Jack Hegarty, the former No. 2 man at the Arizona Department of Public Safety until his demotion in October, has left the agency while still under internal investigation. His retirement was made effective today, DPS spokesman Bart Graves tells New Times, confirming a tip we received today about the former…
Larry Lee Thompson, a transient ex-con with a long history of domestic violence, felt that his 48-year-old girlfriend got a little lippy with him last night as the two were hanging out on the streets of Phoenix. So he stabbed her 16 times.It should be noted that last night was…
Despite a humiliating 2011 — complete with a Mexican drug cartel infiltrating his office, a scathing Department of Justice report claiming he’s guilty of the worst racial-profiling practices in U.S. history, and the fallout from the Munnell Memo — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will once again run for sheriff,…
A Tempe woman who left her 11-month-old son in a running bathtub last year was in Maricopa County Superior Court this morning where she was sentenced to six months in jail and 10 years probation.Additionally, Summer Dawn Angelly, 23, was given a deferred six-month sentence.Angelly pleaded guilty to one count…
Many moons ago, we did a piece (turned into a “series”) on a dirty big-time Mesa probate lawyer named Wayne Legg. Called “As Helpless As Children,” the 1993 story led to Mr. Legg’s grand-jury indictment and imprisonment for more than a decade after a jury convicted him of ripping off…
We finally got our hands on the arrest report for alleged kiddie-porn connoisseur John Landrum Jr. Aside from having hundreds of images and videos of “child erotica” stored on his computer, he was actually downloading more as the cops entered his home to arrest him.It also turns out that Landrum’s…
Valley radio legend Bill Heywood and his wife, Susan, were found dead yesterday afternoon at a Scottsdale hotel in what police suspect to be a double-suicide.About 1 p.m. yesterday, housekeeping staff at the Homewood Suites hotel — near the intersection of Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard — found the Heywoods’…
Time was, the annual trek to So-Cal by Arizona State and Arizona’s men’s basketball teams was something to fear. Actually, that would have been just a few years ago, when UCLA was oh-so-close to winning a national championship or two. But that (as the cliche goes) was then and this…
Is the fix in for former state House Minority Leader David Lujan’s becoming the replacement for ex-state Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who recently announced her bid for U.S. Congress?Or will his infamous no-show for the Senate Bill 1070 vote in 2010 deny him a return to the state Legislature, and can…
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio sent a letter to the Department of Justice yesterday saying he planned to cooperate with the federal government in fixing the alleged racial-profiling practices within the MCSO that the DOJ says are the worst in U.S. history.A defiant sheriff, however, also says he “will not…
Alvin Gentry and Steve Nash complained about it in their post-game remarks. As usual, the coach and the veteran point guard were on the same page. The Suns didn’t hustle as a team. Too many Suns played like old ladies. Vowing that the team will get better in this strike-plagued, young…
In my hometown of Playa Larga (Long Beach, California), natives refer to a major avenida in our villa, Junipero Avenue (named for Father Junipero Serra, accused native genocider, a candidate for sainthood — but I digress) as Juan-a-pear-o. There is no “Juan” in Junipero, but that’s how everyone in this…
Jose Benavides’ vision of the Madonna appeared at Mesa Arts Center last fall. For many people visiting MAC for the “Guitars & Handlebars” season opening exhibit, she was a revelation: a 17-foot-long motorized sculpture on wheels, draped in a shroud of 500 license plates from 50 U.S. states (plus Mexico…
I’m sitting in a restaurant in Peoria on Monday with the family of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, who was laid to rest today with full military honors. Next to me is his 29-year-old brother, Eric, a solid, muscular guy who works with his elder brother, Mike, in the family real estate…
On the same day Tucson residents commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Tucson shooting that left 6 people dead and 14 others wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Crossroads of the West will hold a gun show at the Pima County Fairgrounds.Crossroads of the West bills itself as one of the…
Governor Jan Brewer and her legal counsel will study today’s dismissal of her lawsuit against the medical marijuana law while keeping a ban on dispensaries, a spokesman says.Brewer, with the help of state Attorney General Tom Horne, filed the federal complaint back in May, claiming a letter by a former…
A Phoenix man was arrested this morning after police found in his home hundreds of videos and images of kiddie-porn that investigators are calling “some of the most egregious child porn” they’ve seen in a long time.John Landrum Jr., 52, was booked into a Maricopa County jail this morning on…
A federal judge today tossed Governor Jan Brewer’s lawsuit against the state’s Medical Marijuana Act, saying in her ruling that the state’s complaint wasn’t ripe.U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton dismissed the case without prejudice and invited the state to file an amended complaint to correct the flaws in their argument…
There’s good and bad news about the deadline the Department of Justice gave Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to decide whether he’d cooperate with the feds in fixing the problems outlined in the DOJ’s report on the MCSO’s racial-profiling practices (last month, the DOJ concluded that the MCSO is guilty of…
The arrest of men on suspicion of sexual misconduct with their own family members makes for a journalistic conundrum: Name the suspect, and you’ve all but identified the victim.Local media was presented with this challenge yesterday — twice. Court records show that two men — Jose Alfredo Rivera of Glendale…
Family, friends and those touched by the tragedy of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, the Army vet Tased and brutalized till brain dead in Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s jails, gathered at Peoria’s Heritage Funeral Chapel for his funeral service today.Atencio, who was 44 at the time he was removed from life support on…
Say what you will about the local TV news-hounds at KPHO, but the station is again leading the way in chupacabra-related journalism — for the third time in less than a year, KPHO is reporting a sighting of the mythical animal, which doesn’t actually exist.If you’re unfamiliar with the fictitious…
