Victor Riches, chief of staff to Republican Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin, had two vials of cocaine in his leased car when police pulled him over last year on suspicion of DUI. Bicycle riders take heed: Riches was seen speeding and driving in a bike lane near his north-central Phoenix home before…
A Chandler meth head accused of murdering his 3-week-old daughter has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.In addition to pleading guilty to murder, 27-year-old Brian Hopf pleaded guilty to child abuse for assaults that include poking the infant girl, Isabella, in the eyes.Hopf was initially charged with first-degree murder and was…
Registered sex offender John Szakin’s got a hobby: at least once a week for the past year, he’s gone to downtown Scottsdale early in the morning with the sole purpose of flashing women as they left bars.Early Sunday morning, about 1:30, Szakin was on the prowl near Fifth Avenue and…
Mesa police arrested a man they say is responsible for a fatal hit-and-run incident early Sunday morning, during which one of the victims’ legs was severed.The leg, however, was not found at the scene.Police suspected the leg might have become attached to the vehicle that hit the two 25-year-old victims,…
A Phoenix man who called 9-1-1 to report a fake bomb scare, then started shooting at responding officers before getting capped by the cops, has survived his gunshot wounds — and now he’s in some serious trouble.Phoenix’s Derek Eckles, 28, was released from the hospital Saturday and booked into the…
The United States Attorney’s Office announced today that a man who killed his unborn baby has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.Fernando Woody, 28, of Fort Defiance pleaded guilty to the crime in March…
There’s a new addition to Arizona State University’s growing list of campus creepsters.The ASU Police Department warns students who live on campus about a man who — while wearing shorts and a T-shirt — claimed he was a police officer and entered the dorm of a female student.He didn’t take…
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ office announced today that she plans to spend Father’s Day in Tucson, which will be her first trip back to Arizona since she went to Texas for rehab after getting shot in the face during the January 8 Tucson shooting.”We’ve been dreaming of this trip for some…
As we mentioned earlier this week, law enforcement agencies across the Valley are checking out the sleazy, Scottsdale-based porn website Backroom Casting Couch — and now it’s short its best “talent” recruiter.Antonio Adrian Gonzalez, 28, was arrested yesterday on kiddy-porn charges following a multi-jurisdictional investigation into his web-based “modeling” and…
Unless you are totally off the news grid (and probably wouldn’t be reading this), you, too, are hooked in some fashion on the Casey Anthony murder case down in Orlando. It’s probably the nation’s most high-profile criminal case perhaps since O.J. Simpson walked out of court a free man (only…
A “three or four second” boob grab could land a 20-year-old Surprise man in the slammer — which tends to be the breaks when the boob grabbed belongs to a 12-year-old.Patrick Michael McKnight, a Pizza Hut employee, was arrested on charges that he fondeled the breast of a 12-year-old family…
A morning of family drinking turned deadly yesterday when police say a Phoenix man got hammered, punched a woman in the face, and then fatally shot his own nephew.According to court documents obtained by New Times, Antonio Lawrence Bracamonte II, 26, was arrested early yesterday morning after police found his…
In preparation for his upcoming discipline hearing this fall, former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has submitted grand jury transcripts from his failed prosecutions of two County Supervisors. Because of secrecy rules about the doings of grand juries, the State Bar’s presiding disciplinary judge, William O’Neil, ordered the documents regarding Supervisors…
Frank Morris, 19, of Casa Grande, managed to escape a police pursuit early Tuesday morning. He would have gotten away scot free, but unfortunately for Morris, he didn’t manage to avoid hitting a pole once police called off the pursuit.About 4:30 Tuesday morning, a Pinal County sheriff’s deputy tried to pull…
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has left the Houston hospital where she’s been recovering for the last several months after getting shot in the face during the January 8, Tucson shooting rampage.She will be living in her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly’s, League City, Texas, home, about 26 miles from Houston.Giffords will continue…
A Phoenix man who claims he learned to kill while a member of the Cuban military was sentenced in Maricopa County Superior Court today to 22 years in prison for fatally snapping his girlfriend’s neck during an argument. Hermenegildo Cardenes Morffah pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder for the September 2010 killing…
A Nogales-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent was arrested yesterday for allegedly handing over sensitive government documents to family members with “strong” ties to drug cartels.According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jovana Samaniego Deas, 33, a special agent with the agency’s Homeland Security Investigations unit, illegally accessed, stole, and…
A Grand Jury indicted Mindy Shields, daughter of influential Phoenix lobbyist Billy Shields, for Class 2 felony theft. The charges against Mindy Shields stem from the embezzlement of more than $77,000 from Friends of Greg Stanton, a political campaign belonging to the former councilman and Phoenix mayoral candidate. Shields, a…
Gary Allen Bahns told Mesa police yesterday that he planned to sell the stolen van in which he was found sleeping and use the proceeds to buy crystal meth.You might be thinking “it’s 2011 — who would buy a minivan?” If you ask Bahns, the answer’s “a Mexican,” that’s who.Bahns…
When Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner was in court last month, there was confusion over what he said to the judge during an outburst that got him booted from the courtroom.Most of the media quoted him as saying “thank you for the freak show. She died in front of me.”Translating the…
A former pastor at a Tempe church — serving a 15-year prison sentence for molesting a 14-year-old member of his congregation — has pleaded guilty to molesting two other members of a congregation he led in Ohio.Joshua O’Bannion, 27, pleaded guilty in a Cuyahoga County, Ohio, court to four counts of…
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ staffers released the long-awaited first photo of the congresswoman since she was shot in the face during the January 8 Tucson shooting rampage…
