We were leaving from a visit to 620, otherwise known as the Phoenix Police Department, this morning, and bumped into Detective Clark Schwartzkopf. We barely know Detective Schwartzkopf but have heard a lot about his excellent work as the lead agent in the infamous “Serial Shooters” case. Two Valley men –…
Spent some of the morning in the federal courtroom of Judge Robert Broomfield, who is considering whether to order a new trial for longtime Arizona death-row inmate Debra Milke, convicted two decades ago of orchestrating the execution-style murder of her 4-year-old son Christopher. If Judge Broomfield rules that Milke’s alleged confession…
Readers may remember our story on the so-called “assisted case” of Jana Van Voorhis, a 58-year-old Phoenix woman who died mysteriously in her bed in the spring of 2007. It was a particularly sad and bizarre yarn (even by our standards), and had a slew of dicey legal and ethical issues…
We spoke last week to a north Phoenix high-school class about our “experiences in journalism.” It was early in the day, and the majority of the students were, shall we say, less than engaged in the, um, dialogue. But the class of about 25 boys and girls gathered a pulse after someone asked about Joe Arpaio. The question was: how…
Pac-10 men’s basketball supposedly is in a down cycle this season, what with UCLA and other squads losing a bunch of underclassmen to the professional ranks. One of those schools is ASU, which saw Jeff Pendergraf and the great James Harden split to the land of the big bucks (especially in…
Fantastic game downtown last night between the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, as my colleague Ben Leatherman already has detailed in Valley Fever. We were fortunate enough to be courtside for the thriller, which had the intensity of a do-or-die playoff game. Down in the bowels of the not-so-packed arena…
We’ve been getting an unusual number of calls and e-mails from folks wanting to know the status of the felony arson case against Michael Marin, the fascinating, if troubled, fellow we wrote about last summer in “Burning Man.” Readers may recall the story: Marin’s a mountain climber, visual artist, author, and onetime alleged financial…
We were rummaging through the post-holiday e-mail riffraff this morning, and happened onto this timely report from the U.S. Department of Justice. It concerns the growing number of threats to federal judges, U.S. Attorneys, and federal prosecutors (from members of the community, not, mind you, from the likes of a county…
The following are 10 random things that, at the start of this weird decade, we never would have believed: 1. That the historically pathetic Arizona Cardinals would move out to bumfuck Egypt (a.k.a. Glendale, a.k.a. sweet deal), and then would (at the end of the decade) find themselves exactly one play…
We wrote earlier this year about the media-friendly bust by the Arpaio/Thomas duet of Waterworld Safari, the venerable theme park out in Glendale that is now called (under new ownership) Wet `n’ Wild. County Attorney Thomas told the press after the 2008 bust that “a new chapter in the enforcement of immigration…
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe could not be more different from Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Donahoe is as sober as, well, a judge and has exactly zero media savvy. The bellicose Arpaio lives for media “events.” Donahoe, who is the county’s criminal presiding judge, is nearing retirement. When the…
Supervisor Don Stapley, one of two Maricopa County supes under criminal indictment, has hired a new defense attorney to defend him against the latest set of charges he faces from County Attorney Andrew Thomas. His name is Kurt Altman (pictured), and he earned his stripes as a feisty and successful major-felony prosecutor for about 14…
[jump] “What the State Bar ultimately chooses to do, if anything, is almost certainly out of our hands. That is as it should be. In fact, I think almost all of us would agree that the process and rules to which the county attorney and all of us are subject…
Jim Belanger, a Phoenix lawyer who specializes in working white-collar crime cases with the firm of Coppersmith, Schermer and Brockelman, sent the following E-mail to many of his brethren. The subject line reads: Do you believe in Andy Thomas? “On December 21, 1946, the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction of…
Our acquaintance is anything but a squishy liberal, having served for a few decades as a prosecutor of major felonies for one of Arizona’s 15 counties (we’ll leave it at that for reasons that soon will become apparent). He let us know that he read the direct complaint and…
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 Stoddard and the Maricopa County…
It may have been an exercise in futility for his many victims, but disbarred attorney, scamming divorce “mediator,” and current state prison inmate Gary Karpin appeared in court the other day at a so-called restitution hearing. Readers of New Times may remember Karpin, seen in his skanky 2006 booking photo to the left. Here’s a…
It was mass confusion at the Maricopa County Courthouse today. About 20 county Sheriff’s Office deputies and detention officers called in sick, a possibly orchestrated “action” that wreaked havoc with courtroom schedules and the transportation of inmates from the county jail for hearings and other matters. The sick-out, if that’s truly…
We loved KJ, otherwise known as Kevin Johnson, first as one of the all-time great Phoenix Suns and, later, as the subject of an unseemly New Times cover story entitled “The Summer of ’95.” In part, the story described how Johnson allegedly had engaged in sexual petting with a…
Word from ASU today that its longtime head baseball coach Pat Murphy has resigned is a mind-blower on every level. The immediate explanation? None. We haven’t been able to contact one of our favorite coaches yet, though we suspect that Murph will call back at some point soon. For sure, university…
Carl Hayden High School place-kicker Jorge Paredes found himself shuffling aimlessly on the opponent’s 30-yard-line. It was a time-out, and in a few moments the outcome of the game last Friday night would ride on his left foot. Jorge isn’t the best kicker in the world, but just minutes earlier,…
Readers of our paper will recall the hullabaloo back in 2007 that led to the bizarre arrests here in the Valley of the chain’s owners, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin. The sordid affair revolved around a sweeping subpoena drummed up by “special prosecutor” Dennis Wilenchik, a mediocre local attorney (he’s…
