A Securities and Exchange Commission supervisor handled the finances for a Scottsdale-based flim-flam artist’s Ponzi scheme, than received a $25,000 retirement buyout package. Investigators with the Arizona Corporation Commission notified the SEC late last year about its naughty employee after finding e-mails from the official to one of the scheme’s victims. The allegation can…
government has managed to blow through a $700 million loan from the Bank of America in less than a week, and that wasn’t even enough to keep things going. According to Treasurer Dean Martin, his office had to dip into internal sources to come up with the extra $73 million the state needed…
Yesterday, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s officer accused of brazenly swiping — and photocopying — a defense lawyer’s paperwork reportedly checked himself into jail, as ordered by Judge Gary Donahoe.Detention Officer Adam Stoddard had refused to apologize for his actions, which ignited a firestorm from defense attorneys across the country. That…
A brand-new cell phone app., developed by a professor at U.C. San Diego, is supposed to help guide illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border similar to how a GPS system works in a car. UCSD visual arts Professor Ricardo Dominguez created the app., which he is calling the Transborder Immigrant Tool, to give…
Florida Governor Charlie Crist met with Chicago Cubs president Crane Kenney, chairman Tom Ricketts, and other team officials to try to lure the team away from their spring training home in Mesa and have them set up shop in Naples, Florida. “We like palm trees better than cactus, and hope that…
It is a widely agreed-upon theory that sex offenders are almost required to have a mustache. While Joseph Edward Roberts has not been convicted of anything yet, if the theory holds true, that scraggly stache certainly won’t help his upcoming case…
A red-hot Suns team that’s rolled over most every team in its path played one of the NBA’s biggest go-nowhere squads . . . and lost. At 14-3 heading into Tuesday night’s game against the New York Knicks, it sure seemed like a gimme. But a sloppy first quarter full of…
Police say a 17-year-old Mesa boy will be charged with second-degree murder for fatally stabbing one of his friends last week. Frank Raymond Aguilar, according to police, stabbed 17-year-old Alexander Niazi after he caught the teen kissing his sister…A 3-year-old girl was killed when the lid to a toy box…
In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Feathered Bastard: Joe Arpaio’s Meet the Press Moment Interrupted to the Tune of Bohemian Rhapsody Joe Arpaio…
The first reason why the racketeering lawsuit filed today against county leaders is probably going nowhere: It’s being handled by Lisa Aubuchon, the deputy county attorney who has consistently blown politically sensitive cases for Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Under Aubuchon’s leadership, Thomas lost the criminal cases against: Dan Pochoda,…
A day after scurrying off stage at the Cronkite School and ordering one of his deputies to defy a court order, Sheriff Arpaio took some time out of his busy schedule this morning to do some of the, um, really important stuff — like promoting a 109-year-old member of his…
The detention officer who swiped papers from a defense attorney’s file during an October sentencing hearing will report to jail today, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. “My officer will surrender,” Arpaio said during a news conference, adding that he wouldn’t say exactly where officer Adam Stoddard will be, because of security…
An indictment was unsealed today in Kansas City, Kansas, that named 20 people involved in a marijuana-distribution ring that has netted more than $22 million over several years, and like many pot-peddling rackets before it, this one originated in Phoenix. The indictment is the result of an 18-month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency, the…
The Mexican government is keeping immigrants safer than it used to on its side of the border, a top official says. Cecilia Romero Castillo, commissioner of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration, told the Los Angeles Times recently that “new controls” begun by the government have reduced the number of extortion attempts…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas ramped up the fight against county leaders on Tuesday, announcing a federal racketeering lawsuit against “leading” judges, the Board of Supervisors, and a private law firm. Thomas’ office just put out a news release about the lawsuit, saying he’ll give more details at a 2…
The latest book in the “we-love-Pat-Tillman” saga, Where Men Win Glory, by John Krakauer, features a photo of the former Arizona Cardinal staring heroically into the distance while standing on top of a mountain in Afghanistan. It’s enough to make any football fan weep.. One problem — the guy who took the photo…
A Maricopa County detention officer made a choice last night to defy a judge, and now he faces jail time for contempt of court. The officer, Adam Stoddard, held a news conference Monday but did not apologize for taking papers from a defense attorney’s file, as Superior Court Judge Gary…
A cat that was described by Colorado shelter workers as “half-frozen,” has thawed out and may be coming to find a home in Arizona. The cat, appropriately named Icee, was found under a deck in Teller County, Colorado, last month just a day after a heavy snowfall. When police found Icee, they…
Members of the Arizona Legislature are working on a, umm, great idea to help bridge the state’s now $1.5 budget gap — they want to start taking donations from you. As if the taxpayers are the ones who got us into this mess. Legislators are drumming up support for a…
Three people were found dead inside a Tucson home yesterday. Police say the bodies of a man, a woman, and a child were found inside the home but are not releasing any details about the case, other than that it is being investigated as a homicide…The body found below in…
Call it the cost of clapping. Five anti-Arpaio activists were awarded legal fees Monday by Justice of the Peace C. Steven McMurry in a case that involved four of them being arrested for applauding at a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ meeting in December 2008.The five activists — from the groups…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s circus came to ASU’s Cronkite School of Journalism Monday night, only to be cut short by the sounds of a pro-immigrant ditty, sung to the tune of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.The evening was filled with protest signs, serious journalism, civil disobedience, and Arpaio wearing funny hats. It was…
