Saying that attorneys for Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas made a procedural error, U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow rejected the “amended complaint” they attempted to file last week in their racketeering lawsuit against county officials.While that ruling has nothing to do with the merits of the case, it…
The Arizona Game and Fish Department may have some explaining to do over the death of the last known jaguar in Arizona. A report filed by the Department of the Interior alleges that the initial capture of the cat, known as Macho B, was probably intentional and violated the Endangered…
Three people arrested yesterday have been accused of bilking a bank out of $750,000 and running a network of shady businesses with the infusion of millions of dollars of capital from Mexico.The crimes spanned the last decade, police say, and included businesses that would be familiar to many readers, including:* CBNC,…
Did you hear the one about the guy who broke into a head shop and stole $300 worth of fake weed? Probably not, because it’s not a joke — some idiot actually did it on Monday night in Flagstaff.In the police blotter of yesterday’s Arizona Daily Sun, there is a…
A Mexican national suspected of murdering a woman in 2003 was busted by U.S. Border Patrol agents near Nogales.Guzman Badilla-Corona, 28, better known in the crystal-meth community as “Indio,” was trying to cross back into the United States from Mexico when he got picked up by border agents. After running Badilla-Corona’s fingerprints…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has spared no expense in his quest to read e-mails penned by court administrators — filing a lawsuit, an appeal after he lost the lawsuit, and finally a special action after he lost the appeal.But Arpaio isn’t done yet, as county records make clear. Indeed,…
We’ve heard of all sorts of fevers — cat-scratch, valley, fevers where the only prescription is “more cow-bell” — but we weren’t familiar with the variety that a Phoenix man claims made him “violently ill,” prompting a lawsuit against PetCo.George Heitzman claims he contracted something called rat-bite fever after he bought…
A Phoenix meth addict woke up from his pipe dream early Sunday morning and began viciously attacking his 85-year-old mother, thinking his house was under attack by an intruder. The woman, Eva Fitzgerald, called 911 just after 2:30 a.m. and told police that her son was hitting her. Operators could…
The highly publicized search for the Tempe baby who went missing in December has hit a roadblock, but a babysitter, who may be one of the last people to see the child alive, is describing her time with the 8-month-old to San Antonio news outlets. From everything that has been…
A rodeo performer accused of torching his Carefree-area home in 2007 to collect the insurance money has been arrested after more than a year on the lam. Aaron Jeter, 41, conspired with two other men to burn down the custom-built home at 613 West Galvin, just north of Carefree, a Maricopa…
Reason, the influential libertarian magazine devoted to “free minds and free markets,” has published a piece criticizing Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas as “Sheriff Joe’s Enabler.”The piece was published online yesterday.In it, senior editor Radley Balko explains that “[f]or all of Arpaio’s tough on crime preening, Thomas may actually be…
There’s no shortage of discouraging news for Arizona today. In a prior post, we told you about Maricopa County’s dismal national ranking in terms of job loss, and the latest news on the education front isn’t any better.According to the annual report from Editorial Projects in Education, Arizona ranks fifth-worst…
We knew Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was desperate to read e-mails penned by judges and court staffers. But even we had no idea he was this desperate. According to documents obtained by New Times, Arpaio has actually agreed to pay Washington, D.C., attorney Carter G. Phillips $990 — per hour…
Winchester, the small Oro Valley cancer-surviving dog that was found semi-conscious and lying in a pool of his own feces on New Year’s Day, died Thursday after fighting off death for about two weeks.Winchester went missing on New Year’s Eve and was found by a dog-sitter in his owner’s yard…
Move over, rover, let Gary take over. In a tale that could seemingly only happen in rural stretch of central Arizona — or the hills of West Virginia — Chino Valley resident Gary Riley has been accused of sexually assaulting his neighbor’s dog. The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office says another Chino…
We thought that this time, maybe things would be different.Ha!Last month, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas filed a lawsuit against county officials and a few prominent judges, attempting to use RICO laws to show that these public officials are a “criminal enterprise.” Not surprisingly, considering…
Police are asking for the public’s help in tracking down a man they believe stole thousands of dollars from a charter school in Chandler.Stealing from a school — how, um, classy.Authorities say James Bassett, along with his wife, Laurie Bassett, embezzled more than $20,000 from the Dobson Academy School in…
In what teacher Alex Chambers describes as actions leading to the ultimate failing grade for breaking and entering, an alleged copper thief is in critical condition after falling through the ceiling at Bret Tarver Elementary School in Phoenix. Teachers at the school found the F-getting thief unconscious on the floor in one…
A phoned-in bomb threat this morning at the Maricopa County Superior Court had some folks wondering about a possible tie to negative news about Sheriff Joe Arpaio. An earlier bomb threat at the court last month followed the jailing of Adam Stoddard, the detention officer Sheriff Arpaio claimed was the victim…
A Tucson woman told a judge on Wednesday that she starved her baby, Kimberlie, which caused the baby’s death in August of 2008. In Pima County Superior Court, 27-year-old Terri Sullivan admitted to starving the baby after she was born in July 2008, as well as failing to get help when it was…
Arizona State Government Adam Henning, principal at Adobe Mountain School Arizona’s incarcerated juveniles are having sex with staff members at one of the highest rates in the country, according to a survey published by the U.S. Department of Justice. In a survey of thousands of kids held in juvie halls across…
A lawyer in Ohio pleaded guilty yesterday to money laundering charges stemming from money he received from the leader of a drug ring based in Phoenix. Authorities say 40-year-old Kyle Hunter received more than $100,000 from convicted drug king-pin Leonard Barnhouse. Payment for services rendered, right? Wrong — Barnhouse paid…
