The irate caller to KTAR’s Talk to the Governor radio show last November 24 sounded a bit like Dustin Hoffman doing “Tootsie.” “Hello, Governor,” the man said in a kind of Southern accent, after introducing himself as “Bill from District 18.” “I’m calling about the criminal bill. . . …
John Stetler Brown escaped criminal prosecution for five years after he admitted in open court that he had molested a 7-year-old girl. But thanks to a 1991 New Times story that led to an investigation by Phoenix police, the real estate agent is spending a year in jail, followed by…
The whole lousy deal started for Milt Heinemann, as it does so often in Arizona, on a golf course. In 1990, a friend introduced the retired engineer to an affable fellow duffer from Minnesota named Bob Pomerenke. During their round, the name of Pomerenke’s son John came up. John Pomerenke…
After Phoenix police arrested David McCord in January 1991, the parents of one of his molestation victims contacted attorneys about filing a lawsuit. “We were basically told we didn’t have much of a case and that we should move on in life,” says Phoenix resident Mary Deuel. The Deuels–Mary, her…
Bob Emerick sat down recently for a heart-to-heart with his 11-year-old daughter, Leslie. “She really wanted to know why I am leaving Arizona,” says Emerick, former director of the now-defunct sex-offender treatment and assessment program at Phoenix Memorial Hospital. “I told her, ‘You know what I do. Part of my…
Ryneldi Becenti stands by herself at center court in the Albuquerque basketball arena known as The Pit. A few minutes remain in a game between Arizona State University and the University of New Mexico. Ryneldi and her Sun Devil teammates are crunching the Lobos by 60 points. Ryneldi peeks out…
When singer Richie Havens stole the show at Woodstock in 1969, A. Melvin “Mel” McDonald says he was “a Mormon boy up in Utah.” “I thought that festival thing was nothing but a bunch of liberal freaks from back East carrying on,” recalls McDonald, a child prodigy on piano and…
Richard Lessner, the Arizona Republic editorial writer who inflamed Hurricane Andrew survivors in Florida when his victim-bashing column was reprinted there, has resigned under fire. Lessner walked out on Tuesday rather than accept a demotion to religion writer, a position he held when he joined the Republic in 1981, Lessner…
You’ve probably heard of Nick Ligidakis–or at least about what he does each Thanksgiving Day. Many news organizations, including New Times, give the Phoenix restaurateur a ton of positive publicity for organizing his annual Thanksgiving Day dinner for the Valley’s downtrodden. You’ve probably never heard of Sacramento and Maria Correa…
Berkley Lunt rattles off the names the way sports fans recite the rosters of their favorite teams. Ken Lamberton. Jimmie Benally. Doug Koenig. Robert Zabroske. But these aren’t people Lunt feels any fondness toward. David McCord. John Boone. Louis Emanuel. Suzanne Yeager. They are teachers whose sexual exploits with students…
The Arizona Board of Education disciplines teachers for sexual activity with students far more than for any other reason. Slipshod hiring and firing practices in Arizona school districts make the state “like a King’s Table all-you-can-eat buffet for pedophiles,” says a veteran Phoenix sex-crimes investigator. A New Times investigation shows…
It was the worst time in her career as an educator, school administrator Janice Ramirez says. She didn’t want to believe one of her best teachers would run off with a teenage student. But that’s what happened. Ramirez was the principal of Fremont Junior High. Ken Lamberton had earned honors…
Part I of “Sex Education” (October 28) told how negligence by those who run Arizona’s public schools can turn kids into prey for molesting teachers. The letter to the editor of the Flagstaff daily newspaper pleaded for support of popular Northern Arizona University administrator Ralston Pitts. It asked “the many…
The 18-year-old turned on his tape recorder and spoke from the heart. “There’s more out there than the anger and violence you see,” he said. “There’s beauty, there’s love, there’s happiness and there’s joy. You need to go out and find it. And you better hold onto it tight, man,…
Pain is temporary. Pride is forever. –Sign in the locker room of Tempe Mountain Pointe High School Karl Kiefer’s kids kneel around him under the west goal post at Mountain Pointe Field. “Closer, closer,” the coach grunts. “Family. Family. Together.” Three dozen teenage boys form a clump of sweat and…
As wars go, it started quietly. And although the Battle of the Placards didn’t make the evening news or draw much notice from the newspapers, it left a legion of veterans with tales to tell. It began shortly before Vice President Dan Quayle delivered the only public speech of his…
Maybe, just maybe, Governor Fife Symington won’t have to worry anymore about the reporter whose scoops consistently embarrassed him. Then again, says John Dougherty, late of the Mesa Tribune, from his new home in Flagstaff, “You never know when I’ll run into something up here about Fife that needs to…
Doug Wead, the preacher-turned-politician who moved to Arizona last year looking for work in Washington, D.C., was one giant step closer to becoming a congressman. It was a few minutes past 10 p.m. on September 8, and the early returns showed Wead well ahead of two opponents in the primary…
All Sheila Dixon wanted to do was give her daughter a head start on a science project. What better place to go than the library? Instead of books, she and 14-year-old Melinda discovered a truth about computers: Don’t trust em. At least the Dixons wound up with enough time on…
The 911 operator took the call at 3:34 a.m. on April 29, 1991. “Did he cut you with the knife?” she asked a frantic-sounding woman. “Always. He puts it up in my face.” The operator dispatched police to the northeast Phoenix apartment of Ann and Dennis Roper, then returned to…
Rocked by sex scandals, the Mesa Police Department has changed its policy about releasing the results of its completed internal investigations. The new policy makes it even more difficult to determine what exactly is going on inside the sin-ridden East Valley department. No, this particular instance doesn’t directly concern the…
A police investigation aimed at a family of Middle Eastern immigrants that lords over Phoenix’s sex-club scene has had an unexpected consequence. A group of prominent attorneys, irate that the cops executed search warrants at the offices of lawyers involved in the case, want the Arizona Supreme Court to approve…
