Those familiar with the history of the Vietnam War may recall that infamous line reputedly uttered by a U.S. Army major about the bombed-out South Vietnamese city of Ben Tre, to the effect that American forces had to “destroy the town in order to save it.” Same could be said…
Dannie Kramer says she still doesn’t know why her son Anthony Singleton died in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s notorious Fourth Avenue Jail. Singleton, 27, was picked up by Phoenix police at his mother’s home on October 21 on a bench warrant, after his failure to appear for a court date related…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s favorite deputy, Brian Mackiewicz, has returned to work, dogged by allegations of spiking his overtime and, according to sources, sleeping with a crime victim during an MCSO investigation. Formerly assigned to Arpaio’s threats management unit, the detective was on paid administrative leave for several months last year…
About four months too late, Dotty the wild Salt River horse, left to rot headless on a sandy bank by Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s crack team of animal investigators, will finally be buried this weekend by a group of spade-wielding volunteers. Simone Netherlands, president of the non-profit Salt River Wild Horse…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s crack team of animal crimes investigators remain flummoxed over the shooting death of Dotty the wild Salt River horse, according a report recently released by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. Dotty was the 12 year-old mare found October 1, dead and floating in the Salt River near…
Four conservation groups are joining forces to sue the U.S. Forest Service over a policy that allows hunters in the Kaibab National Forest to drive motorized vehicles cross-country to retrieve felled elk and bison. In the lawsuit, the activist groups, including the Sierra Club, the Wild Earth Guardians, the Wildland…
For more than two decades, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s top flack Lisa Allen has shamelessly promoted her boss to clamoring packs of amoral bottomfeeders masquerading as journalists. Now Allen is calling it quits and shuffling off to Boise, Idaho to be with her new hubby, an ex-MCSO detention officer, who has…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has confirmed through his top flack Lisa Allen that the sheriff’s wife of 58 years, Ava, is sick. He did not identify her illness, but sources say it is serious. Nor did he deny persistent rumors that she is suffering from some form of cancer. “Sheriff Arpaio…
Shamelessness will get you far in life. Just ask Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his campaign money-man Chad Willems, who also is pimping the statewide legalize-pot initiative in this cycle. On Wednesday, Arpaio filed his first campaign finance report with Maricopa County Elections, showing him in possession of a $3.2 million…
The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office conducted an untimely and unfair probe of a fatal crash caused by Sean Pearce, a county hearing officer ruled, resulting in further leniency for the deputy. Pearce, son of recalled state Senator Russell Pearce, an Arpaio crony, avoided criminal charges in the 2013 crash with…
You could call it the end of an era. The woman who for the past 23 years has served as Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s top flack, spin guru Lisa Allen, is resigning from the MCSO effective February 2. In an e-mail exchange with New Times, Allen confirmed her resignation, saying she’s…
Bad news for Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s ex-executive chief Brian Sands, and more of the same for Joe. On Tuesday, federal Judge G. Murray Snow denied a motion by Sands for summary judgment in the ongoing civil contempt case against himself, Arpaio, Arpaio’s chief deputy Jerry Sheridan, and two other Arpaio…
Sean Pearce had his two-week suspension slashed to one week in a 2013 crash that killed a citizen while the Maricopa County deputy was speeding in an unmarked vehicle without lights or sirens. Pearce, son of recalled state Senator Russell Pearce, already has avoided criminal charges in the crash. He…
The leader of an armed anti-government group that has occupied a federal wildlife building in Oregon once lived in Phoenix and can boast connections to local Republican politicians, such as Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Following a rally in support of two Oregon ranchers on Saturday, Ammon Bundy, son of rebellious Nevada…
Ever one to exploit an opportunity for attention, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is celebrating the arrest of a man he says has been stalking him for weeks. According to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Ruben Pena, 43, was a frequent visitor to MCSO headquarters. He claimed to be “Jesus Christ” and…
California Governor Jerry Brown’s recent comment about Arizona’s gun laws being too loose not only constitutes an insult to each and every citizen of Arizona but is worthy of a public apology, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio declares. “I am offended, and every Arizonan should be as well,” Arpaio stated…
If former Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is the Democratic alternative to Sheriff Joe in 2016, I will vote for Arpaio. Laughable? Of course, I would never do that. But any vote for “Sheriff Phil” also would be ridiculous. Gordon for sheriff ain’t gonna happen. No way, no how, regardless…
Thomas Beatie — who rose to fame as the first legally transgender man to become pregnant—is officially divorced after a tumultuous years-long court battle. Beatie had filed for divorce from his wife, Nancy Gillespie, in 2012. But in 2013 lower court Judge Douglas Gerlach refused to grant the divorce, ruling that Arizona’s ban…
Convicted child-rapist Adrian Cruz is back in Phoenix, following a six-year vacation from his lifetime sentence behind bars, a vacation he owes to the negligence of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s boys and girls in beige. Cruz, who escaped from MCSO custody in 2009, was arrested in April by Mexican police, after…
How many people have died in our sheriff’s jails? Six months ago, on May 4, 2015, I asked a spokesman for Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for a cadaver count. It was not an idle question. Since he was elected sheriff in 1993, county taxpayers have shelled out more than…
A bag containing $7,000 in cash. A self-made billionaire code-named “Cabo.” A media-hog sheriff obsessed with a wack investigation of President Obama’s birth certificate. A supposed CIA database of illegally harvested data. And a Seattle-based computer guru, code-named “Oz.” These are a few of the speakers and subjects found in…
Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s lead attorney John Masterson had just begun to argue why the court should pay no heed to the MCSO’ so-called Seattle investigation, when federal Judge G. Murray Snow, standing rather than sitting for most Friday’s final arguments in the sheriff’s contempt trial, interrupted him. The jurist stated…
