New Times Asking Court to Unseal Search Warrant Documents in SCA Case

What did investigators find after executing a search warrant at the Gilbert home of Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Captain Joel Fox? Call it the $315,000 question. Fox has been leading the public on a merry mystery tour for nearly a year, trickling out information about the SCA only under pressure...

By Ray Stern

August 31, 2009

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What did investigators find after executing a search warrant at the Gilbert home of Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Captain Joel Fox?

Call it the $315,000 question.

Fox has been leading the public on a merry mystery tour for nearly a year, trickling out information about the SCA only under pressure. Threat of a massive fine forced the initial disclosures of the names of donors and copies of checks. A subpoena by county authorities squeezed out another corporate donor's name. Now, it's time to see where the Arizona Attorney General's Office may be going with this case.

If we can, that is. The raid on Fox's home was in March, but the documents that explain how state investigators justified the search and what they were looking for have been sealed. A hearing in the case is set for today in Pinal County Superior Court, and New Times is taking legal action to see if we can get this paperwork out in the sunshine.

Fox and other may believe it's preferable to drag this story out over as many months as possible. But really, there's no time like the present to find out what the state has -- if anything -- on the SCA.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.