At a time when officials were leaving faculty positions vacant, firing secretaries and talking about raising tuition as much as $1,000 per student, top executives at Arizona State University were getting hefty raises. And President Michael Crow was getting ready to redecorate his office. Between September and October of last…
Jefferson Davis McGee was not the man who raped and killed 8-year-old Elizabeth Byrd. But on May 28, 2001, McGee was beaten to the brink of death by fellow maximum-security jail inmates who believed he had killed the girl. The inmates of Madison Street Jail believed McGee was what cons…
On a recent Wednesday evening, Paul Hewitson dressed up in a neatly pressed gray suit and a western-cut white shirt, and headed out to dinner at his favorite restaurant, Red Lobster. Many people take a meal of crab legs and coleslaw for granted, but until recently, such an event was…
One of Arizona’s most reviled killers apparently is going to have to wait much longer to get his wish — to die by lethal injection. On December 16, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals tabled its discussion of whether Robert Comer is mentally competent to become a so-called death…
Courting Trouble Ad nauseam: I have just finished reading Paul Rubin’s article titled “Courthouse Scoundrels” (December 19). Obviously, Mr. Rubin spent significant time doing research. Of particular interest to me was what you had to say about Gary Karpin. One can’t help but wonder how his victims even heard about…
The Greathouse family met Father Carl Carlozzi on the evening of April 24. It was the night their two toddler sons, Dylan and Steven, drowned in their unfenced swimming pool in Maryvale. Carlozzi, a gray-haired man with a calming demeanor and kind smile, gets called in to help survivors deal…
In June 1993, an attorney for the discipline unit of the Vermont State Bar sent a letter to her counterpart in Arizona. It alerted the local Bar that disbarred lawyer Gary Karpin was moving to Phoenix. “Suffice it to say,” the letter said, “out of excess of caution, I forward…
Governor-elect Janet Napolitano has been playing Santa these past few weeks, checking her list and giving jobs to the nicest of her friends. Even a few naughty ones made the cut. The Spike likes to savor each appointment like a Christmas bonbon, unwrapping it eagerly and examining the tasty morsel…
A lawyer for a man accused of plotting to kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio will use the entrapment defense to challenge what was one of the top county lawman’s grandest public busts. Defense attorney Ulises A. Ferragut Jr. will employ the defense next month in the long-awaited trial of James Brian…
Labor Pains Mexican-American War: Day labor centers might be short-term charitable fixes, but we also need some justice and context (“Herding People,” Susy Buchanan, December 12). John Dougherty’s 1998 “Bordering on Exploitation” provided context and a concern about injustice. Will the U.S. ever do with Mexico what northern Europe has…
Joe Fendler can’t believe what he’s hearing. Sitting before him is a group of people he claims are planning to encourage public defecation, urination, intoxication, intimidation, burglary and littering — not to mention illegal immigration — by rewarding a bunch of wetbacks. To make matters worse, they’re going to use…
Charity work isn’t supposed to be about fame and fortune — unless you’re Susan Heywood, czarina of the Scratch & Sniff Awards. Scratch & Sniff — the annual Academy Awards-esque dinner party held to raise money to help cats and dogs — is the pet project of Susan and her…
Six months ago, I received an impassioned e-mail from a woman in south Chandler. She was responding to a column I had written a week earlier about Bishop Thomas O’Brien’s long history of coddling and secretly transferring priests who had molested children. In the e-mail, the woman told the story…
Phoenix City Councilman Michael Johnson’s raucous nightclub on South Seventh Avenue quietly won an unusual reprieve last month from the state liquor board. An administrative law judge’s recommended one-year suspension of the club’s liquor license was overturned by a vote of the full board. A first-term councilman and retired Phoenix…
Hot Topic Fire alarm: I just finished reading your story on the Central Garden and Pet Supply fire (“Fire,” Robert Nelson, December 5). I just wanted to congratulate you on your investigation. Part of me feels like I should apologize for my own ignorance. I worked in that neighborhood and…
Nothin’ but a Hound DogThe Spike was only 4 when the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll died on his toilet. But that didn’t stop the elementary school music teachers from making the class sing his songs in the spring chorale. The teacher said Elvis Presley was the King, so The…
Two months ago, Mike Schatz thought his boss, Gary Carpaneto, was a pretty good guy. Carpaneto had generally been cordial for the three years Schatz was able to do the heavy work Carpaneto demanded of him. Carpaneto owns Bedrock Stone Company in Glendale, a landscaping company with 20 or so…
Under the surface of Mars lies an ancient, nuclear-powered city left by Martian citizens. At least, that’s what a group of space researchers think. And they’re trying to prove it by invoking a little-known remnant of President Clinton’s last days called the “Data Quality Act” that went into force in…
A Few Good Letters Ex communication: Job well done on your cover story (“Welcome Back, Warrior,” Paul Rubin, November 21). As a former Marine, I would like to take the opportunity to enlighten you on a couple things. Remember in the movie A Few Good Men, the line went something…
Eliza Ranger felt the poison before she smelled it. She was half-dozing while watching the evening news in her living room when her heart started racing and skipping beats. She figured she was having a heart attack. She looked to her kitchen and noticed black smoke seeping through her windowsills…
It’s Saturday night. The air reeks of transmission fluid, scorched steel and horse manure. A man jumps up and down on the roof of his car like a chimpanzee on a Samsonite. John Denver warbles “Sunshine on my shoulders . . . makes me hap-py” from tinny loudspeakers. Another man…
On a weekend trip to Walgreens, The Spike noticed scads of tinsel decorations littering the aisles, and candy overflowing corpulent wire bins adorned with an obese man in a red suit. Oh, goody, goody, gumdrop, it’s Christmas. The week before Thanksgiving, and it’s already here: Holiday-Palooza, the old Yuletide, baby…
