Out of all the police reports we’ve read this year from agencies across the Valley, we’ve found the saddest reason someone was jailed on felony charges.Kenneth Melton, a 33-year-old Phoenix resident, got caught only because he walked head-first into a tree…
The case of Goodyear mother Yanira Maldonado is a good reminder that when you’re going to Mexico, you might never know when the federales are going to pin a crime on you, and take you to jail.Since it took Maldonado more than a week to get out of jail for…
One month shy of her 40th birthday, former Phoenix City Councilwoman Jessica Florez died in Scottsdale on June 1. Although she reportedly died in her sleep, her cause of death has not been disclosed. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office says the death investigation remains open, and can not yet…
After being spanked by the Texas Rangers 9-5 on Thursday, the Diamondbacks (32-24) travelled to historic Wrigley field to take on the hapless Chicago Cubs (23-32). Wade Miley (3-5, 5.01 ERA) added to the D-backs’ woes Friday by giving up all seven of the Cubs runs in Arizona’s 7-2 loss…
Glendale police serving a search warrant recently at the home of a suspected meth dealer found a whole lot more than meth — including Scottsdale Police Department uniforms and a badge.The alleged meth dealer, 30-year-old Colt Weber, who’s also the owner of a pawn business, told police that he took…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will not be recalled from office. At least, not anytime soon.Respect Arizona didn’t reveal how many petition signatures they gathered in their recall effort after the clock ran out last week, and Arpaio tried to claim that the group didn’t reveal the number of signatures…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s legal beagle Tim Casey has indicated that the sheriff’s office will appeal federal Judge G. Murray Snow’s recent decision, wherein Snow found the MCSO guilty of racial profiling and ordered it to stop. Considering the payday Casey’s firm Schmitt Schneck Smyth Casey & Even, P.C. has scored…
Would you be surprised if the demon dog of the Arizona legal community were to act like a jerk in federal court toward a Deputy U.S. Marshal? See Also: Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution Wilenchik’s a Liar, and There’s More Dennis the Menace Andrew Thomas’ Ex-Special Prosecutor Dennis Wilenchik Appointed…
The Gilbert mother who shoved feces in her 10-year-old son’s mouth and shoved his toothbrush in his anus in 2011, among other horrific abuses, will be spending some time in prison.A judge sentenced 41-year-old Jennifer Barnes today to more than 13 years in prison, which will be followed be a…
At 11 p.m. Wednesday night, bleeding out behind a gas station is probably not what Timothy Simpson thought he’d find himself doing when earlier he visited a woman he’d been sleeping with behind her boyfriend’s back. Mesa Police found Simpson with several stab wounds in his stomach, saying he’d been…
Two small planes collided in midair this morning near New River in the north Valley.Four people, two in each plane, were killed in the crash, Phoenix Fire Department Captain Larry Nunez tells New Times…
Yanira Maldonado, the mother from Goodyear who was jailed last week on likely bogus marijuana-smuggling charges in Nogales, Sonora, was released from custody, and photographs show her crossing the border back in the United States.With that, New Times checked with the U.S. Department of State, to see if they thought…
A Phoenix woman trying to fight random people at a high school graduation ceremony tried to convince police that she was actually her brother, and dared the cops to prove her wrong.According to court documents obtained by New Times, 31-year-old J’Shon Youyetewa “specifically demanded officers check to verify she had…
After three very good starts in a row, Brandon McCarthy brought back the crap yesterday in Arlington against the Texas Rangers.McCarthy, who didn’t get his earned-run average under seven until the sixth game of the season — but allowed just one earned run in his last three starts — gave…
Well, Maricopa County, you’re kind of pathetic.The group trying to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio fell short of the signatures it needed to force a recall election against the guy who’s been the top of a department that bungled hundreds of sex-crimes investigations, was found guilty of racially profiling Latinos, and…
***Updates regarding new voter registrations are at the end of this post.*** Respect Arizona, the group that had been spearheading the effort to remove Sheriff Joe Arpaio from office, announced Thursday afternoon that it had not obtained the signatures necessary to trigger a recall of the sheriff. As a result,…
The strains of finding babysitters or daycare reach every mother in every profession — even the world’s oldest. On Tuesday afternoon, while suspected prostitute Ana Perez Garcia was being arrested during an undercover sting, police found her 1-year-old daughter sitting in the woman’s running car. Officers read Perez her rights,…
Six lawyers fired by Pinal County Attorney Lando Voyles are satisfied with Voyles’ public “clarification” of a news release that dissed them, their lawyer says. Michael Manning, the lawyer representing the six former Pinal prosecutors, tells New Times that his clients were “never in it for the money” — which,…
A Phoenix woman who stepped outside of her apartment to have a smoke Tuesday evening found her neighbor’s infant children sitting outside and eating pills — both prescription and over-the-counter — from six different bottles, police say.According to court documents obtained by New Times, the woman ran into the apartment…
Thomas Warner, a former fourth-grade teacher in the Paradise Valley Unified School District and avid child-porn collector, pleaded guilty to a few charges today related to that child-porn stash.Warner, 55, told police that he “use[d] his position as a teacher to compensate for the guilt he feels about viewing the…
Could it be that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is even more of a liberal Republican than we thought? We know he supports same-sex marriage and gays in the military. But what about his views on medical marijuana? Well, consider that he handpicked for his staff a fitness trainer/bodybuilder/bookkeeper with…
Arizona is still one of a handful of states where more people die from being shot than die in motor-vehicle accidents.Arizona was one of only 10 states with more deaths-by-gun than deaths-by-car in 2009, and is only one of 12 states in 2010, now the most recent data available. As…
