Thirteen months ago–on June 13, 1996–Governor J. Fife Symington III summoned the media to the State Capitol to respond to the announcement that a federal grand jury had accused him of committing 23 felonies. Symington told the packed conference room that he wouldn’t attempt to detail the evidence that he…
For Crying Out Dowd It’s eminently fitting that John Dowd is Governor J. Fife Symington III’s lawyer. They are much alike. Both are wealthy, privileged and powerful enough to believe they are above the rules of law and civility the rest of us live by. Dowd has taken his efforts…
I knock on the door, let myself in. Melody Baker can’t hobble from the living-room couch to the front door unless she takes the morphine prescribed by her doctor. And today, she is trying to forgo the morphine. She wants to explain to me, in the most clear-headed way possible,…
Mother’s Day in Court Wow! The intricacies of spin never cease to amaze me, no matter from which side, as John Dougherty’s “Sugar Mommy” article (July 10) regarding the governor’s trial so brilliantly illustrates. My main comment: Do not speak for the governor’s dead mother. As a mom, I can…
Imagine it, the worst possible scenario: You’re having a heart attack, your breath stopping, the life trying to escape from your body. Or you’re a broken mess on the highway, wreckage jammed around you, blood choking you. It can’t get worse. And then it does. The ambulance takes a long…
Damon Dreckmeier’s blood was coming out both ends of him, and it had been coming out for hours. Vomited blood ran out of his mouth, down his chin and over his neck; it stained the seat of his pants. A nauseating, numbing feeling began in his stomach and gradually spread…
The U S West Direct Yellow Pages dated March 1997-98 advertises the “low fees–expert service” of attorney Robert L. Devers. “Services limited to bankruptcy. Seventeen years experience. Over 5,000 cases handled,” the small ad says. A few pages later, there’s a quarter-page ad for attorney Anthony W. Clark, whose “Arizona…
A young man struggles along an empty stretch of desert road. Behind him rise the craggy fortresses and spires of Monument Valley–the Monument Valley of John Ford’s Stagecoach and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, of Easy Rider and Thelma & Louise and Forrest Gump. It’s such…
It’s the morning of July 3 at the Peoria residence of Gabriel Murrietta and Ramona Flores Seja. They are explaining what it’s like to lose their dream home to foreclosure. “We really expected to see that tree grow up and give us shade,” says Flores, pointing to a small tree…
A mistake in the renovation of Grady Gammage Auditorium at Arizona State University has cost taxpayers up to $63,889 and set construction back three weeks. ASU scrambled to fix the error before it upset this year’s schedule of performances. According to the project manager, the equipment designers and the architect,…
Unbowed by Dowd John Dowd is a softy, a cupcake, a paunchy punkin with a heart of ambergris. A teddy bear. We knew it all the time. But after a rough morning of defending Governor J. Fife Symington III on July 10, Dowd cuffed New Times reporter John Dougherty and…
For 10 weeks, federal prosecutors have presented evidence showing Governor J. Fife Symington III repeatedly overstated his assets and understated his liabilities when preparing personal financial statements between 1986 and 1990. The government alleges Symington prepared the false statements to influence lenders to grant loans to his real estate development…
At least 19 jail inmates have died on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s watch. Others have been maimed. A man who is paralyzed below the waist was strapped into a medieval restraint chair so roughly that jailers broke his neck. New Times has detailed many cases of abuse and neglect in Maricopa…
Really Down on the Farm I am a 1997 graduate of Alhambra High School, which is located in the Phoenix Union High School District, and I would like to offer my view of a magnet school (“Hayden High School Had a Farm, e-i-e-i-o,” Michael Kiefer, June 26). Alhambra’s magnet program…
Round three, and Tyson bites off a chunk of the guy’s ear. Nobody can say for sure why he does it. In boxing, nobody can be sure of anything other than the concussive impact of punches. The referee deducts two points from Tyson, but lets the fight go on. Holyfield…
Pete Rubi knew how to take care of himself in the rough world of Arizona politics. As a justice of the peace in Pima County, he weathered hard campaigns, censure by the Arizona Supreme Court and the criticism of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. But Pete Rubi suffered a massive heart…
Johnny Valenzuela had expected to be on the phone soliciting donations to help 16-year-old Abel Solis, an aspiring artist, stay in school. Instead, he was raising money to bury him. Abel had been one of the underprivileged but promising youths that Valenzuela and his organization, the Monroe Alumni Youth Association,…
An Icelandic court has found that two American fugitives should not be extradited to Maricopa County because of the condition of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails. In May, New Times reported that Connie and Donald Hanes faced extradition from Iceland on charges that they illegally took Connie’s granddaughter, Zenith, away from…
Thomas Washburne has spent the past decade dealing with Governor J. Fife Symington III’s insatiable appetite for spending other people’s money. No wonder Washburne suffers from high blood pressure. He has been the Symington family lawyer for 20 years. Most of that time, he helped manage Martha Symington’s fortune from…
Republic Menace Stuff about the evil Arizona Republic: * In an editorial Tuesday, Arizona’s largest daily lamented that too many of us are enthralled by the 50th anniversary of the Roswell Incident, and too few are paying attention to the Pathfinder’s exploration of Mars. “A sensation-addled public, flitting from one…
Through May and June, as the late-spring melt flooded into Lake Powell, scientists, environmentalists and river runners all wondered aloud if the water level would reach the top of the Glen Canyon Dam spillway gates, which serve about the same purpose as the overflow drain on a bathroom sink. Everyone…
Aloft Cause Before Tony Ortega pats himself on the back for solving the mystery of the aerial lights seen March 13 (“The Great UFO Cover-up,” June 26), I have a question. Referring to comments by Sky Harbor International Airport air traffic controller Bill Grava, Ortega writes: “He [Grava] confirms that…
