The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted today to publicly release a legal analysis that explains why County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ request to hire special prosecutors wasn’t being heard. Click here to read the eight-page analysis, which supports the Supervisors’ decision to leave Thomas’ request off the agenda for today’s meeting…
It’s been 50 days since the Maricopa County Elections and Recorders departments sent County Attorney Andrew Thomas notice of possible crimes by top officials at the Sheriff’s Office.The two county agencies believe several laws have probably been broken by the contributors to the infamous SCA fund, many of whom hold the…
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, tired of being sued by other elected officials, voted today to limit payment of legal fees in lawsuits between county departments. Nine lawsuits filed by county officials against the county, including eight against the Board of Supervisors, have cost taxpayers more than $2 million in…
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors won’t let County Attorney Andrew Thomas use hand-picked special prosecutors to target Don Stapley or other members of the board. Thomas’ office had asked the five-member board to approve his hiring of Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing — the pair of high-priced lawyers from D.C. — and retired county…
You could say prosecutors are dropping like flies at this point: First, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas tossed the first Stapley case to Yavapai County. Then, after losing that case, the Yavapai prosecutors declined to work on the most recent potential charges against Stapley. Thomas then found the two D.C. lawyers and Phoenix attorney David Eisenberg…
The family of Carol Gotbaum, who died two years ago in an airport security holding cell, will receive just $250,000 from the city of Phoenix under settlement terms awaiting court approval. Gotbaum’s three children (seen with Gotbaum in the above photo) — through the estate’s lawyer, Phoenix’s own Mike Manning –…
Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley didn’t order anyone to interfere with his September 21 arrest in a county parking garage — and that’s according to the deputies who arrested him. If you’ll recall, Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott told us a couple of days after the arrest that Stapley had “ordered his…
Dan Saban, former candidate for sheriff of Maricopa County, has filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Republican Party and those involved with the shady SCA, a.k.a. Sheriff’s Command Association. It could be argued that the public was — and continues to be — damaged by the antics of the…
You’d best not mess with the posse, partner!Maricopa County leaders learned that Wild-West lesson this week when they were forced to rescind a demand to the Sheriff’s Office that posse vehicles could no longer sport official markings.In what appears to be another exchange of fire in the feud between county…
The lofty Centerpoint Condominium towers broke ground in 2005 and were supposed to give downtown Tempe its own slice of Manhattan. Four years later, they’ve delivered just that — except the slice resembles something out of the film Escape from New York. Not quite the Chamber of Commerce’s dream. The…
Ay, chinga! Our Mexican neighbors south of the border use curse words an average of 20 times a day, according to the polling firm, Consulta Mitofsky. No word on whether an equal rate of swearing can be found among the millions of illegal immigrants from Mexico who live in the…
The man accused of a random, fatal baseball-bat attack on two little boys playing in a park in December has been found incompetent to stand trial — for now. Joe Sauceda Gallegos, 39, a reported schizophrenic with a history of mental problems, became the only suspect after the mangled, bloody bodies of the boys…
This looked like a more serious story at first, with an initial e-mail coming from Phoenix police about 20 dead dogs in a canal near 29th Avenue and Dunlap. But, whew! Turns out it’s just cats. The bodies of the animals had been in the water so long that their species was no…
Maricopa County Andrew Thomas has authorized three special prosecutors — two from Washington D.C. and a Phoenix attorney — to handle criminal allegations against County Superivor Don Stapley. The move appears to violate the spirit of a promise made by Thomas to the Board of Supervisors a few months ago…
A short series earlier this week in the Arizona Republic about the murder of a police informant contained an exquisitely horrifying detail mentioned prominently in all three stories: a brutal new use for adult diapers.As one of the accused killers, Edgar Javier Enriquez, explained in court records dug up by…
Image: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Don Stapley, in the mug shot taken last week from jail Talk of handcuffing and charges “filed” can be heard on an audio recording made during last week’s arrest of Don Stapley, one of five members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Scroll down for a…
Phoenix police officer Brian Lilly did not break any department rules in the shooting of homeowner Tony Arambula, the Phoenix Use of Force board decided today. Any other decision might have cost the city a lot of money, right away. Arambula, who heroically saved his family from an armed intruder,…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio claims on his Web site that political enemies Don Stapley, Mary Rose Wilcox, Terry Goddard, and Sandra Dowling weren’t enemies before he began investigating them for alleged crimes. Writing in third person, (or maybe it’s an anonymous employee doing the writing on his behalf), Arpaio takes on an Arizona…
It looks like Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a Mormon problem. Arpaio’s prosecution and recent arrest of Don Stapley, one of five county supervisors, has reportedly upset local supporters of presidential candidate of Mitt Romney. Heather Sandstrom, a Mesa resident who’s helped organize benefits for Romney in the past, says…
Youthful activist and former mayoral candidate Jarrett Maupin II told a whopper of a lie about Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon to FBI agents, but a judge wants Gordon to have the last laugh. Maupin, 22, seems to have desired revenge after his failed effort to swipe the mayor’s seat from the…
The 12 months Daniel Horne spent in Tent City were the worst of his life. In his book Accidental Felons, Horne describes his awful year in jail after a 2005 DUI-related accident he caused. The 58-year-old professional dodged spiders, ate food that resembled garbage, and, he says, suffered “permanent lung…
Here’s the latest on the Stapley case: *The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office submitted the theft and fraud case against County Supervisor Don Stapley to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office today. *The Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ office says the case has “merit.” *However, Thomas has yet to make a decision…
