A Peoria high school teacher and his wife are the latest in a long line of Metro-Phoenix educators accused in sex scandals involving students. Brian Woolsey, a 45-year-old Sunrise Mountain High School teacher, has been arrested and charged with 13 counts of sexual conduct with a minor and two counts…
Phoenix police raided the home of a man suspected of raising roosters for cockfighting, finding about 45 birds and other evidence of the banned blood sport. Carlos German Vasquez-Morales, 30, was booked into jail on suspicion of 45 felony counts, then released with a pending court date. The investigation began…
Following a new report released by the Phoenix Police Department about officer involved shootings, tensions in the community about law enforcement’s use of force tactics are once again running high. The report – which was a joint-effort by the PPD and ASU – found that officers lack the proper training…
Roger Scott watched the press conference in a windowless 8-by-12 cell in the maximum-security wing of Arizona State Prison-Eyman on a clear, plastic television specially designed to prevent inmates from hiding contraband amid its internal wires. Frail at 67, with hollow cheeks and a perpetually trembling right arm, he sat…
A Phoenix man held in connection with the attack on the “Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” in Garland, Texas, claims that he’s been denied proper medical care in the Maricopa County Jail and demands immediate access to a doctor. Prosecutors accuse Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem, a 44-year-old carpet cleaner, of…
Crystal Jane McElroy is a 30-year-old Arizona woman who is apparently unqualified for a criminal career, iif her recent antics outside the restaurant where she worked are any indication. Apparently unaware of a police vehicle that coincidentally was parked a few yards away, McElroy called 911 from the parking lot…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced today that it is formally charging Leslie Allen Merritt jr. with 16 counts of criminal activity in association with a series of shootings primarily on Interstate 10 in Phoenix during the last few weeks. His charges include four counts of drive-by shooting, five counts…
The Phoenix Police Department received more than $600,000 in federal grant money this week to double the number body cameras on officers — there are currently about 150 cops wearing cameras in the Maryvale precinct, and with the new money, 150 more cameras will be distributed throughout the city, bringing…
The Arizona Department of Public Safety announced this evening that it had arrested 21 year-old Leslie Allen Merritt, Jr., alleging he was the man responsible for at least some of the recent shootings of vehicles along the I-10 in Phoenix. Speaking at a press conference this evening, flanked by U.S. Marshal…
The Phoenix Police Department’s Use of Force Board has decided that the officer who fatally shot Michelle Cusseaux outside of her apartment last summer, Sergeant Percy Dupra, was in violation of department policy. The findings of the board, which is comprised of three citizens and three officers, runs contrary to…
Arizona Department of Corrections Director Charles Ryan could give Rob Zombie and M. Night Shyamalan a run for their money when it comes to the production of sheer horror. Save for the fact that what Zombie and Shyamalan create is mere fiction that’s finished after a couple of hours in…
Though online detractors claim they are more of a “Dolt Force,” the vigilante group calling itself “Bolt Force” is scoring international publicity from the freeway shootings in Phoenix that the Arizona Department of Public Safety is investigating. In fact, when the group’s leader, Tony “Bolt” Rowley, is not getting stopped…
After years of struggling with her gender identity, 35-year-old Kandis Capri, a transgender Phoenix woman, was finally getting her life together. She had resumed attending church and was enrolled in classes at South Mountain Community College, intent on studying theology. And for the first time in years, Capri was living…
Well, this is getting frightening, huh? The Department of Public Safety just confirmed that 11 vehicles have been hit by what looks what is now being called “the I-10 Shooter.” Beginning on August 29, vehicles on Interstate 10 seem to have become de facto target practice for an unknown individual…
Will hiring 425 new Phoenix police officers come at the expense of greater accountability and better civilian-officer relations? Or will more officers mean less violent crime and a safer city? Amid a national conversation about law enforcement’s use of force policies and frightening statistics about the Phoenix Police Department’s record…
Good job, Arizona? Over Labor Day weekend, 1097 law enforcement agents around the state pulled over 14,212 drivers and arrested 450 of them on DUI charges – that’s 100 fewer arrests than last year despite 1,200 more people getting pulled over. The cops caught about the same number of drunk…
Self-help guru and ex-con James Arthur Ray is trying not to let the 2009 deaths of three people at his Arizona sweat lodge extinguish his once-promising motivational-speaking career. On Friday, Ray is scheduled to return to Phoenix for a “one night only,” question-and-answer session called: “A Night of Solutions.” “James will…
It’s puzzling that in the age of Uber and Lyft, hundreds of Valley residents are expected to get pulled over this Labor Day weekend and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. But it always happens during long holiday weekends, despite the many warnings in the media. Last year, law enforcement…
Phoenix motorists taking the I-10 over the long Labor Day weekend will have more to worry about than just holiday traffic. They face the unnerving prospect that a windshield, a side door or the gas tank of their vehicle could be pierced by a random bullet, fired by an unknown…
A Phoenix man held in connection with the May 3 attack in Garland, Texas, wants a new lawyer and claims in a handwritten letter to the court that the FBI took two DNA samples from him without permission. The document was released publicly on September 1 and obtained by New…
On a March night 37 years ago, a young Glendale woman was gruesomely shot to death in her car on a secluded street after an evening of shopping at nearby mall. Her slumped over body and 1976 Toyota Celica were discovered around 8:30 p.m. by a local jogger on the…
A sadistic pimp who ran a bizarre, cult-like harem of prostitutes modeled on a film of the French novel The Story of O faces a lifetime in prison after being convicted July 17 on 105 felony counts, involving sex with minors, pandering and child prostitution. Prosecutors say 60-year old Anthony…
