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…
Former Minuteman and alleged child molester Chris Simcox can cross-examine one of his child victims face-to-face as he represents himself in Maricopa County Superior Court, but he will have to cross-examine the other child victim, his daughter, via closed-circuit Television. That’s the ruling of Judge Jose Padilla, the jurist overseeing…
Homophobic religious nut and Republican presidential long-shot Dr. Ben Carson was in Arizona recently, getting schooled in illegal immigration by none other than Pinal County Sheriff Paul “Studboi1” Babeu, during a tour of Pinal and Cochise Counties. Carson’s choice of Babeu for a study-session on border issues was ironic on…
A sadistic pimp who ran a bizarre, cult-like harem of prostitutes modeled on a film of the French novel The Story of O faces a lifetime in prison after being convicted July 17 on 105 felony counts, involving sex with minors, pandering and child prostitution. Prosecutors say 60-year old Anthony…
When it comes to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 22-year reign over Maricopa County, a cursory glance at newspaper clippings from earlier in his career reveals that some things never change. Consider Arpaio’s penchant for investigating his enemies, his critics, and anyone who stands in his way. In January 1999, Maricopa County…
A status conference Tuesday morning in downtown Phoenix before federal Judge G. Murray Snow continued his court’s inexorable march toward a second round of contempt hearings in the ACLU’s big racial profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio, currently scheduled to begin September 22. In Tuesday’s hearing, Snow allowed the U.S. Department…
When a reliable source sends photos of a recycling firm loading up computers in front of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s downtown headquarters at Jackson Street and 5th Avenue — given past events — it’s cause for concern. Though county officials maintain that everything is on the up and up, federal Judge…
Liberals in metro Phoenix, much like their counterparts on the right, have sacred cows ripe for slaughter. Here are 10 of them: 10. Private prisons are 100 percent evil. Never mind the death, rape, and mayhem in public prisons and jails. 9. The ultra-conservative Koch bothers rule the nation, even…
Detective Brian Mackiewicz was in a cranky mood when I called to speak with him about the events of July 24, when federal Judge G. Murray Snow ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to seize evidence from the MCSO’s property lockers. At issue were 1,500 IDs confiscated from Latinos by the…
Like a Roman emperor of old, Sheriff Joe knows how to keep the mob entertained, with the help of his echo chamber — the local media — which too often takes its cues from Arpaio’s PR staff, lapping up whatever drivel that’s dis-engorged, then spewing it forth for the evening…
The words of Sheriff Joe’s Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan came back to sink their shark-like teeth in his hindquarters Friday in federal Judge G. Murray Snow’s courtroom, where Snow again indicated that the authority of his court had been abrogated by MCSO satraps, and criminal contempt charges could result. During…
It ain’t just Sheriff Joe’s poll numbers that have dropped like a hot rock on thin ice. Arpaio’s much ballyhooed posse has taken a hit numbers-wise as well, according to the court-appointed monitor’s latest quarterly report. Arpaio uses his posse to garner media attention, sending his volunteer force of non-cops…
Though not quite the “raid” that some local media depicted it as, Friday’s events were nonetheless dramatic, with United States District Court Judge G. Murray Snow calling an “emergency meeting” for 3 p.m. at the request of his monitor Robert Warshaw, whose team has been in town for the week…
Former Minuteman and accused child molester Chris Simcox wants you to feel sorry for him, even as he strives to interrogate his alleged child victims in court. In a recent jailhouse interview with the Arizona Republic, Simcox, 54, rationalized his decision to represent himself in his upcoming trial, where he…
During an hour-long status conference Monday in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s never-ending contempt case, federal Judge G. Murray Snow granted a request by the U.S. Department of Justice to review documents from Arpaio’s confidential informant Dennis Montgomery in the MCSO’s so-called “Seattle investigation.” That investigation, as first revealed in June of…
Once again, the U.S. Department of Justice has disappointed us when it comes to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s abuses of power, this time with a Neville Chamberlain-esque settlement that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved on Wednesday. The board unanimously agreed to settle on three areas of dispute in United…
How far was Sheriff Joe Arpaio willing to go in ginning up a false conspiracy theory he hoped would disqualify federal Judge G. Murray Snow from the ACLU’s big civil rights case, Melendres v. Arpaio? As far west as Seattle and as far east as Washington, D.C. I’ll get to…
Ruling late Friday, federal Judge G. Murray Snow crushed Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s attempt to have the jurist recuse himself from contempt proceedings in the ACLU’s big civil rights case Melendres v. Arpaio. Snow declared that the motion, submitted on behalf of the sheriff and his Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, did…
We live in a time where the left in this country is scoring wins like there’s no tomorrow. From gay marriage to Obamacare to redistricting, conservatives are licking their wounds and looking at the prospect of being denied the White House yet again in 2016 by their Democratic bete noir,…
If there is anything more idiotic than rallying round the Confederate battle flag in a Walmart parking lot in Phoenix, it may be assembling for a counter-protest in the same parking lot. As reported by my colleague Miriam Wasser, it was the rednecks versus the radicals at the Walmart Supercenter…
There was no love lost for Sheriff Joe in Salem, Oregon on June 27 as he paid a visit at the invitation of the Beaver State GOP. According to Salem’s daily Statesman Journal, Arpaio drew about 100 supporters to a rally on the steps of the Oregon state capitol, and “three…
I took a lot of raspberries from the left over the profile I did earlier this year of Arizona’s new Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Though, I must admit that I enjoy ticking off liberals who think New Times should mimic their own third-grade comic-book attitude toward politics. You know: Dems…
