Last week, Valley Fever posted a story about California animal shelters being overrun with chihuahuas and how shelter officials were pawning off the little pooches to shelters in Arizona.Thanks for nothing, California, because now the chihuahua infestation seems to have found its way into Maricopa County…
The federal racketeering lawsuit filed last week by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio has “fatal defects” and should be dismissed, argue high-profile lawyers named in the suit. The evidence-light racketeering lawsuit claims the Board of Supervisors, top judges and two local lawyers conspired to obstruct justice and hinder a criminal investigation…
The CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa on Wednesday denied some media reports that the agency’s lending division, Prestamos, is a “lender of last resort.” Prestamos is at the center of the criminal indictment of Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox. She’s been accused of failing to disclose at least $177,500…
Phoenix police are looking for three people they say robbed a 16-year-old kid on December 10.The unidentified teen was waiting at the bus stop on 7th Street and McDowell when two men walked up to him, held him at knifepoint, and demanded he hand over a silver necklace he was…
Officials at the Arizona Game and Fish Department say a Yavapai County man was attacked by a rabid bobcat on Monday. Rather than panic, he strangled it with his bare hands.The man’s name is not being released because of privacy laws, but AGFD officials say the attack happened in the…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is giving Colin Campbell, Mary Rose Wilcox’s attorney, until 5 p.m. today to voluntarily talk to a deputy about issues related to a supposed criminal conspiracy among county leaders. Campbell, former presiding judge of the Superior Court, received a letter from the Sheriff’s Office yesterday,…
Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox is a political victim and innocent of the crimes alleged in last week’s indictment, her lawyer said today in a news conference. He’s at least half right. Wilcox, the five-member Board of Supervisors’ only Democrat, has been a vocal opponent of actions by County Attorney Andrew Thomas and…
Carey Pena broadcasts plenty of news about criminals in her role as investigative reporter for Channel 3 (KTVK-TV), but one thief has been operating right under her nose, according to Pena’s Twitter feed. Pena, whom we chatted with last year after she crossed swords with Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas,…
If the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety hasn’t made itself abundantly clear that it won’t be tolerating drunk drivers this holiday season, the shear number of drunk drivers it has nailed as part of the Holiday DUI Task Force should probably clear up any misunderstandings. Since the task force began…
[jump] “What the State Bar ultimately chooses to do, if anything, is almost certainly out of our hands. That is as it should be. In fact, I think almost all of us would agree that the process and rules to which the county attorney and all of us are subject…
Jim Belanger, a Phoenix lawyer who specializes in working white-collar crime cases with the firm of Coppersmith, Schermer and Brockelman, sent the following E-mail to many of his brethren. The subject line reads: Do you believe in Andy Thomas? “On December 21, 1946, the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction of…
Deputies seized general computer equipment at Chicanos Por La Causa’s Phoenix headquarters, in addition to paperwork related to an indicted County Supervisor, records show. Search warrant returns reviewed by New Times back up claims by the social service agency’s representatives of a fishing expedition by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office…
Deputies with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office paid visits to at least seven rank-and-file county employees over the weekend, attempting to question them about the court tower project, county spending, and other topics apparently somehow connected to the sheriff’s wide-ranging “corruption” probe. That investigation has already resulted in indictments for two county…
The squabble between Maricopa County officials took yet another turn today as deputies raided the offices of a local computer firm, looking for evidence of fraud and other crimes. For close followers of the circus acts that pass for county news these days, you’ll need another branch for the flow…
In the past, criminal street gangs have used names that strike fear in the hearts of their rivals. The Bloods, the Crips, the Jets, the Sharks — all have an intimidating connotation.As for Scottsdale’s latest group of thugs — busted today as part of the Department of Public Safety’s “Operation…
Our acquaintance is anything but a squishy liberal, having served for a few decades as a prosecutor of major felonies for one of Arizona’s 15 counties (we’ll leave it at that for reasons that soon will become apparent). He let us know that he read the direct complaint and…
Deputies are taking boxes of files from the Chicanos Por La Causa buildings at 11th Street and Buckeye Road as the group’s supporters prepare for a possible anti-Sheriff-Joe-Arpaio demonstration. (See update below — a demonstration is now looking less likely). A regional conference of Chicanos Por La Causa officials is…
Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office deputies are serving a search warrant this morning at the Chicanos Por la Causa, Inc., 1122 East Buckeye Road. We’re not sure, but it seems safe to assume it might have something to do with the criminal charges filed this week against Mary Rose Wilcox, one of…
Arizona’s got a brand new pair of “bandits” that the FBI believes are linked to at least six bank robberies since October.The FBI is calling the bank-robbing duo the “High Country Bandits” because the majority of their robberies have occurred in places like Payson and Prescott…
The presiding judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court has assigned the criminal cases against Judge Gary Donahoe and County Supervisors Don Stapley and Mary Rose Wilcox to judges in other counties. Presiding Judge Barbara Mundell, (left) who is herself a target of the broad — and vague — racketeering…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas this afternoon struggled to explain his decision to charge the county’s presiding criminal court judge, Gary Donahoe, with three felony counts –bribery, obstructing a criminal investigation, and hindering prosecution.But Thomas couldn’t offer any evidence to the assembled media scrum that Donahoe actually had accepted a…
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office announced this morning that a criminal complaint has been filed against the Superior Court’s criminal division chief, Judge Gary Donahoe (at left). Michael Scerbo, spokesman for County Attorney Andrew Thomas, stated in a news release that Donahoe is being accused of hindering prosecution and…
