Watching the footage of Nogales Mayor Octavio Garcia-Von Borstel and his father Octavio Garcia Suarez dragged before a judge in shackles and prison stripes after their arrests on charges of bribery, theft, fraud and money laundering, raises a few interesting questions regarding Maricopa County’s crotchety top constable, Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The indictments of…
In my Monday blog concerning just who will pay for the cost of Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s administrative investigation into the Munnell memo alleging corruption in the command staff of the MCSO, I reported that Babeu’s flack Tim Gaffney had told me that both the MCSO and the Maricopa County…
I’m on deadline today, so I won’t have time to suss this out till later, but this CNN video of peace activist Liz Hourican being tackled by law enforcement is disturbing for a couple of reasons.The first is that, based on what’s in the video, there was no need for…
You guys call this a mosh? I’ve seen old ladies do betterSand Land continues to serve as the spot to be for neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and plain ol’ racist nativists to party down. Just check out the above video for the 2009 Oi Fest, held yearly in Tonopah, Arizona, and sponsored…
[jump] A photo of a younger Nelson Omar. The boy is now thirteen. Whether the coyote’s tale is true or not, Nelson is missing, and there is a decomposed body of a young boy at the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office that could be him. The coroner needs photos of the boy…
Who will pick up the tab for Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s investigation into the allegations made in MCSO Deputy Chief Frank Munnell’s memo? And should Maricopa County pay for any of it, particularly considering the PCSO’s past record concerning internal investigations, specifically the mysterious “wounding” of PCSO Deputy Louie…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio spent a large portion of last week touting how his jails received high marks after a federal “audit.””The information they got … they should turn this over to DOJ. They would say, ‘Boy, this is pretty good, you did all the work for us,'” Arpaio…
If you read today’s Arizona Republic or watched Fox News last night, you might be under the mistaken impression that Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s vast incarceration complex has undergone an audit from the U.S. Marshals Service and earned gold stars and smiley faces all around. Um, not exactly. Despite the hoo-ha Arpaio’s made over…
One misconception out there is that the inquiry into MCSO Deputy Chief Frank Munnell’s memo by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu could result in criminal charges being filed against those Sheriff Joe loyalists now suspended with pay: Chief Deputy David Hendershott, Director Larry Black, and Captain Joel Fox. Though Munnell alleges criminal activity…
Want more proof that Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a cross between Tricky Dick Nixon and Vincent “the Chin” Gigante? Take a gander at the Bobby Wetherell affidavit. Much of the local media continues, bass-like, to be impaled on the hook of Deputy Chief Frank Munnell’s loving memo to Sheriff Joe,…
According to records on file with the Maricopa County Superior Court, the investigators of the Phoenix Police Department’s elite Career Criminal Squad, with the assistance of the local Anti-Defamation League, have crushed the Arizona contingent of the Vinlanders Social Club, one of the most violent and feared racist skinhead organizations in America…
I stopped by DREAM Army headquarters last night to watch Michael Nazario put his wannabe-U.S. troops through the paces.See, Nazario and other members of the Arizona DREAM Act Coalition have been camped out since last week near U.S. Senator John McCain’s Phoenix office, at the corner of 16th Street and…
Gilman dogs Arpaio at a Joe show on the west sideHere’s the latest from the people’s videographer, Dennis Gilman: An account of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s September 16 appearance at a block watch meeting at Manzanita Elementary School on Phoenix’s west side.As you can see from the video, the neighborhood didn’t…
Many of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s ex-aides and critics agree on one thing: Despite Deputy Chief Frank Munnell’s recent memo portraying Arpaio as a hapless figurehead (a memo you can read, here) it’s the sheriff who rules the MCSO. As I discussed in a blog item earlier today, this narrative depicting Chief…
If the feds cannot find some indictments out of the mess that is Maricopa County, they should pack their Samsonites and head to Rio to sell real estate.The latest news in the wake of the release of Deputy Chief Frank Munnell’s memo outlining the many alleged misdeeds of Chief Deputy…
(Please see my update on this story, here.) Someone should consider putting Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s chief deputy, David Hendershott, on a suicide watch. The damning, 63-page memo from Deputy Chief Frank Munnell, first reported on by Joe Dana of Channel 12 News, reads like an indictment of Hendershott and his henchmen, MCSO Director Larry…
According to records provided to special counsel Jeffrey Messing by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s political guru Chad Willems of Summit Consulting Group, Arpaio’s re-election campaign committee spent more than $500,000 in media buys for TV ads and mailers that ultimately benefited Arpaio’s candidate for Maricopa County Attorney, Bill Montgomery. As I…
Looks like Sheriff Joe is ripping off an idea from none other than Arpaio supporter and committed neo-Nazi J.T. Ready. In a press release published today by the MCSO, Arpaio says he intends to commission a volunteer vigilante force to hunt illegal aliens. The release states, “The Sheriff will soon implement his plan…
Score one for the white hats. Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s re-election campaign was fined $153,978 Tuesday for financing a mailer advocating the defeat of his arch-nemesis, interim County Attorney Rick Romley. That mailer was to the benefit of Arpaio’s bought-and-paid-for toady Bill Montgomery, the guy who takes over from Romley in November. As you…
If you ask me, journalism needs more Chris Kings I think I’ve discovered the New England version of our own fightin’ Irishman and rogue videographer Dennis Gilman. Either that, or Gilman is the Sand Land version of Chris King, a lawyer/activist who apparently stays hot on the heels of New England…
What’s one to make of the recent back and forth between Maricopa County and sheriff’s office lawyers regarding allegations of spying by the MCSO?The claims came to light in a recent item by Arizona Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett for the Rep’s “Political Insider” blog. The post details a September 10…
I recently obtained paperwork related to the MCSO’s July 30 arrest of Phoenix civil rights leader Salvador Reza. The file is chock full of absurd, asinine attempts by the sheriff’s office to deflect criticism for this outrageous, thuggish collar. One involves Fox 10 News reporter Miriam Garcia. The MCSO report suggests that Garcia relayed crucial information…
