A drug-addled transient who shot and killed two former buddies in their office back in 2004 will serve the rest of his life in prison. Howard Colin Fisk, 38, received two sentences of life in prison today, court officials said. The former Scottsdale resident pleaded guilty to the double murder last…
A Metro light-rail train crashed into a passenger van earlier this afternoon in Central Phoenix, resulting in a spectacular wreck but just a few minor injuries. The collision occurred just after 4 p.m. near Washington and 19th streets, when a westbound train and a late-model white Chevrolet Express came together, causing the vehicle…
Patrick Chorpenning, the former director of the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, pleaded not guilty today to charges of fraud and misuse of public funds. The state Attorney General’s office is prosecuting Chorpenning after a two-year investigation turned up a mountain of evidence that he had abused his position. An…
wwwuthpastor.com Google has made it possible for the average person to see their house from space, get a 360-degree view of almost any street in the country, and now the company is taking on swine-flu. The Arizona Department of Health Services announced today that it is partnering with Google…
It was mass confusion at the Maricopa County Courthouse today. About 20 county Sheriff’s Office deputies and detention officers called in sick, a possibly orchestrated “action” that wreaked havoc with courtroom schedules and the transportation of inmates from the county jail for hearings and other matters. The sick-out, if that’s truly…
Back in September, shortly after MCSO’s South Phoenix anti-immigrant sweep, I blogged about a 2006 letter signed by Sheriff Joe to the head of Phoenix Copwatch acknowledging the constitutional right of citizens to videotape his deputies in public.Galindo’s first video of his run in with the MCSO at Gran MercadoDespite…
Department of Public Safety officers, in collaboration with several other law enforcement agencies, carried out one of the final stages of “Operation Quiet Riot” last night, arresting seven members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club for a series of violent assaults in Northern Arizona bars. “Quiet Riot” was a six-month investigation…
A Securities and Exchange Commission supervisor handled the finances for a Scottsdale-based flim-flam artist’s Ponzi scheme, than received a $25,000 retirement buyout package. Investigators with the Arizona Corporation Commission notified the SEC late last year about its naughty employee after finding e-mails from the official to one of the scheme’s victims. The allegation can…
government has managed to blow through a $700 million loan from the Bank of America in less than a week, and that wasn’t even enough to keep things going. According to Treasurer Dean Martin, his office had to dip into internal sources to come up with the extra $73 million the state needed…
Yesterday, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s officer accused of brazenly swiping — and photocopying — a defense lawyer’s paperwork reportedly checked himself into jail, as ordered by Judge Gary Donahoe.Detention Officer Adam Stoddard had refused to apologize for his actions, which ignited a firestorm from defense attorneys across the country. That…
A brand-new cell phone app., developed by a professor at U.C. San Diego, is supposed to help guide illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border similar to how a GPS system works in a car. UCSD visual arts Professor Ricardo Dominguez created the app., which he is calling the Transborder Immigrant Tool, to give…
Florida Governor Charlie Crist met with Chicago Cubs president Crane Kenney, chairman Tom Ricketts, and other team officials to try to lure the team away from their spring training home in Mesa and have them set up shop in Naples, Florida. “We like palm trees better than cactus, and hope that…
It is a widely agreed-upon theory that sex offenders are almost required to have a mustache. While Joseph Edward Roberts has not been convicted of anything yet, if the theory holds true, that scraggly stache certainly won’t help his upcoming case…
A red-hot Suns team that’s rolled over most every team in its path played one of the NBA’s biggest go-nowhere squads . . . and lost. At 14-3 heading into Tuesday night’s game against the New York Knicks, it sure seemed like a gimme. But a sloppy first quarter full of…
Police say a 17-year-old Mesa boy will be charged with second-degree murder for fatally stabbing one of his friends last week. Frank Raymond Aguilar, according to police, stabbed 17-year-old Alexander Niazi after he caught the teen kissing his sister…A 3-year-old girl was killed when the lid to a toy box…
In the 24-hour news cycle it can be difficult to keep up. We have the solution. Check back on Valley Fever every evening for highlights from each of New Times’ blogs. Today’s entries: Feathered Bastard: Joe Arpaio’s Meet the Press Moment Interrupted to the Tune of Bohemian Rhapsody Joe Arpaio…
The first reason why the racketeering lawsuit filed today against county leaders is probably going nowhere: It’s being handled by Lisa Aubuchon, the deputy county attorney who has consistently blown politically sensitive cases for Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Under Aubuchon’s leadership, Thomas lost the criminal cases against: Dan Pochoda,…
A day after scurrying off stage at the Cronkite School and ordering one of his deputies to defy a court order, Sheriff Arpaio took some time out of his busy schedule this morning to do some of the, um, really important stuff — like promoting a 109-year-old member of his…
The detention officer who swiped papers from a defense attorney’s file during an October sentencing hearing will report to jail today, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said. “My officer will surrender,” Arpaio said during a news conference, adding that he wouldn’t say exactly where officer Adam Stoddard will be, because of security…
An indictment was unsealed today in Kansas City, Kansas, that named 20 people involved in a marijuana-distribution ring that has netted more than $22 million over several years, and like many pot-peddling rackets before it, this one originated in Phoenix. The indictment is the result of an 18-month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Agency, the…
The Mexican government is keeping immigrants safer than it used to on its side of the border, a top official says. Cecilia Romero Castillo, commissioner of Mexico’s National Institute of Migration, told the Los Angeles Times recently that “new controls” begun by the government have reduced the number of extortion attempts…
Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas ramped up the fight against county leaders on Tuesday, announcing a federal racketeering lawsuit against “leading” judges, the Board of Supervisors, and a private law firm. Thomas’ office just put out a news release about the lawsuit, saying he’ll give more details at a 2…
