It seemed at first that a sick, elderly woman had died peacefully in her bed after a memorably full life. When Scottsdale police responded to the home of Katheryn Howard on the early afternoon of June 16, 2000, they got the basics from a close friend of hers named Chuck…

Last March 11, photographers zoomed in on the disfigured face of Phoenix police officer Jason Schechterle as he sat before a New York State Senate committee in Albany. The officer — whose story of near-death by burning and his near-miraculous (and ongoing) recovery is well-known to most Valley residents –…

As the criminal trial against abortion doctor Brian Finkel entered its first trimester last week, this became clear: When the time comes, Finkel’s lawyer is going to have to tie the accused sexual abuser into stirrups, then drug him to keep him off the witness stand. Finkel was in his…

Six days a week, a large group of teenagers quietly leave their homes before first light for a predetermined location in Tempe. By 4:30, they have gathered directly under the Loop 202, near Mill and Curry avenues. The teens — almost all of them girls — chat for a few…

Momentous rulings about anti-sodomy and affirmative action laws stole headlines last week as the U.S. Supreme Court ended its term, but the talk at the Maricopa County courthouse was about another far-reaching opinion. By a definitive 7-2 vote, the high court sided with a convicted Maryland killer and said defense…

It was one of the least-publicized emergency sessions in memory, but one of the more momentous — at least for death-row inmates, the families of murdered victims, and taxpayers. Last July, then-Governor Jane Hull asked the Arizona Legislature to devise new laws in response to the landmark Ring vs. Arizona…

Bob Storrs looked spent last week as he left a Maricopa County courtroom after trying to save a young killer’s life. Storrs has been a criminal-defense attorney for nearly 35 years, and has tried many murder trials. But his defense of Tony Aguilar differed from the others in one major…

Bert J. Martinez didn’t bring a toothbrush to court on June 2, but it would have been a good idea. At the end of a contempt hearing, Superior Court Judge Michael Jones sentenced Martinez to 48 hours in jail, to be served immediately, and fined him $450. Jones ruled Martinez…

A Phoenix hazardous-waste company fired at least two of its “rent-a-patient” employees last week, after revelations that the pair and others at the firm had been part of a sprawling insurance-fraud scheme. A top official for Onyx Environmental Services, a national hazardous-waste treatment, recovery and disposal firm with a plant…

Authorities in Orange County, California, raided two surgical clinics after a New Times story revealed that the clinics were part of a health-care insurance scam that also involves workers for a Phoenix hazardous-waste firm. Armed with search warrants, investigators with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office executed the predawn raids…

A Mesa man who spent almost two years incarcerated at the Maricopa County Jail was freed in late March, on the eve of his trial for sexual assault. Justin Gregg had been charged with raping Jennifer McAllister in June 2001, while the two were patients at the county’s Desert Vista…

Julio Hernandez says he felt “healthy as a horse” before he agreed to use his body as an instrument for insurance fraud. But during a five-month stretch last year, the 36-year-old Phoenix resident endured the following medical procedures: A circumcision. Removal of his sweat glands. A nose operation. A colonoscopy…

The Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing has “inefficiently or inappropriately used over $1 million of public monies” since mid-2000, according to the state Auditor General’s Office. Almost all of that money went to a Phoenix company that critics say has enjoyed a sweetheart deal with…

Brian Callan, the Marine Corps war veteran whose life ended tragically last year in the parking lot of a Phoenix car dealership (“Welcome Back, Warrior,” November 21, 2002), has been awarded a posthumous service medal. Greg Aurand, an old Marine buddy of Callan’s who lives in Idaho, enlisted the aid…

Charles F. Long II, the controversial director of a boot camp for wayward youngsters who’s facing murder charges, has lost his private defense attorney apparently because he can’t pay the $50,000 fee. Earlier this month, Superior Court Judge Ron Reinstein allowed prominent defense attorney Ulises Ferragut to drop out of…

It’s one day before Arizona State University’s first official practice of the 2002-03 season. The basketball staff meets at Rob and Carolyn Evans’ beautiful Ahwatukee home at 8 a.m. to discuss the upcoming season. The gathering includes the three assistant coaches Russ Pennell, Tony Benford and Dan O’Dowd. Derrick Wrobel…

Rob Evans faces his basketball team in the locker room at Wells Fargo Arena. It’s mid-November, 10 days until opening night, and Arizona State University has just finished a dress rehearsal for the 2002-2003 season, an intersquad contest in which the prospective starters got thumped by the second team. The…

Last year, a Toronto-based video game developer phoned an old pal of his in Scottsdale, Jim Perkins, with a hell of an idea. “John Walsh of Groove Games asked me, What do you think of publishing a Playboy game?'” recalls Perkins, president and chief operating officer of ARUSH Entertainment, which…

A few days before a Maricopa County jury deliberated the fate of Ahwatukee salesman Brian Eftenoff in March 2001, he had this to say for himself: “I can’t see how they can find me guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of anything, because I didn’t do anything.” The panel, however, begged…

The cynicism oozing from some members of the legal community about how juries really work was palpable at the Arizona Supreme Court on January 31. The occasion was a meeting of the effusively titled “Arizona Supreme Court Committee on the More Effective Use of Juries,” which first convened in 2001…

Last September 22, veteran mental-health advocate Jack Harvey looked at a visitor from his hospital bed and got to the point. “There’s so much to do still,” Harvey said, “and I’ve just been one guy trying my best to help things along. I think folks ought to know that, if…

Prosecutors at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office say Justin Gregg raped Jennifer McAllister in June 2001, while the pair were patients at a county psychiatric hospital. At the same time, lawyers for Maricopa County say McAllister is making the whole thing up. Those attorneys are vigorously defending a lawsuit McAllister…