Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox is a political victim and innocent of the crimes alleged in last week’s indictment, her lawyer said today in a news conference. He’s at least half right. Wilcox, the five-member Board of Supervisors’ only Democrat, has been a vocal opponent of actions by County Attorney Andrew Thomas and…
Carey Pena broadcasts plenty of news about criminals in her role as investigative reporter for Channel 3 (KTVK-TV), but one thief has been operating right under her nose, according to Pena’s Twitter feed. Pena, whom we chatted with last year after she crossed swords with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas,…
A woman from Supai Village, the small town at bottom of the Grand Canyon, gave birth this morning on a rescue helicopter, the state Department of Public Safety reports. As visitors to the remote, highly scenic spot know, the town in the Havasupai Reservation is one of the few places in…
Scottsdale snapped up an additional 400 acres for its McDowell Sonoran Preserve today, taking advantage of a state grant to pay half of the cost. At least someone’s buying big chunks of Valley real estate in this depressed market, right? Scottsdale, which is full of relatively rich folks, made the committment a few years ago…
Deputies seized general computer equipment at Chicanos Por La Causa’s Phoenix headquarters, in addition to paperwork related to an indicted County Supervisor, records show. Search warrant returns reviewed by New Times back up claims by the social service agency’s representatives of a fishing expedition by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office…
The squabble between Maricopa County officials took yet another turn today as deputies raided the offices of a local computer firm, looking for evidence of fraud and other crimes. For close followers of the circus acts that pass for county news these days, you’ll need another branch for the flow…
The sale of the East Valley Tribune to 13th Street Media, the publisher of the weekly Tucson Explorer newspaper, won’t be finalized until after the first of the year. However, the Valley’s Pulitzer-winning, semi-daily paper and its Web site will continue past a December 31 deadline announced last month, says Bob Emmers, spokesman for California-based Freedom Communications,…
The Arizona Republic editorialized this morning that county leadership is out of control, and says in its closing argument that “a higher, saner power must step in.”Obviously, they’re talking about the feds — not this wimpy guy: Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, a Democrat, is evidently powerless against his Republican…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas claimed at a news conference on Tuesday that allegations of problems with Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s financial-disclosure forms “haven’t panned out.” He also says that if his office received bona fide information about a possible violation of the law, he’d act on it. Well, Mr. Thomas and…
Deputies are taking boxes of files from the Chicanos Por La Causa buildings at 11th Street and Buckeye Road as the group’s supporters prepare for a possible anti-Sheriff-Joe-Arpaio demonstration. (See update below — a demonstration is now looking less likely). A regional conference of Chicanos Por La Causa officials is…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies are serving a search warrant this morning at the Chicanos Por la Causa, Inc., 1122 East Buckeye Road. We’re not sure, but it seems safe to assume it might have something to do with the criminal charges filed this week against Mary Rose Wilcox, one of…
Editor’s note: This is one of a group of individual accounts of racial profiling by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s forces. The next personal story will appear on our Web site Wednesday night, December 16. Manuel Nieto Jr. and his sister Velia Meraz, key plaintiffs in the ACLU’s racial-profiling lawsuit filed last…
The presiding judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court has assigned the criminal cases against Judge Gary Donahoe and County Supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox to judges in other counties. Presiding Judge Barbara Mundell, (left) who is herself a target of the broad — and vague — racketeering…
Lisa Jackson, the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, has been so focused on saving the world from America’s greenhouse gases that she seems to have forgetten about serious pollution in the Phoenix area. Jackson is in Copenhagen this week for the international talks on carbon reductions, and on Monday…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced this morning that a criminal complaint has been filed against the Superior Court’s criminal division chief, Judge Gary Donahoe (at left). Michael Scerbo, spokesman for County Attorney Andrew Thomas, stated in a news release that Donahoe is being accused of hindering prosecution and…
A judge has recused herself from the case that sparked a contempt-of-court order for a detention officer who removed papers from a defense attorney’s file. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Lisa Flores filed a minute entry this morning saying the court can’t rely on the Sheriff’s Office to get a…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio vowed on Tuesday to get to the bottom of what they call a serious corruption problem among county leaders and judges. Their afternoon news conference followed the announcement earlier today that County Supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox have been…
Maricopa County Supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox (left) were served with indictments this morning that accuse them of committing a long list of crimes. Stapley’s been indicted on 27 felony and misdemeanor accounts. You’re familiar with these accusations by now: perjury, false swearing, theft. He’s been ordered to report for…
The Town of Buckeye needs a $250,000 armored vehicle like it needs another foreclosure sign — but that’s what it’s getting thanks to federal largess. The federal Homeland Security department gave Buckeye a grant for the 8.5-ton Lenco Bearcat vehicle. It’s supposed to arrive by May of next year, reports the…
Judge Gary Donahoe, chief of the Maricopa County Superior Court’s criminal section, routinely lets criminals off without prison time, yet jailed a detention officer doing his job. That’s the gist of a December 4 news release by the Sheriff’s Office which cites six supposed examples of Donahoe’s lenient judging. The detention…
Inmates aren’t getting transported to the courtroom of Maricopa County Superior Judge Lisa Flores because the Sheriff’s Office hasn’t replaced Adam Stoddard, the detention officer in jail on a contempt-of-court order. If you’ve been following this case, you’ll recall that Stoddard had been assigned to Flores’ court on the day that he…
The top judge at the Maricopa County Superior Court took a strong stance against four judicial complaints filed by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s chief deputy, calling them “false, frivolous and slanderous.” Here’s the entire statement released this morning by Presiding Judge Barbara Mundell (pictured at left): None of the judges have…
