Lynn Heath had been a member of the Camelback East Village Planning Committee for 10 years, two months, and roughly one-half of a meeting when her tenure came to an end last month. It did not end in any of the usual ways: a fruit basket, a proclamation commending Heath’s…
That was fast.Just one short week after he was appointed to be a special investigator, charged with probing Bar complaints into Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, J. Scott Rhodes has withdrawn from the task.The news came in a written statement from the Arizona Supreme Court this afternoon. The court had…
E-mails penned by Maricopa County sheriff’s officers — as well as all other county employees — will stay for now with Maricopa County officials, and not the Sheriff’s Office, a judge has ruled.At a hearing in Tucson last week, Pima County Superior Court Judge Ted Borek ordered that his preliminary…
Two weeks ago, Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo issued a scathing ruling against Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas — kicking him off the prosecution of County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox and dismissing the charges against Wilcox to boot.That decision was a complete excoriation of Thomas’ attempts to prosecute…
This just in: Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio have dismissed the lawsuit that accused county officials, judges, and their lawyers of being part of a “criminal enterprise.”The suit — which the duo filed in December — spared no detail in exploring Thomas’ allegations that the Board…
It’s no secret that Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has been on a quest to stop the State Bar of Arizona’s duly appointed independent investigator from even thinking about beginning an investigation into Thomas’ ethical mishaps.Almost immediately after Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Rebecca Berch appointed J. Scott Rhodes to…
Last month, committees in both the Arizona House and Senate heard testimony on bills that would virtually wipe out egg donation as a fertility treatment in Arizona. There was not testimony from a single person who’d been harmed by the procedure, which involves a fertile young woman “donating” her eggs…
Kudos to this week’s Phoenix Business Journal, which finally provides the information we’ve all been waiting for, namely, just what exactly is going to happen to those faux chateaux on Central Avenue?We’ve long been obsessed with the 21-townhouse project at Central and Palm, as we acknowledged in a column last…
This just in: Attorney J. Scott Rhodes is part of the conspiracy to deprive Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas of his law license!We’re kidding — but only kind of. The real scoop is that Rhodes, an attorney at Jennings Strouss, has agreed to serve as independent counsel on complaints that…
A Maricopa County sheriff’s commander attempted to seize nearly two years’ worth of Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office e-mails from the county IT department Friday — saying the e-mails were archived without “the knowledge, consent, or appropriate clearances” from the Sheriff’s Office. But county officials refused to turn over the archived e-mails…
There are people in town horrified by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ demagoguery, by his ambition, and by his blind alliance with Sheriff Joe Arpaio. I see all that, of course. But what really gets me about Thomas is his chutzpah. This guy never loses fair and square; in his…
In a blog post earlier this week, we referenced documents we’d obtained from the State Bar of Arizona’s investigation into “special prosecutor” Dennis Wilenchik’s handling of the New Times matter. Those documents also figure prominently in our column this week about Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.Some of our readers asked…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has been pushing the Board of Supervisors to appoint a private attorney as independent special prosecutor on matters involving county officials — offering “ironclad” representations that the independent prosecutor will be “absolutely independent.”But newly released documents obtained by New Times show that the last time…
Someone call a shrink, stat!That was our thought after reading Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas’ revealing interview with the Arizona Republic over the weekend. Thomas was apparently giving the daily of record his first candid interview after a climactic week that saw a visiting judge remove him from prosecuting County…
Yesterday, Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo kicked Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas off the prosecution of Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox — saying Thomas had a series of conflicts of interest and dismissing the entire indictment against Wilcox for good measure.Which led us to wonder: Since Judge Leonardo believed…
Don’t believe the spin.And don’t believe everything you read. (Ahem, E.J. Montini loyalists.)In his ruling today, Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo did not just smack down Maricopa County Andrew Thomas and his ambitions of prosecuting the case against Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox.He smacked him down, he smoked him,…
So much for that “leave.”Even though commissioners of the Housing Authority of Maricopa County voted yesterday in no uncertain terms to strip Doug Lingner of his duties as the agency’s executive director, pending the outcome of an investigation, Lingner personally greeted employees at an “emergency” staff meeting this morning –…
In a unanimous vote at a hastily called meeting this afternoon, commissioners of the Housing Authority of Maricopa County unanimously agreed to place the agency’s executive director on paid leave, pending the outcome of an investigation.Doug Lingner, the agency’s director since August 2008, will not be permitted to be on…
In a press release issued last week, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office expressed “disappointment” with the fact that witnesses friendly to the sheriff, including Chief Deputy David Hendershott, hadn’t been called to testify at a Tuesday hearing.But if they were trying to blame the judge or defense attorneys, the Sheriff’s…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s popularity may be plummeting in Maricopa County — but he’s still the politician of choice for donors across the country.In fact, Arpaio’s most recent campaign finance report shows that the surly sheriff garnered a staggering $1.2 million in donations in 2009, much of it from…
Earlier this week, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk took the stand to testify about her dealings with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The testimony was ostensibly about the criminal case against County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox — Wilcox’s lawyer, Colin Campbell, had asked Polk to testify…
In a letter to commissioners of the Housing Authority of Maricopa County penned today, County Manager David Smith and the Board of Supervisors offered its assistance in handling allegations against the housing authority’s executive director, Doug Lingner.Those allegations were first raised in this New Times cover story. Among them were…
