Using the popular hashtags #SayHerName and #BlackLivesMatter, people across the country are expected to take to the streets this weekend and demand accountability for, and attention to, the all-to-frequent instances of police violence against black Americans. Rallies will be held in many cities all weekend as citizens demand a response…
A three-day riot at an Arizona private prison that sent 13 people to the hospital and led to the relocation of more than 1,000 inmates earlier this month was driven, in part, by poor living conditions, according to the prisoner rights organization Middle Ground Prison Reform. In a letter delivered…
A new report on child welfare in Arizona reveals some startling statistics that help explain why the state’s child welfare system is overwhelmed, and why an unprecedented number of children are in foster care or group homes. This report, technically a supplement to the independent audit conducted by the University…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. Jail gives you a lot of time to ponder…
The Arizona Supreme Court upheld a 2003 death-penalty decision for Homer Ray Roseberry, an Arizona resident convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Fred Fottler. (In October, 2000, Roseberry agreed to transport about 1000 pounds of marijuana in his motor home for a drug cartel, secretly planning to steal…
An Arizona prison inmate who sliced off the penis of a seriously mentally ill inmate before killing him has been sentenced to death. Jasper Rushing, 45, was already serving a 28-year prison sentence for the 2001 murder of his stepfather when he mutilated and beat to death his cellmate, 40-year-old…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: Tyra’s always telling us to be fierce…
Former Minuteman and accused child molester Chris Simcox wants you to feel sorry for him, even as he strives to interrogate his alleged child victims in court. In a recent jailhouse interview with the Arizona Republic, Simcox, 54, rationalized his decision to represent himself in his upcoming trial, where he…
At 5 a.m. Monday morning, Chandler police finally nabbed a guy they’d been looking for since May. Jose Salvador Rodriguez, the 19-year-old serial online dating app burglar, was caught shortly after robbing a Circle K in Chandler. Police had been looking for a young guy who was known to contact…
The Arizona American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court this morning alleging that Arizona’s Civil Asset Forfeiture laws are unconstitutional. These statutes give law enforcement agencies the power to seize personal property if they suspect it was used in criminal activity, and then either to keep it…
During what was intended to be a town hall style discussion featuring two Democratic presidential candidates, quickly shifted gears when two women from the #BlackLivesMatter campaign got up on stage and tried to get former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to address “structural racism” in this…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: Disney movie casting call 10. Booked on…
Disgraced former Phoenix Police Officer Justin LaClere changed his plea this week and admitted he was guilty of both luring a minor for sexual exploitation and then having sexual intercourse with her. Scottsdale Police arrested 32-year-old LaClere, a seven-year veteran of the force, in January 2014 after receiving information that…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: Sheriff Joe’s Next Top Model—the facial hair…
The DUI figures for the 4th of July weekend are in, and the results are, well, sobering: 443 people were arrested for a DUI between Friday and Sunday —151 of which had a blood alcohol content of .15 or greater. (To put that in perspective, with a BAC that high,…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: Bed-head and other blow-outs gone wild 10. …
The Arizona Office of the Auditor General recently published what may become a landmark study of Arizona’s child welfare system. The 73-page document paints a picture of an agency struggling even after it was removed from the larger umbrella of the Department of Economic Security last year, and made into…
The long-awaited independent audit of the Department of Child Safety will be made public sometime this morning. It’s unclear what the verdict will be, but if recent statistics and news reports about the downward trends of the agency are any indication, there’s likely to be a lot of constructive criticism…
At the end of the week, we bring you a roundup of visitors to the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix. To be considered for Mugshots of the Week, get arrested, strike a pose, and we’ll take care of the rest. This week: It’s officially summer! 10) Booked on suspicion…
Karen Finley, former CEO of the Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems, pleaded guilty today in federal court to an eight-year bribery-and-fraud scheme that helped the company retain photo-enforcement contracts with two Ohio cities. Finley, 55, of Cave Creek, pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Terence P. Kemp of the Southern District…
The former head of security for the Rockbar in Scottsdale has been arrested in connection with a June 3 video of a man caught urinating through a mail slot. David Azari, 30, was arrested at 9:25 a.m. on Thursday and booked on suspicion of misdemeanor criminal damage, disorderly conduct, urinating…
Tomorrow morning at the Phillips Memorial Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Phoenix, prominent civil rights activist Reverend Reginald D. Walton is organizing a multi-faith vigil for the nine victims of last night’s shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. “We cannot idly stand by as one [in] our community is under attack,”…
