The Red Mountain Tea Party bills itself as the largest weekly Tea Party meeting in America, and organizers were proud to get Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to speak tonight.Arpaio blew the teabaggers off, though, because the sheriff had “an emergency that came up in his schedule that he could…
An Australian illegal immigrant and ex-heroin trafficker was sentenced today to two years in prison for buying guns at a Glendale gun show. Elie Malkoun, 53, of Victoria, Australia, is a veteran of his own country’s prisons, having served 10 years starting in 1989 for his role in a multimillion-dollar…
Dr. Andrew Weil’s Center for Integrative Medicine has found a major new funding source thanks to a deal made this morning with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.The Tucson-based center, which controversially merges alternative treatments like acupuncture with conventional medicine, expects to open a Valley clinic sometime next year. (The…
The Arizona Department of Public Safety will conduct an independent investigation of the bloody Black-Friday arrest of a Walmart shopper.Jerald Newman, 54, was knocked unconscious after a Buckeye police officer performed a “leg sweep” on him while arresting him on suspicion of shoplifting. (UPDATE: The officer’s name has been released:…
Buckeye PD released its version of a shoplifting suspect’s bloody take-down during last night’s Black Friday event at a Walmart, saying the guy brought on his injuries himself.Jerald Allen Newman, 54, was arrested following a chaotic scene at the store in which a video-game display was destroyed by a mob…
Police “body-planted” a man at a Buckeye Walmart’s Black Friday event after the man put a video game in his waistband while helping a grandson who was being jostled in a crowd. The take-down, which left the man bloody, was one of several violent acts reported across the country related…
An airplane crashed into the Superstition Mountains about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evening, near the Flatiron formation. Witnesses saw an explosion and fireball, says Channel 5 (KPHO-TV). We tried to get in touch with Elias Johnson, spokesman for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office — he’s on his way out there,…
Shawn Nau, Maricopa County’s general government director, was responsible for leaking records about former deputy Joel Fox to the press in apparent defiance of a court order.Though county spokeswoman Cari Gerchick told us last week that the leaker had received a written reprimand for his actions, it turns out that…
Dr. Andrew Weil, alternative medicine guru, will ask the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to cover employees who choose to visit his pseudo-scientific health center. Weil is the founder of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, and has helped establish medical residency programs in some…
Just after midnight today, Armando Salazar heard someone knocking loudly on the front door of his west Phoenix home. He opened the door, but left closed the outer security door.Several bullets suddenly penetrated the security door and struck Salazar. His wife, also in the home at the time, was uninjured.Salazar,…
One major difference between the old and new lawsuits against Maricopa County by a retired judge and current County Supervisor is this name:Peter Spaw.Spaw, a deputy prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office since 2000, was a key figure in the 2009 federal racketeering complaint against county officials that got…
Israeli citizen and former high-living real estate investor Eitan Maximov was found guilty in a jury trial yesterday for his role in a “cash-back” mortgage-fraud scheme.He stands to get between 14 and 17.5 years in prison at his sentencing hearing, scheduled for February 27 before U.S. District Judge David G…
If Jose Arnulfo Leyva had a hammer, he’d hammer in the evening — on your car, or possibly you. So say police, anyway.Cops say Leyva, 28, did have a hammer last night just after 10 p.m. when he stalked a Mesa street, “stepping out in front of cars” as he…
A Valley bail-bond company says it has denied an offer to write a bond for Jerice Hunter because her daughter is still missing and the bond amount is too low. The operators of Regulator Bail Bonds, Inc., tweeted and Facebooked their displeasure last night, urging the state’s other bail-bond companies to follow…
[jump] Cops witnessed Watson driving recklessly near Prescott College on Grove Avenue before pulling her over, says the report. Once out of the vehicle, she began dropping f-bombs and screaming at the officers, then resisted their efforst to cuff her, kneeing one officer in the groin as he grabbed her…
She’s been shot in the butt.Criticized for questionable deals.Indicted twice by a grand jury — only to see her charges dropped and her accuser face potential disbarment.But Mary Rose Wilcox, one of five members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors since being elected in 1992, isn’t giving up her…
All charges have been dropped from September’s high-profile bust by the Drug Enforcement Agency of a Tempe medical marijuana clinic.The DEA arrested James Chaney and Rachel Beeder of Arizona Go Green Co-Op on September 29 following a morning raid on the clinic and Chaney’s Phoenix home. About 60 or 70…
Current and former Maricopa County officials have filed new, streamlined complaints against the county and Sheriff Joe Arpaio to comply with a judge’s order. Filing anew are: County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband, Earl; County Supervisor Don Stapley; retired Superior Court Judges Barbara Mundell and Gary Donahoe; deputy…
Qikai “Ben” Chen, a former math teacher for Basis Charter School in Scottsdale, received one year of probation for allegedly bashing the face of his boyfriend’s 6-year-old into a door hinge. We say “allegedly” because Chen was never convicted of the felony count of child abuse for which police thought…
Earlier this month, Maricopa County moved at lightning speed to turn over documents to a newspaper about a fired sheriff’s deputy.Now, county officials are taking their sweet time to release records related to the discipline of the fall guy (or gal) who handed over those deputy documents. Part of our…
Prosecutors have decided not to pursue charges for now against Pamela Haas, the 63-year-old Chandler woman who sliced her husband’s arm with a two-foot-long sword.Both Pamela and her husband, Louis, agree that she took the sword from a wall mounting on November 13 and cut him with it, leaving a…
Maybe one reason marijuana prohibition is still in effect is this:Law officers face being fired merely for stating publicly their views on legalization.That was the case for Joe Miller, a former Mohave County probation officer whose supervisors terminated him after his name appeared on a letter — with 31 other…
