Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery advocated a reason based on religion for keeping cannabis illegal and called a veteran an “enemy” at a recent debate. You can watch the entire 90-minute, March 23 debate between Montgomery and lawyer Marc Victor and judge for yourself who won. Montgomery lost the debate…
Amanda Stanford, Pinal County Superior Court clerk, denies the allegation of an extramarital affair with a court bailiff made by him and his wife. Phoenix New Times hasn’t yet heard back directly from Stanford, but she made several statements about the matter on her official Clerk Facebook site. We’d tried…
A new marijuana-legalization initiative campaign was filed with the state today, but its organizers aren’t ready to say much about it. The chairman of the campaign, Dr. Gina Berman, is the same chairman of the Marijuana Policy Project of Arizona initiative campaign launched in September. The MPP group, which was…
A woman cited recently on suspicion of biting her husband at work claims he cheated on her with Amanda Stanford, the new Pinal County Superior Court clerk. Heather Ojeda, a facilities maintenance painter for Pinal County, tells New Times that she wants her husband, a Pinal County court bailiff, “humiliated”…
A Pinal County painter bit her husband, a court bailiff, during a recent fight over a cell phone in the Superior Court building. Heather Ojeda, a facilities maintenance worker, is suspected of suspicion of assault and disorderly conduct in the incident, according to a March 11 Florence Police Department report…
Three disgraced, former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office leaders have lost their appeal of a failed lawsuit against officials including their former boss, Joe Arpaio. Tuesday’s 3-0 ruling by the Arizona Court of Appeals rips the incompetent claims of David Hendershott, Larry Black, Joel Fox and their Montana lawyer, Ed Moriarity,…
A Valley-based company that specializes in cleaning LDS temples and churches will pay at least $250,000 to the federal government for hiring undocumented immigrants, its owner says. Joel Votaw, operating officer and founder of Valley View Building Services, tells New Times the payment will be part of a deal still…
Deputy Sean Pearce’s speeding case went into overtime last week after a Glendale city judge said he discovered only recently that a death was involved. Pearce, a veteran Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detective and the son of recalled State Senator Russell Pearce, was on duty when he plowed into a…
Maricopa County Deputy Sean Pearce pleaded guilty to speeding and took a driving class last week for his role in an on-duty fatal crash. In June, County Attorney Bill Montgomery announced that Pearce would face no serious criminal charges for the December 2013 crash that took the life of John…
Three men are accused of harassing and herding antelopes with a helicopter near Prescott last August, possibly to help a guided hunting outfit. A group of hunters in the area reported seeing a black-and-red helicopter buzz herds and solitary antelopes repeatedly on August 22 and 23, according to a federal…
Jodi Arias will serve a life sentence after a second jury failed to reach agreement on whether or not she should be executed for the 2008 slaying of Travis Alexander. Alexander’s sister sobbed as Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Sherry Stephens read the jury decision, which actually was a non-decision…
Jodi Arias, the California waitress whose brutal murder of ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander resulted in a sensationalized Phoenix trial, is about to learn her fate. Or not. Trial watchers are waiting this morning to learn the jury verdict in the infamous murder trial — it’s supposed to be read any minute…
Prohibitionists have been creating a mythology around the dreaded “marihuana” since the Harry Anslinger days. But we’ve found that even knowledgeable cannabis connoisseurs may harbor some magical thinking about weed. Here’s our take on the Top 10 myths:…
A shake-up is underway at the newly created Arizona Department of Child Safety two weeks after a new director was appointed by Governor Doug Ducey. The move comes as rumors fly about how and why the new director, Greg McKay, replaced Charles Flanagan, who was fired earlier this month. On…
Sarah Palin’s new video ad for the Sportsman Channel’s Amazing America show shows the former vice presidential candidate hitchhiking in the middle of the desert. Except as every Phoenician would know, the right-wing celeb is actually in Central Phoenix, at Papago Park…
On Monday, the Arizona State Senate approved a bill amendment that would legalize nunchuks, firearm silencers, and sawed-off shotguns. Since silencers don’t work Hollywood-style and most people wielding nunchuks are more likely to injury their testicles than an assault victim, it’s the sawed-off shotgun part that really got our attention…
Three foreign nationals arrested in Arizona last week are accused of hiding their past membership in an Iran-trained Iraqi militia. A 10-count federal indictment filed on February 18 states that Hadi Assi Mubarak and his two sons, Haidar Hadi Assi Mubarak and Ali Hadi Mubarak, (a.k.a. Jihad Hadi Mubarak), failed…
Mark Brnovich wants to put the brakes on driver’s licenses for Arizona’s Dreamers. The newly elected Arizona attorney general launched an appeal today to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, hoping to overturn an order last month that forces compliance with President Obama’s executive action on immigration…
Arizona has carried out some of the most high-profile, newsworthy or just plain messed-up executions in the country.
Three new videos of the arrest of Ersula Ore have surfaced, showing different perspectives of the infamous take-down and allowing viewers to hear the concern of witnesses. Arizona State University released the videos following a public-records request by New Times. Last week, ASU Officer Stewart Ferrin resigned, allowing the university…
Arizona State University Police Officer Stewart Ferrin resigned on Monday, about nine months after video of his violent arrest of a black professor went viral. Although ASU officials had said previously that Ferrin’s arrest of Ersula Ore on May 20 was proper, they flip-flopped when the public weighed in following…
Ex-Tempe police officer Jessica Dever-Jakusz received probation last week for sleeping with an Ecstasy dealer she was supposed to be setting up for a sting. Still, the daughter-in-law of the late Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever is by no means the worst cop we can think of in recent Arizona…
