In trying to escape a $315,000 fine at an appeal hearing today, Captain Joel Fox (pictured) denied just about everything related to the political donation he made on behalf of the mysterious "SCA."
Fox even denied that "SCA" stands for "Sheriff's Command Association," even though the abbreviation had been spelled out that way numerous times in recent months by local media outlets, including this blog.
This is the first time Fox has mentioned the SCA might stand for something else, though he's used the acronym in his own writings. It seems rather suspicious he's just now bringing this up, when he's had so many chances to correct the record.
As the Capitol Times reported today,
Fox also disputed earlier reports that SCA stood for "Sheriff's Command Association," as a Republican Party official told Arizona Capitol Times in October.
"I don't know how they got that," he said. "It was just a random name."
As it happens, though, New Times has a pretty good idea where the name came from.
First, a bit of background:
In October of 2006, Fox and the director of the sheriff's office, Larry Black, created two political committees -- Arizona Association High Ground and Arizona Association High Ground Issues. Black was the chairman and Fox was the treasurer of both entities, which were registered with the county elections department. As noted in yesterday's post, both committees used the same P.O. Box as the one listed for the SCA, (that's according to a March 24 filing by the county's hired attorney, Jeffrey Messing).
On July 30, 2008, Black and Fox filed "termination statements" that legally killed the two committees. Then, on August 21, Fox sent a check for $80,000 to the Republican Party drawn from the SCA account. He'd later send another $25,000 from the account, but the party returned the total of $105,000 when Fox refused to identify the individuals donors behind the SCA.
Here's what we find verrrry interesting:
A month before creating the two political committees in 2006, Black registered two domain names on the Internet, which he still owns. (Neither link to active Web sites).
One is called www.mcsocommand.com.
The other is www.sheriffcommand.com.
Just a coinkydink? You decide.
UPDATE: As TommyC1 mentions in the comments section, it does appear that the first time Fox implied SCA doesn't stand for "Sheriff's Command Association" was in Fox's own comment below. Amusingly, he also says it's "as good a name as any," due to his being a command officer in the sheriff's office who associates with people. As New Times research shows, "SheriffCommand" was as good a name as any for Director Larry Black, too.
