Ex-corrections officer Bill Haro thinks he knows exactly why his former employer, the Arizona Department of Corrections, suffers from a severe shortage of prison guards these days. It’s a lousy place to work, says the 16-year veteran of the Florence gulag, and it’s not because of the low pay or…
The Baptist Foundation of Arizona recently proclaimed a banner financial year despite the fact that investigators from three different state agencies are scrutinizing the foundation’s multimillion-dollar real estate and stock transactions with insiders, New Times has learned. The Organized Crime and Fraud Section of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, with…
For the past two weeks, Jose Antonio has raced home from whatever job he could find that day, usually busing tables or washing dishes in one of the tony downtown Phoenix eateries. Once home, he turns on the old black-and-white television in his run-down central Phoenix apartment. He wonders if…
I’ve known Tony West for years, and privately, West can be a very charming and nice guy. But if West is elected to the Arizona Corporation Commission, the agency that regulates securities and utilities could suffer an ethical meltdown. Here’s why: Tony West, Arizona’s current state treasurer, is impressed by…
In 1986, residents of the Kingdom of God–better known as Colorado City, Arizona, the headquarters of a fundamentalist Mormon religious cult that practices polygamy–received disturbing news in the mail. In a nutshell, a massive mailing from Rulan Jeffs, a cult leader, said that dissident cult members could get evicted–without compensation–from…
I have heard so many stories about Carolyn Sawyer’s earthy, manipulative personality that I expect to meet a Janis Joplin-like middle-aged hippie who could charm the birds right down from the trees. Instead, for about half an hour, I sit in a lawyer’s office staring at a silent woman with…
Like Beverly McMillen, former BFA investor Annette Earl also got her life savings back last month. Earl says BFA informed her that someone had purchased her note late in the afternoon of August 5–shortly after a New Times article detailing her plight began to be distributed in newsstands (“I Was…
Beverly and Edward McMillen wanted to help the Lord. As members of North Phoenix Baptist Church, one of the Valley’s largest Southern Baptist congregations, the McMillens took their pastor’s advice and began investing their life savings with the Baptist Foundation of Arizona (BFA) as early as 1989. The way the…
A Black Canyon City woman says the Baptist Foundation of Arizona (BFA) is refusing to return her life savings, even though she needs the money to pay mounting medical bills. Annette Earl, 60, claims that a BFA representative “misled” her in April 1997 when she invested $99,000 with the Arizona…
Michael Kerski moved from Hartford, Connecticut, to Arizona in November 1996 to revitalize downtown Chandler–and a career rocked by scandal. Last August, the Connecticut attorney general sued Kerski, claiming that as executive director of the Greater Hartford Architectural Conservancy, Kerski used the conservancy’s funds to “personally enrich” himself. The suit…
The area adjacent to the retail center should eventually be cleared for market rate housing. Downtown lacks any significant market rate housing. This is too valuable and important land and should be dedicated to high density, market rate residential. No Downtown in the United States, no matter how small, has…
On a summer day in 1988, Tucson retirees Nita and Chuck Pratt visited an RV resort near Show Low. Juniper Ridge RV Resort sat atop an isolated ridge studded by fragrant juniper trees, a setting that seemed idyllic to the Pratts. They were also impressed by the resort’s country-club-style amenities–a…
A six-month New Times investigation reveals that companies controlled by one sitting Baptist Foundation of Arizona director and two former directors have received nearly $140 million worth of loans in complicated real-estate and stock transactions with BFA. A company controlled by one of those insiders in 1997 reported a net…
Four rattlesnakes and a king snake lie coiled in Dale Burton’s truck as he tools along Shea Boulevard en route to the Mayo Clinic in north Scottsdale. Two large rattlesnakes–a Western Diamondback and “Mo,” a Mohave rattlesnake, the most venomous pit viper in North America–doze in a big plastic bucket…
The $1 Building Anyone sifting through the public records of tangled real-estate transactions conducted by the Baptist Foundation of Arizona will soon begin asking questions: What would possess a religious foundation to pass up the opportunity to acquire a $1.9 million office building for $1? Why would that foundation turn…
What is government doing to protect the public from unscrupulous corporations or religious institutions? The federal government is unlikely to do anything to protect the public from shady religious institutions or guarantee that such organizations deserve the tax-exempt status they enjoy. “No one wants to be anti-church,” says a spokesman…
A six-month New Times investigation reveals that companies controlled by one sitting Baptist Foundation of Arizona director and two former directors have received nearly $140 million worth of loans in complicated real-estate and stock transactions with BFA. A company controlled by one of those insiders in 1997 reported a net…
On March 23, the Baptist Foundation of Arizona hand-delivered a letter to New Times in response to written questions. The letter, signed by Chairman of the Board Berry Norwood and BFA President William Crotts, included an introductory section, which is printed here: This letter is the written response of the…
In order to understand the audited financial statements published annually by the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, New Times hired Robert Mroz of Barrington Consulting Group, Inc., a national firm that specializes in financial analysis and forensic accounting investigations. Mroz, a vice president of the firm, is based in Phoenix. The…
Chartered to raise funds for religious charities, the Baptist Foundation of Arizona and its web of subsidiaries have neglected good works in favor of financing real-estate empires for insiders, investing in highly speculative land deals and lavishing generous salaries, offices and automobiles on staff. While giving a pittance in philanthropic…
In 15 years, about 400 people died in a small room in Reverend Sky Guadagno’s coral-colored house in South Phoenix. After each death, Reverend Sky would sponge off the corpse with soapy water and hum melodies to comfort the soul Reverend Sky suspected lingered in the death room. Once the…
The story of the recent murder of a young west Phoenix couple has become an Elmore Leonard novel, with its bounty hunters and police snitches and thieves and aspiring ninjas and murderers and strippers. On September 13, in the latest chapter, Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley made a jolting announcement:…
