.S. Closes Criminal Investigation of Maricopa Sheriff and Former County Attorney Andrew Thomas See also: The Feds Have Evidence That Joe Arpaio Broke the Law -- When Will The Indictments Come? ... More >>

Watch Ninth U.S. Circuit Court Hearing on New Times Vs. Sheriff Arpaio Lawsuit

Eileen GilBride, Sheriff Arpaio's lawyer, reacts to criticism by Chief Judge Kozinski that she had come to court unprepared. ​Questions asked by a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in yesterday's hearing of the New Times vs. Sheriff Arpaio false- arrest lawsuit seemed to lean towar ... More >>

Sheriff Arpaio's Lawyer Chided by Ninth Circuit Court Judge Over Failure to do Homework in New Times Case; Panel Focused on Questions of Arpaio, Thomas Immunity

Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, wasn't thrilled to hear that Sheriff Arpaio's lawyer didn't do her homework.​A U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge ripped Sheriff Joe Arpaio's lawyer for her lack of preparation for today's hearing in New ... More >>

Ninth Circuit Court to Hear New Times Vs. Sheriff Arpaio Case on Wednesday

Image: Tony BleiMichael Lacey, Village Voice Media executive editor, was surrounded by reporters after his early-morning release from jail in October of 2007. Former County Attorney Andrew Thomas announced hours later that the arrests and preceding investigation had been a mistake.​Tomorrow, the U ... More >>

More Hypocrisy From Thomas: "Very Unusual" for a Judge to Attach Newspaper Article to Complaint -- Yet Two of Thomas' "Anti-Corruption" Cases Began That Way

Image: Court pool photoAndrew Thomas continues his testimony on Wednesday in the State Bar disciplinary proceeding against him.​Part Two of the morning testimony by former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas brought out even more of Thomas' apparently hypocritical thought processes.We say hypoc ... More >>

Andrew Thomas May End Up Disbarred, But He Really Belongs in a Prison Cell

Dennis Wilenchik's Firm Fired for "Excessive" Fees by Maricopa County in Lisa Aubuchon Case; Ethically Suspect Lawyer is Ex-Special Prosecutor From '07 New Times Case

Dennis Wilenchik​ Dennis Wilenchik's ties to his former employee, failed political candidate and former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, has brought him lots of dough. But in raking in his taxpayer-assisted fortune, he's more than earned his reputation as a shady lawyer. We remember him ... More >>

Arpaio Kicks $40K to New Times, Plus Benjamin Bratt Discusses His New Movie, La Mission, and His Opposition to SB 1070

A Great Day (Coming): We Invoke Iconic Art For Our 40th and to Honor Community Resistance to Oppression

Ask a Mexican on SB 1070

Andrew Thomas Nemesis, Dan McAuliffe, Former State Bar Prez, Will Be Missed

We met Dan McAuliffe at a downtown Phoenix coffee shop about a month after deputies representing the malevolent interests of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andy Thomas arrested the owners of this paper for political reasons.   ​Toothpick in mouth, Mr. McAuliffe (in the photo ... More >>

Nativists Go Nuts at a Phoenix Walmart, and the Arizona Republic Belittles the U.S. Attorney’s Investigation of Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Dennis Wilenchik Cleared of All Wrongdoing by AZ Bar -- No, Really

courtesy of the Arizona Republic Dennis Wilenchik, home free​Dennis Wilenchik, the one-time special prosecutor whose investigation into New Times led to the nighttime arrests of its top executives, has been cleared of all wrongdoing by the State Bar of Arizona.And, sadly, this isn't one of ... More >>

Phil Gordon Payments to Girlfriend Okay, Ex-Chief Justice Finds

We saw this one coming. Elissa Mullany​The lawyer handpicked by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon's public-relations guy to examine a series of payments the mayor made to his girlfriend using his campaign finance funds -- former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Zlaket -- has cleared Gordon ... More >>

Joe Arpaio Target of FBI Probe, Says Channel 5 in Report to Air Thursday

CBS 5's tantalizing promo for their Thursday report Set the DVR this Thursday night for KPHO CBS 5's 10 p.m. newscast, which will feature an eight minute mini-documentary on Sheriff Joe's abuses of power while in office. The award-winning team of producer Gilbert Zermeno and reporter Morgan Loew bo ... More >>

Joe Arpaio and Andrew Thomas: They're All About the Perp Walk

"Declare Your Independence with Ernie Hancock" Features Yours Truly as Guest

Think Ernie's got an ego? Nah...I took up Phoenix libertarian Ernie Hancock's invite to be on his Webcast Wednesday morning, after much prodding from Hancock and his supporters. Alas, I couldn't make it into the studio. (Sorry, Ernie, I've never been an a.m. person.) Still, we s ... More >>

If at First You Don't Succeed, Try Try Again; Andy Thomas Throws His Hat Into AG Race

County Attorney Andrew Thomas is considering a run for attorney general, and he wants the world to know!​If you like what Andrew Thomas has done for Maricopa County, you're in luck; he might be taking the Andy show statewide.That's right; Maricopa County Attorney Andy Thomas announced t ... More >>

Taxpayers Not Footing the Bill For Dennis Wilenchik's SCA Defense, Says County

The sheriff's lawyer, Dennis Wilenchik, is now representing his commanders in the SCA scandal.​Following up on our coverage of the SCA campaign finance scandal, some readers have questioned the hiring of Dennis Wilenchik.The attack dog lawyer is the sheriff's go-to guy -- the "special prosecutor" ... More >>

Feedback from the Issue of Thursday, May 21, 2009

Live from D.C.: The House/Arpaio 287(g) Hearings, Starting About 7 a.m. Phoenix Time

Stepping off the plane in Washington D.C. this afternoon was like my first trip to New York many moons ago. The cab driver is Russian. The hotel front desk guy is from someplace in Africa. The room service waiter is from El Salvador. In other words, D.C. shows us to be a nation of immigrants. The na ... More >>

Jail Lawsuit Lawyers at Odds: Chief Deputy Orders Sheriff's Office to Sever Joint Defense

Thomas IrvineWith so much county news going on, we had temporarily overlooked this fascinating tidbit: Dave Hendershott Thomas Irvine, the lawyer hired by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to help backhoe the rift between top county leaders, has been appointed as co-counse ... More >>

Andrew Thomas is Free At Last -- Final Bar Complaints, Including One About New Times Case, Dismissed

This just in: It's okay to arrest newspaper owners under the cover of night. And it's perfectly ethical for the county attorney to appoint the sheriff's lawyer as a special "independent" prosecutor in a case where the sheriff is the "victim." And if that "independent" prosecutor's conf ... More >>

Anti-287(g) Chorus Grows with Justice Strategies' Democracy on ICE

Are the days of DHS' ICE numbered? We can only hope... Hopefully, 2009 A.D. will be the year Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, starts to melt. You may recall a little essay I posted to this blog in December entitled, "A Modest Proposal: A World Without ICE," in which I sug ... More >>

Barack Obama, a FOIA's Best Friend; Joe Arpaio, a Reporter's Worst Enemy

B-Rock, friend to FOIA and the First Amendment, able to leap tall buildings, and hopefully one day soon will be kickin' Arpaio's ass.I was in a special kind of hell this morning, in a waiting room at a garage, biding my time as my car got worked on. But at least I did get to watch a pretty unique ev ... More >>

Did Joe Arpaio "Threaten" Joe Arpaio by Publishing His Home Address on the Internet?

Remember the hubbub in 2007 when Sheriff Joe Arpaio's bad boys tossed our owners, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, into jail for having written about the agency's Banana Republic-like "investigation" into us for publishing the old guy's home address on the Internet? Now, seems Joe's th ... More >>

This Time, Joe Arpaio's Office Wants to Talk to New Times About What it Didn't Write

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is knocking on New Times’ door again. Investigators from the MCSO’s Special Victims Unit contacted staff writer Stephen Lemons following Thursday's arrest of activist Jarrett Maupin II. The detectives asked that Lemons come to MCSO offices for questionin ... More >>

Jarrett Maupin, Former Phoenix Mayoral Candidate, Arrested by Sheriff's Deputies

Jarrett Maupin, a former candidate for Phoenix mayor, was arrested and booked into jail today by deputies from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. Details are scant at this point, but a news release (reprinted below) put out by the Sheriff's Office says Maupin is accused of lying to sheriff's i ... More >>

Hear the Radio Ad Andrew Thomas Doesn't Want You to Hear

Greenberg Traurig Law Firm, Which Earns Big Bucks From Maricopa County, Tapped by County to Review Mystery Donation to Republicans

The relentless raptor sinks his beak into the tyranny of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas

Feedback from the issue of Thursday, September 11, 2008

Head on a skewer: Joe Arpaio was so obsessed with getting a hard-charging New Times writer prosecuted that he badgered Andy Thomas into making a fool of himself

New Times files a prelude to a lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, County Attorney Andy Thomas and a discredited ex-special prosecutor on behalf of its readers and the Constitution

ACES AND EIGHTS: Appeals court deals Joe Arpaio a losing hand in New Times lawsuit over public docs.

Buckeye Police Chief Dan Saban announces retirement to take on Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Dennis the Menace

Arpaio's lawyer can't explain away his fudged résumé

Letters From the Issue of Thursday, December 27, 2007

Inmates' Rights Lawsuit Languishes

The unresolved Hart vs. Hill suit was filed 30 years ago in federal court. It brings up the same jailhouse abuses that occur today

FILTHY, FILTHY LUCRE: Andrew Thomas wants your dough, as Thomas' former intern digs for dirt on Gerald Richard.

Kentucky-Fried Joe

The comedic kestrel makes the Joe Show in Sun City West, shares a few Joe jokes of his own, and grills state Representative Russell Pearce about his links to white supremacists

Power Play

County law enforcement's attack on the judiciary didn't work, but the war's far from over

Letters From the Issue of Thursday, December 6, 2007

PLOT THICKENS IN SUBPOENA SEARCH: Judge Anna Baca demands to see missing docs, orders County Attorney to appear.

Letters From the Issue of Thursday, November 15, 2007

ACLU legal director Dan Pochoda popped by Sheriff's deputies; Pochoda says there was, "No reason for arrest."

Letters From the Issue of Thursday, November 1, 2007

Public Wreckers

The ticked-off toucan recounts the trials of NT scribe Ray Stern, snickers at the County Attorney's press conference, and tells why Rusty Childress' anti-immigrant org is goin' to the library

He Just Doesn't Get It

Dennis Wilenchik issued hugely invasive subpoenas to New Times without grand jury review