A pair of Phoenix business owners claim the city screwed them in a railroad deal and ruined their livelihood. Now the husband-and-wife entrepreneurs have locked themselves inside their small compound, threatening to stay until they’re forced out.This plot could have been pulled from the Westerns section at the DVD store,…
“You have an immaculate record. Some guys don’t trust an immaculate record. I do. I have an immaculate record.” — Captain Ellerby, from The Departed. We recalled this quote while looking recently at the 200-page personnel file of Captain Joel Fox. Fox, as regular readers of this blog know, is…
A Border Patrol agent is suing the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, claiming he was traumatized after being stopped by ICE agents on a dark, rural road in southern Arizona and held at gunpoint. Jess Cabe, who works out of the Border Patrol’s Nogales Station, filed the lawsuit on September 4 in the U.S. District…
A judge has delayed his decision on whether to ban LifeLock from setting fraud alerts on its customers’ credit bureau accounts, giving the Tempe-based company a few weeks’ breathing room. Federal Judge Andrew Guilford has already ruled LifeLock’s scheme of setting fraud alerts doesn’t comply with the Fair Credit Reporting…
The lawsuit filed by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office against county management — the result of disputed ownership of a computer system — will now move to Pima County, the Maricopa Superior Court has ruled.This looks like a victory for the sheriff’s side: His lawyer’s had asked for an “emergency…
Judicial Watch, a non-profit group based in Washington D.C., wants the state Attorney General’s Office to find a way to reduce the paycheck of Police Chief Jack Harris. The group wrote a letter to Attorney General Terry Goddard recently, asking him to file a lawsuit against the Phoenix Police Pension…
The Maricopa County Elections Department and Recorder’s Office announced this morning it had found “reasonable cause to believe that a number of individuals and entities” have violated the state’s campaign finance laws. According to the announcement: The finding was hand delivered to the Office of County Attorney Andrew Thomas this morning…
What did investigators find after executing a search warrant at the Gilbert home of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Captain Joel Fox? Call it the $315,000 question. Fox has been leading the public on a merry mystery tour for nearly a year, trickling out information about the SCA only under pressure…
Republican State Senator John Huppenthal has been acquitted on charges that he improperly removed a campaign sign last election day.Huppenthal, who has represented Chandler as either state representative or senator since 1992, had been charged with theft of the sign and tampering with a political sign, both misdemeanors.The East Valley…
Are you broke, unemployed or just looking for cheap intellectual thrills? The Phoenix Public Library system is the perfect antidote to the bad economy. Even if you live in east Mesa or Fountain Hills, you can still get a Phoenix library card. (Sorry Apache Junction — you have to be…
A convicted killer serving a life sentence in Wisconsin for a 1978 double-murder has been charged in the 1973 murder of 22-year-old Leesa Jo Shaner. According to an article last year in the Wisconsin’s Journal-Sentinel, Shaner was on her way to pick up her husband at the Tucson Airport when…
Angela Simpson, the Phoenix woman accused of torturing a disabled man over three days before killing and dismembering him, was indicted on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping, the Maricopa County Attorney Office’s announced today. This is one of those cases that make you wonder about the planet you’re living on. The…
The SCA was determined to keep its secrets hidden, but on-the-ball election officials haven’t let that happen. We’ve tracked the release of the bank account info and check copies that Captain Joel Fox, the SCA’s “spokesman,” didn’t want made public. And now, thanks to a subpoena, another secret has been pried loose. This…
Rapper DMX has some choice words of advice for his fans: “Stay the f- out of Arizona.” He also appears to harbor a grudge against the sheriff of Maricopa County: “For the record, f- Sheriff Joe.” The video aired by gossip Web site TMZ.com has all the cuss words bleeped…
Just looked at the minute entry for a major ruling in one of the bigger lawsuits between Maricopa County leadership and the county attorney — and boy-howdy, what an ass-whuppin’ on Andrew Thomas. The suit was filed by Thomas after the Board of Supervisors took away his ability to handle civil lawsuits and set…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will be training “dozens” of Canadian Royal Mounted Police on drug detection techniques this week in the county jail. A few Mounties came to Phoenix earlier this year for the same thing, apparently funded by the Canadian government. Canada’s legendary police force may be able…
The cybersphere has been flooded in recent days with “news” about vodka-soaked tampons and anal beer bongs. Much of this chatter apparently comes from an August 16 Channel 15 (KNXV-TV) interview with drug-treatment-facility spokeswoman Stephanie Siete, who listed “snorting vodka shots” and the tampon-and-beer-bong activities as things “teens are doing” these…
Paul Charlton, former U.S. Attorney in Arizona and lawyer for indicted County Supervisor Don Stapley, says Andrew Thomas has only one person to blame — himself — for the embarrassing dismissal of 51 of 117 criminal counts against Stapley. As our follow-up post last night related, Thomas, the county attorney, claims that Stapley was…
he Pat Tillman Foundation is putting on a benefit on October 3 featuring author Jon Krakauer, who’s got a new book out on the former Cardinals’ player. Krakauer is perhaps best known for his gripping account of tragedy on Mount Everest in 1996, Into Thin Air. As awesome as…
Robbing a Circle K — how unoriginal. The alleged bandit in this photo waltzed into the store at 1262 West Chandler Boulevard, waving his gun around and demanding cash, Chandler cops say…
Governor Jan Brewer is taking a few minutes to forget about the complex task of forging a state budget and focusing on something more fun: Christmas. Brewer is set to announce a statewide project on Thursday to have children across the state make 6,000 handcrafted ornaments for the U.S. Capitol Christmas…
It was a given that Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas was going to be miffed by the recent ruling on Don Stapley’s case by Superior Court Judge Kenneth Fields. Thomas has been saying for months that Fields is biased against him and he tried to get the judge kicked off…
