It ain’t 2014 yet, and already Attorney General Tom Horne is taking it on the chin in a new TV ad, demanding that he return the nearly $400,000 in donations that two county attorneys say were improperly used on Horne’s behalf in his successful 2010 general election run against Democratic…
I’m guessing that members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors are familiar with the phrase, “no taxation without representation,” but maybe they need a refresher course in what that Revolutionary War slogan means. On Halloween, appropriately, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lawyer Tim Casey filed a notice of appeal, challenging federal…
A former high-ranking Arizona U.S. Marshal’s agent has had a criminal ethics-violation charge against him dropped and will enter a pretrial diversion program. The move by the government on Thursday to let Bullen off the hook with light treatment came even as Bullen continues pressing a civil lawsuit against the…
For whatever reason, (though probably nothing more than he knows it’ll get him publicity), Arpaio’s got it in his head that his office needs drones. Not Heron TP-style Iran-busters, and not the all-purpose Predators., but those that more resemble remote-controlled multi-copters for sale at the mall. He’s waiting for approval…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio was recently on the Al Jazeera America program “Consider This ” to discuss immigration (what else?) and got b-slapped in the nicest way possible by filmmaker Dan DeVivo, one of the two persons behind the immigration-related documentary Two Americans, the other person being Phoenix-based reporter Valeria Fernandez…
So what do you do if you’re in law enforcement and you want someone’s help catching and prosecuting bad guys? If you’re Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, you start off with an insult. That’s what Monty does in new public service announcements he’s rolling out in Spanish and English, aimed…
Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow unsealed the operations plan for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “crime suppression” sweep, which took place this weekend in the West Valley. Significantly, the document, which was filed last Thursday under seal by Arpaio’s attorney Tim Casey, does not identify any “exigent circumstances”…
How bad would things have to get for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne to do the right thing and resign? You’d think pleading no contest to a vehicular hit-and-run witnessed by two FBI agents who’d been tailing him would be enough, at least for the state’s top prosecutor. Then there’s…
Late Thursday evening, the plaintiffs in the ACLU’s big civil rights lawsuit Melendres v. Arpaio fired back at Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s surprise announcement that the MCSO would begin one of its notorious Hispanic-hunting sweeps on Friday. Responding to a filing by Arpaio’s lawyer Tim Casey earlier in the day, plaintiffs’…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is sticking his tongue out at federal Judge G. Murray Snow, telling the jurist that the MCSO will execute one of the sheriff’s infamous crime suppression sweeps beginning Friday, October 18. Though Snow recently ordered that a monitor be appointed to oversee 59 pages of instructions on…
In June 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s then-director John Morton issued a memo outlining the agency’s exercise of its “prosecutorial discretion” in civil immigration cases. Morton emphasized that ICE would use this discretion to ensure the agency’s “enforcement priorities.” And ICE’s number one enforcement priority, as described in a…
They came, they saw, they protested, they partied. I’m talking about the local pro-immigrant activists who have been promising for at least a few weeks now to “shut down” the Phoenix Field Office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday, October 14. Though Monday was Columbus Day, a federal…
Ahead of pro-immigrant demonstrators set to march at noon from Phoenix’s Margaret T. Hance Park to the Phoenix Field Office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE has closed its facility, which remains the target of a “Shut Down ICE” protest, demanding an end to deportations. A letter posted to…
***Please see updates at the bottom of this post*** Pro-immigrant activists chaining themselves to buses and a courthouse entrance today in Tucson forced a halt to Operation Streamline, a controversial federal program that prosecutes migrants arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol after they’ve entered the country illegally. According to U.S…
Now that we know Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the MCSO will be getting a babysitter appointed by federal Judge G. Murray Snow to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, the question is, who is the right man (or woman) for the job? Actually, consent decrees and court-appointed…
What is it with Republicans and Nazis? It used to be, several decades ago in hippie times, the word “fascist” was bandied about so often by lefties that it lost all meaning. These days, seems like every time you turn around some GOP putz is calling someone a Nazi. Teabaggers…
No one would call the sheriff’s lawyer, Tim Casey, a maestro of spin, but his response to federal Judge G. Murray Snow’s final order in the ACLU’s racial-profiling lawsuit, Melendres v. Arpaio, was a little like painting a smiley face on day-old road kill. Arpaio still is the jefe, Casey told…
Should you need to get anywhere fast on the afternoon of Monday, October 14, you may want to avoid driving near Central Avenue and McDowell Road. That’s because the local human rights organization Puente and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network are promising to “shut down” the Phoenix offices of…
Governor Jan Brewer, recalled redneck pol Russell Pearce, Brewer’s “brain” Chuck Coughlin, and Attorney General Tom “Hit-and-Run” Horne best hope and pray there is no afterlife. Because if there is, I virtually can assure them that they, along with their pal Sheriff Joe, will boil in a hot tub of…
At the beginning of August, I wrote about proposed new ethical rules for Arizona prosecutors, in a petition currently pending before the Arizona Supreme Court. Opposed by Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, as well as numerous other county, state and federal prosecutors in Arizona, these amendments to Ethical Rule 3.8…
It’s been a blue moon or two since I gave much thought to Phoenix attorney Carmen Fischer, wife of Angel Garcia, imprisoned honcho of the New Mexican Mafia, an Arizona prison gang that takes its name from the more notorious, California-based eMe, or Mexican Mafia. But along comes a press…
Federal Judge G. Murray Snow issued his much-anticipated final order Wednesday in the ACLU’s big racial-profiling case Melendres v. Arpaio, and you can bet Sheriff Joe will not be pleased. The detailed 59-page command requires strict compliance with the court’s previous injunctions against the MCSO’s prejudiced policing toward Latinos, and…
