Round two of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s federal contempt trial began last Thursday. Yet revelations from the testimony of Arpaio’s chief deputy, Jerry Sheridan, and from portions of deposition transcripts made public already have been damning. Here are the 10 of the most eyebrow-raising: 10. According to Sheridan, the Maricopa County…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s absurd Seattle investigation cost taxpayers at least $250,000, improperly dipped into federal grant money, and nearly depleted the MCSO’s RICO fund. This, according to Arpaio’s Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, who spent yesterday on the stand in federal court, much of it being skewered by ACLU attorney Cecillia…
ACLU attorney Cecillia Wang played hammer to Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan’s nail in federal court Thursday, as Sheridan was the first to take the stand in the contempt trial of Sheridan, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and three current and former MCSO bigwigs. The multi-day hearing, with dates scheduled in September, October…
Shamelessness must be a requirement to work for Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Just hours before the second round in Arpaio’s contempt trial was set to begin Thursday morning in federal court, his attorney John Masterson (one of several) submitted a motion to block “any inquiry during the continued contempt proceedings regarding the…
Never doubt for one moment — notwithstanding his staged Reagan-esque gaps in memory under oath and his on-the-stand avowals of delegating authority — Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s total control over the MCSO. Take the following example, borrowed from the transcript of MCSO Lieutenant Kim Seagraves’ recent deposition in the ongoing federal…
Recently released excerpts of depositions of Joe Arpaio’s ex-attorney, Tim Casey, and others in the sheriff’s ongoing contempt case point to possible perjury by Arpaio and his chief deputy, Jerry Sheridan, during their April testimony in federal court. The excerpts, made public as part of the court record, also confirm…
Next time you catch John Boorman’s classic 1972 film Deliverance, Phoenix lawyer Dennis Wilenchik may come to mind. Particularly during the notorious “squeal like a pig” scene, when a character played by Ned Beatty is raped by a Georgia redneck and made to crawl on all fours. Earlier this year, the pugnacious,…
The Arizona Department of Public Safety announced this evening that it had arrested 21 year-old Leslie Allen Merritt, Jr., alleging he was the man responsible for at least some of the recent shootings of vehicles along the I-10 in Phoenix. Speaking at a press conference this evening, flanked by U.S. Marshal…
Taxpayers pick up the tab for Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio’s attorney’s fees, court costs and settlements in civil suits. Political contributors bankroll his campaigns. He and his wife Ava are millionaires, and own a number of pricey properties in the Valley. His salary with Maricopa County is more than $100,000…
Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan could give Rob Zombie and M. Night Shyamalan a run for their money when it comes to the production of sheer horror. Save for the fact that what Zombie and Shyamalan create is mere fiction that’s finished after a couple of hours in…
Though online detractors claim they are more of a “Dolt Force,” the vigilante group calling itself “Bolt Force” is scoring international publicity from the freeway shootings in Phoenix that the Arizona Department of Public Safety is investigating. In fact, when the group’s leader, Tony “Bolt” Rowley, is not getting stopped…
About 48 hours before his lifeless body was found hanging by the neck from a blue rope tied to a pool table at his home, ex-MCSO deputy Ramon “Charley” Armendariz told a group of friends and neighbors that he was a planning a press conference where he would “expose the…
So here’s a giant surprise, Pinal County Sheriff and unannounced candidate for U.S. Congress Paul Babeu is the “honorary chairman,” of a dark money, 501(c)4 non-profit that is pimping….yes, you guessed it, Paul Babeu. Babeu’s new Arizona Security and Prosperity Project’s website promises that the group will pursue “public advocacy for…
Coming less than a month after Governor Doug Ducey’s solicitation of ideas for the “rebranding”of Arizona, federal Judge Susan R. Bolton’s recent ruling on Arizona’s 2010 immigrant-bashing law, Senate Bill 1070, reminds denizens of the Grand Canyon State why such a rebranding might be necessary. The law itself was a…
Phoenix motorists taking the I-10 over the long Labor Day weekend will have more to worry about than just holiday traffic. They face the unnerving prospect that a windshield, a side door or the gas tank of their vehicle could be pierced by a random bullet, fired by an unknown…
You can’t fault Sheriff Joe Arpaio for lack of chutzpah. The guy continues to beg for campaign donations while his contempt of the federal court in the ACLU’s big civil rights case Melendres v. Arpaio is costing us beaucoup bucks. Check this recent gimmicky e-mail (below) desperately seeking any cash you’ve…
During an August 28 status conference in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s never-ending contempt proceedings before federal Judge G. Murray Snow, one of Arpaio’s many lawyers, the sly, irrepressible John Masterson let drop two tidbits, each suggestive of revelations to come. Both involved new documents Masterson said he’d just been informed of,…
Thanks to Republican presidential contender Donald Trump and right-wing pundit Ann Coulter, hating on “anchor babies” is all the rage. But Phoenix nativist Michelle Dallacroce, founder and president of Mothers Against Illegal Aliens wants you to know that she was hating on so-called anchor babies before hating on them was…
Local liberals freaked when their top 10 wacky beliefs were skewered. But Arizona conservatives boast equally nutty ideas. Here are 10 of the nuttiest. 10) President Obama is not a natural-born citizen. 9) More guns in America means a safer America. 8) People give a rat’s ass about Hillary’s e-mails. …
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has a serious pot connection, one that may score us all legal ganja come 2016: Republican political consultant Chad Willems of Summit Consulting Group. For many years, Willems has been Arpaio’s campaign guru and money man, helping Arpaio raise millions, outspending Arpaio’s opponents, and raking in a…
Despite a recent Gallup poll that shows 87 percent of Americans favor allowing illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens under certain restrictions, the public dialogue on immigration continues to be driven by a billionaire blowhard and a vicious hate-monger. I mean Republicans Donald Trump and Ann Coulter, whose know-nothing rhetoric…
Carrying gruesome placards and signs that read “Choose Life” and “Just a Clump of Sells,” anti-abortion activists crowded into a blocked-off street next to a Planned Parenthood office in central Phoenix today, part of a nationwide effort by those in the pro-life movement to end federal funding for the organization and…
