Here’s a new one.Deputy County Manager Sandi Wilson has filed a notice of claim against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas. But she’s not asking for big bucks.She simply wants a written apology.Wilson, a 17-year county employee who supervises the budgeting process, was named in the sheriff…
Justice of the Peace John Ore, who’s handled traffic and misdemeanor cases for the Tempe area for 16 years and served as presiding judge of Maricopa County’s justices of the peace for the last four, will not seek reelection.Candidates were required to file by last Wednesday. Ore told New Times…
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy has refused requests from the Goldwater Institute to intervene in Arizona’s Clean Elections system — meaning that Clean Elections will begin to issue matching funds later this month.After a federal judge struck down the matching funds as unconstitutional, Clean Elections appealed. Last month, the…
You can file this one under “WTF??!?!”Turns out Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s favorite law firm, which specializes in employment law, was brought in to help with both the crappy racketeering lawsuit Arpaio and then-County Attorney Andrew Thomas filed against county officials last year — and the federal grand jury…
The lawsuits just keep coming.Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and her husband, Earl, today filed a notice of claim against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Chief Deputy David Hendershott, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, Deputy County Attorney Lisa Aubuchon, and both the Sheriff’s Office and the County Attorney’s Office. The Wilcoxes…
At a meeting this morning, county supervisors voted unanimously to curtail Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s access to county credit cards — putting a $200 per-purchase limit on cards issued to the Sheriff’s Office after the sheriff refused to cooperate with a routine audit.But, at the meeting, County Manager David…
The battle for control of Maricopa County — pitting Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas against the Board of Supervisors, judges, and county administrators — has been costly to both taxpayers and the parties involved.But it’s been a major boon to one local law firm. Ogletree Deakins, a…
Saying that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas illegally searched their offices and otherwise targeted them in an attempt to “retaliate against and humiliate” County Supervisor Don Stapley, East Valley developer Conley Wolfswinkel and his sons have filed a notice of claim with the county.The…
Yesterday, a spokesman at the Goldwater Institute told us that the think tank was readying a lawsuit over the city of Glendale’s deal with the NHL, which could give the hockey league up to $25 million to subsidize losses during its stint as owner of the Phoenix Coyotes.But today, the…
Acting at the suggestion of Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will explore the possibility of folding the Housing Authority of Maricopa County back under its control.Wilcox confirmed to New Times that she has requested a policy discussion about the nature of the housing authority –…
So much for that “deal.”Just days after Glendale and the NHL agreed to a $25 million deal to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in Jobing.com Arena for one more year, the Goldwater Institute tells New Times it will file a lawsuit to invalidate the agreement.Le Templar, a spokesman for the Phoenix-based…
During his controversial tenure as Maricopa County attorney, Andrew Thomas may have styled himself as a “tough” prosecutor — but insiders knew that the real iron in Thomas’ proverbial fist came from Lisa Aubuchon. The notoriously aggressive Aubuchon took on high-profile political cases with a vengeance. She served as lead…
During his last six months as Maricopa County Attorney, Andrew Thomas took on a series of high-profile defendants and pursued both criminal cases and civil litigation against a host of other county officials.But even during that frenzied time, Thomas maintained the barest of presences at his county office. In fact, records…
When a friend informed us that the Arizona Republic had written a puff piece about landscape architect/art scene provocateur Bill Tonnesen, we couldn’t help but shudder a bit. The Republic, after all, has never written a profile without doing some serious ass-kissing — and Tonnesen has a track record that’s…
Saying their request for information is “burdensome, overly broad, and intended to harass,” the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office told the Board of Supervisors today that it will not comply with a subpoena demanding financial records. The supervisors have been demanding the information since March — resorting to a subpoena two…
Open-source Web sites allowed witnesses to chronicle political violence in Kenya, earthquake devastation in Haiti, and election problems in India.Now a local company, NiJel, hopes to use the same techniques to record, and map, fallout from Arizona’s controversial new immigration policy, Senate Bill 1070. The company’s newly created Web site,…
In October 2007, New Times reporter Ray Stern was cited with a criminal charge for supposedly raising his voice while in the office of a lawyer working for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office — and no one would say, even under oath, who’d actually decided on charging him with the…
Where was Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon on the evening of July 27, 2009? If you look at Gordon’s official calendar, he was dining with his girlfriend and developer Steve Ellman at the Parlor, the hot new pizza place at Camelback and 20th Street. But, as it turns out, there’s a…
Here’s a phrase designed to strike fear into the hearts of rational Arizonans of every political stripe: “Meet your law enforcement team.” As in, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a new bestie! We’ve repeatedly argued that the biggest problem with Andrew Thomas’ tenure as county attorney was that he saw himself…
Former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods confirmed today in a phone interview with New Times that he is seriously contemplating a run for mayor of Phoenix.Woods, a Republican who served two terms as attorney general from 1991 to 1999, refused to put odds on the likelihood of his running –…
I don’t always remember to honor our veterans. Typically, I work through Memorial Day. (And Labor Day, for that matter.) I can’t even tell you when Veterans Day is. But this year, I found myself riveted by festivities for the most obscure veterans holiday we have in Arizona: Vietnam Remembrance…
Alberto Gutier, director of the Arizona Department of Highway Safety, admitted to New Times today that he made contributions to Governor Jan Brewer’s campaign under the name of a subordinate employee and his family — when the money came from Gutier himself.Gutier characterized the contribution as a “huge mistake” and…
