“I know if I had shut up, they probably would have ruled it an accident.” — Brian Eftenoff to New Times a month before Phoenix police arrested him on a charge of murdering his wife Moments after testifying in the quirky murder trial of Ahwatukee salesman Brian Eftenoff, Dr. Stephen…

The onetime godmother of Arizona’s private fiduciary industry will be going to prison for stealing money from clients over a period of several years.Nancy Etta Elliston pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court on March 7 to “illegal control of an enterprise,” a felony that carries a term of at…

Michael Hester awoke January 21 inside an Arizona state prison, where he’s been for the past eight years. The 54-year-old Vietnam veteran is doing time — lots of time– for selling about $50 worth of crack cocaine to an undercover cop. Talk inside the prison at Florence that morning concerned…

At first blush, career criminal John Arthur Smith’s gripes about his trial attorney’s shortcomings sound painfully familiar. In 1985, a Maricopa County judge sentenced the Phoenix man to life in prison after he was convicted of robbing a drugstore. Smith’s earliest release date was 2010, when he will be 57…

One morning last week, as he’s done for a quarter-century, Eddie Haramina set up shop in front of the county courthouse in downtown Phoenix. He didn’t appreciate that it was a blustery day — the wind kills his business, he said.Eddie took a hand-painted sign and leaned it against a…

Though he rarely sets foot in a courtroom anymore, Barnett Lotstein is one of Arizona’s most high-profile prosecutors. The loquacious attorney appears often on television and radio, serving as Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley’s mouthpiece. As front man with the press and public, special assistant Lotstein holds forth on the…

The final act in Judge James McDougall’s career occurred last month, when a state disciplinary body reprimanded the former jurist for having been derelict on the job. “[McDougall] admitted there was evidence of delay in matters pending in his court, and such delay resulted from his inadequate supervision of his…

A few hours after finding his wife dead in their Ahwatukee home, Brian Eftenoff sat down with a homicide detective. He appeared distraught over Judi’s death. “She was blue, like somebody beat the shit out of her,” Brian told homicide detective Joe Petrosino at the downtown Phoenix police station. “I…

The frantic call came at 5:36 a.m. on September 24, 1999. “Hurry, hurry! My wife is bruised everywhere! I don’t know what’s going on!” Brian Eftenoff shouted into the phone. A 911 operator listened as he pleaded with Judi, his 30-year-old wife and mother of their two young children. “Baby,…

The reputation of Arizona’s private fiduciary industry has taken another blow, with revelations that Andrea McShane mishandled several of her clients’ assets before splitting for parts unknown.Whether McShane engaged in thievery or simply was derelict in her duties as fiduciary remains uncertain, as attorneys and others continue to sift through…

A state grand jury on September 20 indicted Stephen C. Peterson on charges that he stole more than $250,000 from six victims in a scam he ran while on probation for similar charges. The indictment comes in the wake of a New Times story that told how the 59-year-old Phoenix…

Editor’s note: Hours before this story went to press, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office informed New Times that the subject of this story, Stephen Charles Peterson, was arrested at his Scottsdale office Tuesday morning on suspicion of fraud and theft. Peterson’s wife, Mary, also was arrested on the same charges…

Lisa Stevens hadn’t a clue what was happening with her child-custody case. “I just needed an answer from the judge about where my son was going to live during the new school year,” says the 32-year-old single mother who lives in Phoenix. For sure, Stevens didn’t know until recently that…

“I’m old,” says 20-year-old Lynda Sue Dale, nervously running her long, painted nails through her dark hair. “I been old for a long time. I don’t really have a life, a social life, no more. I spend a lot of time in my apartment, staring at the TV or whatever…

A Maricopa County grand jury has accused the state’s leading private fiduciary of stealing money from clients over a period of several years. The panel indicted 49-year-old Nancy Etta Elliston last Friday on 11 felony charges, including racketeering and 10 counts of theft. The indictment comes on the heels of…

Sue Lindley retired from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office last week after 23 years of investigating the most horrific crimes — the sexual abuse of children. But Lindley, a feisty, keen and sensitive woman, still has too much on her mind to leave the past completely behind her.” I still…

Some rob you with a gun, some rob you with a fountain pen. — Woody Guthrie Greg Maruda doesn’t know who Nancy Elliston is. Nor does he realize that, in her capacity as his court-appointed financial conservator, Elliston stole more than $40,000 from him by signing her name to a…

Did renowned attorney Charlie Brewer actually shoot at Earl the parrot in his old office at downtown Phoenix’s Luhrs Building? If he did, it would have been circa 1960, ancient history in a city that measures its eras in months, not decades. Whatever the truth, the relationship between man and…

I remember chatting with Angel Carbajal in a strip club outside Corpus Christi, Texas, in the spring of 1997. The club’s owner — a fan of Angel’s famous boxing brother, Michael — had unlocked his sprawling establishment for an after-hours party, a celebration of Michael’s 10th-round knockout of Scotty “The…

Can Kelly Blake’s civil attorney really expect a jury to blame psychiatrist Bill Sbilris for not foreseeing what she would do to her children and herself? After all, even though the mother of three did something to make a nurse at Southwest Behavioral jot down “Danger to children” on Blake’s…

“Grant Them Your Unending Strength And Courage In Their Duty Assignments.” — from the Firefighter’s Prayer Phoenix fire Captain Autry Cheatham and his crew had just picked up their lunch when dispatch alerted them to a nearby shed fire. The four hoped the call would be brief as they arrived…

Brad Christensen is that rarest of public information officers, in that he does what he’s supposed to do — provide good information in a timely manner. From 1993 until a few weeks ago, Christensen served as communications director and chief PIO for the Arizona Department of Health Services. But in…