Florence officials continue to deny allegations of corruption and abuse of power leveled against the town by two former detectives — Walt Hunter and Jarris Varnrobinson. The two police officers, who worked as detectives with the Florence Police Department until they were fired in December 2012, filed a suit in…
Update: One day after this blog item was published, the Superintendent formally admitted that he is the author of the posts listed below. Arizona Schools Superintendent John Huppenthal has no problemo shilling for private schools in annoying robocalls to unsuspecting citizens, but if you call him at home to ask…
Talk about what Catholics call an “occasion of sin”. . . on Friday, the MCSO announced that it had staged yet another worksite raid, this one supposedly the 83rd since Sheriff Joe Arpaio started wasting taxpayer cash on them instead after going after murderers, child rapists, gang-bangers, and other so-called…
More than a year before his alleged suicide by hanging on May 8, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Detective Charley Armendariz reached out to Phoenix human-rights activist Lydia Guzman, telling her he had information to share, and implicating MCSO supervisors in illegal activity. Guzman says Armendariz approached her on February 28,…
The most revealing part of Phoenix filmmaker Randy Murray’s recent documentary The Joe Show was a strategy meeting during Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s 2012 re-election campaign that included Arpaio, his top flack, Lisa Allen, Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan, and campaign manager Chad Willems. The group huddled in the back of a…
Standing in the lobby of the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office, having just dropped off more than 14,500 signatures to place his name on the ballot for Attorney General, former Arizona gaming director Mark Brnovich exuded the kind of confidence you’d expect from a candidate facing a primary opponent mired…
If there never had been a monitor appointed by Judge G. Murray Snow in the ACLU’s big civil rights case, Melendres v. Arpaio, it’s unlikely that we would know as much as we do about late MCSO Detective Ramon Charley Armendariz. And yet, Armendariz, who the Sheriff’s Office says took…
So what do you do when you have the FBI breathing down your neck (again), you’ve been ordered to give back $400,000 in illegal campaign contributions (again), and allegations of your using the Arizona Attorney General’s Office as your re-election headquarters have been so well documented that both conservative U.S…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and his surrogates have been doing their darnedest to drag former AG staffer Sarah Beattie through the mud, in an obvious attempt to deflect attention from the mountain of evidence provided by Beattie, showing that Horne has been running his re-election campaign from the AG’s…
Guess who’s having the worst week ever? Add to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s many woes — including dueling scandals, local and federal law enforcement probes, and a $400K ad buy by a conservative group demanding his resignation — a poll of likely GOP voters, showing Horne trailing his primary…
Spare the rod, spoil the Horne-dog. Arizona Public Integrity Alliance, the conservative group Horne unsuccessfully SLAPP-sued for defamation, is giving Attorney General Tom Horne the first of many birchings he’ll no doubt be receiving this year, in this new ad recounting his vehicular hit and run back in 2012, with…
Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk has rejected the findings of an administrative law judge in the campaign finance case against Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, and reinstated her original order, demanding that Horne and AG outreach director Kathleen Winn reimburse donors $400,000. In a decision filed Wednesday afternoon, Polk concluded…
So there were zero protesters outside the University Club in Phoenix Tuesday night for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s fundraiser, featuring Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, author of Sand Land’s anti-immigrant Senate Bill 1070. Which surprised me. I mean, recalled, disgraced former state Senator Russell…
Sitting across from me in the office of her attorney, Tom Ryan, Sarah Beattie relates the details of her work for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne in “constituent services,” which really amounted to working on the AG’s re-election campaign, creating documents, and, most importantly, raising money. In fact, according to…
Denials can be telling. Certainly, this is the case with Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s denial of wrongdoing, in the wake of attorney Tom Ryan’s dropping his bunker buster of a complaint on Horne’s office. The document, which Ryan filed dramatically on Monday with the Arizona Secretary of State, alleges…
Chandler attorney Tom Ryan has dropped his daisy cutter on Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s office, and there ain’t much left standing. Today, Ryan submitted to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office a 15-page sworn affidavit from his client, ex-AG staffer Sarah Beattie, describing extensive political work and campaign fundraising…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne is running his re-election effort from his state office, and using AG staff members to raise money, organize events and do other campaign-related work on state time. These are among the many serious allegations leveled against Horne by ex-staff member Sarah Beattie, who resigned April…
We now know it takes close to a month for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to send out a mass e-mail, and even then, only under the threat of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s being found in contempt of court by a federal judge. How close Arpaio got to having the cuffs…
Randy Pullen, a CPA who’s running for state treasurer, is either a fool or a liar. Not in general, mind you: We’re talking strictly about his role in a campaign-finance scandal that helped destroy the careers of three of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s top men…
Describing Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s scandal-a-second administration, Horne’s Republican primary foe, former Arizona Department of Gaming director Mark Brnovich recently referenced the ’60s bard born Robert Zimmerman. “If you’ve ever listened to the song ‘Desolation Row’ by Bob Dylan, every day ‘the circus is in town’ when Tom Horne…
Ramon Charley Armendariz, who was an MCSO deputy before his run-in with police last week, had drugs in his garage that investigators found in evidence bags, according to court documents.According to court documents, deputies found “possible drugs” at Armendariz’s place, including pot, meth, heroin, and LSD. These finds were made…
Much of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne’s executive office staff is involved in “substantial campaigning” for his 2014 re-election, “while on state time and utilizing State resources.” This, according to a litigation hold letter made public Monday by Chandler attorney Tom Ryan, who represents former AG employee and ex-Horne campaign…
