Cigarettes aint cheap, and Valley Circle K convenience stores learned that the hard way when a man took nearly $80,000 worth of cancer sticks during 31 robberies over the last several months.Smokers can inhale easy, though, because Tempe police caught the man they believe to be the cig bandit, and he is now…
Yesterday, Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo kicked Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas off the prosecution of Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox — saying Thomas had a series of conflicts of interest and dismissing the entire indictment against Wilcox for good measure.Which led us to wonder: Since Judge Leonardo believed…
A Kingman woman was arrested Tuesday after police received reports of a foul smell coming from one of her homes.That foul smell was a bunch of dead animals.Police began investigating 43-year-old Deanne Lynn Ray-Rike on February 10, when the smell was first reported.The smell was coming from a house where…
As expected, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors told County Attorney Andrew Thomas that he can stuff that request for a special meeting to talk about special prosecutors. Thomas “misinterpreted” today’s ruling by Pima County Judge John Leonardo’s ruling and is therefore applying it inappropriately, states Wade Swanson, the county’s general litigation services director, in a…
Maricopa County Andrew Thomas, following up today on a damning court ruling against him, moved to dismiss both the criminal complaint against Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe and the second indictment of County Supervisor Don Stapley. Thomas isn’t throwing in the towel, though. He’s launching an appeal of today’s…
Don’t believe the spin.And don’t believe everything you read. (Ahem, E.J. Montini loyalists.)In his ruling today, Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo did not just smack down Maricopa County Andrew Thomas and his ambitions of prosecuting the case against Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox.He smacked him down, he smoked him,…
A judge has tossed Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas off his criminal case against County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, more than agreeing with arguments presented by Wilcox’s attorney. Pima County Judge John Leonardo also dismissed the indictment against Wilcox, leaving the possibility open for a special prosecutor to bring charges in the future…
According to Phoenix police, these guys really suck. Using a van equipped with removable floorboards and a 450-gallon tank, the suspects cruised around town and siphoned up rivers of gasoline from underground fuel tanks. We have to give them an A for effort. For the plan’s execution, though, the crime-class…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio is holding a press conference today in which he will seek a home for a pit bull named Queenie, which has been living in the Sheriff’s Department’s MASH Unit for about seven years.Whenever we hear about America’s self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff”s” soft spot for any animal that can’t…
Police in Austin, Texas arrested a man earlier this month wanted by the Phoenix Police Department for the January rape and assault of a woman at a Phoenix truck stop.On February 11, Austin police arrested 40-year-old Darryl Clark after he was identified by Phoenix police as a suspect in the…
In a press release issued last week, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office expressed “disappointment” with the fact that witnesses friendly to the sheriff, including Chief Deputy David Hendershott, hadn’t been called to testify at a Tuesday hearing.But if they were trying to blame the judge or defense attorneys, the Sheriff’s…
The parents of the 14-year-old girl, who escaped from a bathroom where she had been held captive for nearly two months, pleaded not guilty this morning to child abuse and kidnapping charges in Maricopa County Superior Court.Scott and Andrea Bass, according to prosecutors, held their daughter captive in the bathroom as punishment…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced today that a criminal complaint has been filed against the uncle of a 5-year-old girl whose body was found decomposing in a Phoenix apartment last week.The complaint has been filed against 47-year-old Leonard Orta Jr, alleging first degree murder, child abuse, and abandonment or…
It’s official: Giant George, a great dane living in Tucson, is the tallest dog in the world.The Guinness Book of World Records announced today that George is, in fact, the tallest pooch on the planet, an honor his owner had been seeking since August.We wrote about George earlier this month,…
A Phoenix woman was found beaten to death Friday morning in the apartment where she was living in Panama City, Panama.Denise Hiller, a wife and mother, was a computer-software expert working in Panama for a Colorado company that was working on a project expanding the Panama Canal.While working on the project…
The FBI’s bandit-naming department is at it again, and the latest bandit name is even dumber than yesterday’s “no tricks bandit,” who was shot last night by the Dirty Harry of the Scottsdale Police Department, as pointed out in another Valley Fever post. Check it out here.The FBI is now…
Most cops never shoot anyone, and even fewer will kill more than one crime suspect in their careers. Scottsdale Officer James Peters is different: He’s killed five four people in his 10-year career. On Wednesday, he was among several officers who shot and critically wounded another crime suspect. As a Channel 5…
Earlier this week, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk took the stand to testify about her dealings with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The testimony was ostensibly about the criminal case against County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox — Wilcox’s lawyer, Colin Campbell, had asked Polk to testify…
We figured it was only a matter of time before the FBI came up with a new, lame moniker for the man responsible for robbing four Valley banks in the last week and attempting to rob another on Tuesday. We figured right.The FBI’s bandit-naming department didn’t disappoint, either. The federal…
Just in case you were worried that Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas aren’t wasting enough money on their jihad against other county officials, we’ve got news for you.Arpaio has now hired his own lawyer to represent his interests in Thomas’ piece-of-crap racketeering lawsuit. Start running the…
Police in Maricopa are looking for a man who has been trying to lure children into his van by telling them there’s candy inside.Seriously? The old, stereotypical “candy-in-the-van” trick was the best idea this creep could come up with?Police say the man has been cruising around the Villages at Rancho…
Geo Trackers are too damned small.A Tracker Vs. pickup collision figured into an article published in New Times last September, with the Tracker occupants coming out much worse.Now, in a similar — but even more tragic — vehicular mismatch, a suspected drunk driver in a 1980 full-size Chevy pickup crossed…
