Joel Fox Joel Fox finally has achieved the equivalent of a base hit in a court case. A federal judge ruled recently that a lawsuit against Cox Communications by the disgraced former captain fired by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio can proceed, for now. At the heart of the lawsuit, so to…
Governor Jan Brewer’s lawsuit against Arizona’s medical marijuana law took a beating today in federal court, where a judge told the state’s lawyers to pick a side on the issue.Brewer and her legal enforcer in the case, state Attorney General Tom Horne, campaigned against Prop 203 before voters passed it…
A man who placed an ad on backpage.com for an AR-15 assault rifle had the gun stolen from him — then shot at the fleeing suspect with a handgun, hitting a Valley Metro van.The messy gun deal went down in the parking lot of Sportsman’s Warehouse, 1750 South Greenfield Road…
A 20-year-old surgery assistant at a Sun City hospital was arrested at work last week following a grand-jury indictment on charges of possessing child pornography. Ryan Hazelton was 17 and living with his folks in Chandler when a 2009 Tempe police investigation caught up to him and his family’s home…
The city of Phoenix convinced at least 1,500 misdemeanor scofflaws to come in to court this week and take care of their old warrants.Sergeant Tommy Thompson says the number is conservative and that he’ll get an exact count on Monday from city court.The police, court, public defender’s office and city…
The New York Times piled more criticism of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio this afternoon over his office’s record of poorly investigated sex crimes.Reporter Marc Lacey, in what will be one of his swan-song articles from Arizona before leaving to serve as deputy editor of his paper’s foreign desk, writes…
The evidence shows that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s top men ran an illegal campaign-finance scheme to benefit their boss’ 2008 race, say newly released investigation documents. The internal affairs probe of the so-called SCA scandal concluded earlier this year and resulted in the termination of two of Arpaio’s closest aides, Chief Deputy Dave…
The young woman seemed nervous as she checked in at the airport gate on July 26, and officers could see her hand shake as she held her ticket.Abril Save of Tucson had just flown to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport from New York and was preparing to take a connecting…
Three men being sought by the Arizona Department of Public Safety are suspected of helping to smuggle tons of pot for various Mexican cartels.Christian Palacios, a Valley resident and the only U.S. citizen in the trio, and two Mexican nationals, Julio Cesar Alavarado Yanez and Osvaldo Moreno Herrera, were higher-ups…
Newly released records show a top Arpaio official was convinced her superiors had bugged her office.County observers may recall that Arpaio and his go-to guy, former Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott, wanted County Supervisor Andy Kunasek prosecuted for sweeping county offices for listening devices, claiming Kunasek had wasted taxapayer money.Yet these…
Taking a cab from the airport this weekend would have been cheaper — and a whole lot less frightening — for a Florida visitor who was robbed of $5,000.The victim, who wasn’t named in court records, was picked up at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Saturday at about 3:45…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio apologized today to the victims of El Mirage sex-crimes cases that went uninvestigated due to incompetent police work under his watch.”Sometimes these kinds of things occur in big departments like (the Maricopa sheriff’s office),” Arpaio said during a press conference today, as tweeted by Arizona…
As an elected official, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne could make himself as relatively unseen as, well, Governor Jan Brewer.But Horne likes to get his hands dirty every now and then in the legal field, arguing the law in person before judges. Did Terry Goddard ever do that? Tomorrow at…
A Mesa 19-year-old and his 6-year-old brother were injured severely on Friday after their scooter slammed into a full-size pickup truck.Cops say that Elias Redden, while trying to make a left-hand turn onto Horne as he traveled west on University Drive at about 7:15 p.m., turned the 2008 Shanghai Meitian…
You may be having a better Monday morning than Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was slammed yesterday in a damning story about how his agency bungled hundreds of sex-crime cases.The Associated Press story by Jacques Billeaud presented news that’s familiar to local observers of the five-term sheriff of Maricopa County –…
A year-long child-porn investigation led FBI agents this summer to a Maricopa teenager with a personal stash of 500 videos and pictures of sexually exploited children.The case was outlined in court records filed yesterday by the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office, which requests the forfeiture of computer equipment seized from the…
Usually, Arpaio loves a good probe. The list of questionable investigations the five-term sheriff has launched against his political foes includes county Supervisors, judges, bureaucrats, lawyers, journalists and political activists. (See “Enemies List,”, “Joe Knew,” for starters.) But he won’t investigate his deputy chief’s alleged threat against a reporter and…
It’s been a while since you blew off that fine or court date following a misdemeanor arrest.You’ve become an expert at spotting cop cars in the rear-view mirror as you drive, and you’ve ditched more than a few by making a quick turn into parking lot before your license plate…
Tempe police teamed up with Nevada authorities this week to bust the Yoki A Ma’ medical marijuana club, arresting six people.It’s the latest arrest of people accused of operating clubs that distributed medical marijuana to state-registered patients, and the second to involve a business named in the legal action against…
An 18-year-old girl who was run over by a Mesa school bus yesterday has “survivable” injuries, Mesa police say.Wynnona Brooks had been walking eastbound on Crismon Road in a crosswalk at about 6:50 a.m. when the bus, carrying about 20 students and driven by Kenneth Bischof, 59, struck her during…
More subsidies for the solar industry in Arizona are crucial to avoid being left behind by other states and China, a Phoenix business leader said today at a solar-power conference. Tax incentives and loan guarantees “make a lot of sense” right now in Arizona, which is already a leader in the industry, said…
Judging by the latest information, a plane crash into the western flanks of the Superstition Mountains appears to have been the result of an “awful mistake,” says a flight-school instructor.Six people — three men and one of the men’s three young children — were killed when the twin-engine plane hit…
