It was Sunday, and God’s chosen representative to a few square miles of west Phoenix was about to address his new flock for the first time. Longtime parishioners of St. Jerome Catholic Church remember that 1993 morning well. It wasn’t every day that the diocese sent them a new pastor,…
This spring, a 10,000-gallon spill of wastewater and other mishaps at the Sumitomo Sitix silicon-wafer plant in northeast Phoenix worried local residents, many of whom had opposed construction of the plant so close to homes in the first place. Sitix of Phoenix president Robert Gill tried to calm those fears,…
Damon Dreckmeier’s blood was coming out both ends of him, and it had been coming out for hours. Vomited blood ran out of his mouth, down his chin and over his neck; it stained the seat of his pants. A nauseating, numbing feeling began in his stomach and gradually spread…
The woman, we’ll call her Anna, recently left the medical staff at one of the county’s jails, and what she saw there shocked her. Anna makes it clear that administering to inmates is difficult work. Many of the inmates are malingerers who can make life hell for the people who…
At least 19 jail inmates have died on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s watch. Others have been maimed. A man who is paralyzed below the waist was strapped into a medieval restraint chair so roughly that jailers broke his neck. New Times has detailed many cases of abuse and neglect in Maricopa…
An Icelandic court has found that two American fugitives should not be extradited to Maricopa County because of the condition of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails. In May, New Times reported that Connie and Donald Hanes faced extradition from Iceland on charges that they illegally took Connie’s granddaughter, Zenith, away from…
There is no doubt that something real passed over Phoenix on the night of March 13. Hundreds of people reported what they saw passing slowly in the sky. Two New Times writers were among those witnesses. David Holthouse and Michael Kiefer were in separate parts of the Valley that night,…
The man, we’ll call him Phuong, had laid down a considerable bet on the Phoenix Suns, and the Suns had lost. Phuong followed that mistake with another. When the bookmakers he’d placed the bet with arrived to collect their money, Phuong told them to collect the money from a friend…
“If any member misuses their identification in any way, they’re kicked out of the posse. That’s one of the biggest no-no’s,” says Executive Posse Commander Marvin Weide. Perhaps because of the sheer volume of volunteers eager to join Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s civilian army, however, several undesirables have been kicked out…
Before Arizona Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill can move his team into an East Valley domed stadium–something he’s all but demanded as ransom for keeping the Cardinals in town–he’ll need plenty of assistance. Not only from an army of engineers, planners and lawyers, but also the backing of local politicians, the…
Faced with a series of trials, an Arizona official turns up the public relations machine to full tilt, launching a string of populist initiatives meant to soften his image. Governor J. Fife Symington III? No, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. In recent weeks, Arpaio has announced such innovations as a…
Are Maricopa County’s jails so barbaric that a foreign nation could refuse to give up fugitives bound for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s gulag? That could be the result when a court in Iceland rules on the extradition case of Connie and Donald Hanes, who are wanted on a charge of felony…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio loves to point out that his fame has spread beyond the United States, but increasingly, that international scrutiny is less than complimentary. New Times earlier described a London magazine cover story which ridiculed “the Lion of Metz” for his self-promoting (Arpaio brags that he served in the…
If Montini’s spy is listening,” John Dayl says as he opens one of his weekend radio programs, “he’s going to be disappointed, because I probably won’t say anything today that will result in a Montini column.” The KFYI-AM (910) talk-show host then launches into one of several topics, none of…
Phoenix City Councilwoman Frances Emma Barwood says her first instinct was to call a press conference in Mayor Skip Rimsza’s office and, in front of the Valley’s media, slug him. She only changed her mind, she says, because it wouldn’t be smart to commit an assault on camera. Barwood says…
The parking lot at KNXV-TV Channel 15 contains a vestige of the station’s earlier, quirkier incarnation. The rusting “Al’s World” convertible, which once carried reporter Al Feinberg around the state for a series of offbeat stories, now rests under a tarp. One tire is flat. Like many trademark elements of…
KNXV Channel 15 station manager Michael Kronley wrote this “Competitive Profile” of the television news market for his general manager, Brad Nilsen, in October. New Times obtained the memo, which is excerpted here. KTVK Channel 3: This station is backing off its marketing line of “Arizona’s Family Station,” but continues…
Janet Reno, U.S. attorney general, made good on a threat by filing a civil rights lawsuit against the State of Arizona on Monday. The lawsuit could result in yet another instance in which a judge will oversee certain aspects of the prison system–an arrangement loathed by Governor J. Fife Symington…
Federal investigators say they have found an “unconstitutional pattern or practice of sexual misconduct” in Arizona women’s prisons, and the U.S. Department of Justice may sue the state over it. Assistant U.S. attorney general Deval Patrick directed a study of women’s prisons that lasted for 18 months, from February 1995…
The Lopezes are like a lot of South Phoenix families. They work hard, obey the law and pay taxes like their neighbors. But for years they’ve been frustrated that the public school where they send their daughter Lupe is falling apart. State lawmakers say they’ve been trying to improve funding…
A financial time bomb sits ticking in a Maricopa County file drawer. Among thousands of mundane tax cases and routine lawsuits by county vendors, dozens of claims made by present and former inmates of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails threaten to explode. New Times repeatedly has asked the county to provide…
Richard Post spent only a few hours in Madison Street Jail, but in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s penal colony, no stay is too short to avoid abuse. Especially for inmates like Post, who make demands on their captors. For those kinds of troublemakers, Arpaio’s jailers reserve a special form of treatment…
