Colorado City — the town on the Utah/Arizona border that child rapist Warren Jeffs used to call home — is being sued by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for religious and housing discrimination.The feds say the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Jeffs are still…
If the description of a shooting suspect includes the New York Yankees logo tattooed to his forehead, it really cuts down on the guesswork.That’s how 21-year-old Carlos Benito Sturgus got caught making another awful life decision last week in Mesa, as police say he shot an innocent bystander while he…
Maria Rivera made her initial appearance before a judge today after being arrested for allegedly shaking her 11-month-old daughter, Stormi Rivera, who’s not expected to survive her injuries.Defendants are most often silent during these appearances, listening to the judge explain what their charges are and the conditions of their release…
Welcome to justice in America, where it doesn’t even seem odd that you can admit to police that you committed a crime, then admit it on television, then go before a judge and say, wasn’t me.That’s the route 32-year-old Kristopher Harvey took today, pleading not guilty today to charges related…
Maria Rivera’s 11-month-old daughter, Stormi Rivera, is not expected to survive injuries sustained while with her mother yesterday, which Rivera claims were caused by the girl falling down the stairs.Detectives say hospital staff informed them “the only way to sustain these types of injuries [is] by severely shaking the baby.”That…
Charges were dismissed against seven members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club who were accused of being involved in a 2010 shootout with Vagos, a rival gang.The two clubs shot it off in Chino Valley, north of Prescott, in August 2010, as at least 50 shots were fired, although no…
Unlike some people, Ramon Carrillo remembered to put his kids inside his car.The problem is, cops say he passed out drunk in the driver’s seat, leaving his kids — ages 1 and 2 — with nothing but 120-degree heat, a handgun, and a passed-out dad.According to court documents obtained by…
At age 93, Julius Elmer Grosso of Scottsdale is one of those senior citizens who doesn’t want to give up his car keys — even after a two-hour drinking binge. Cops say the stubborn nonagenerian gave them a hard time during a DUI investigation over the weekend, resulting in Grosso…
Rachel Alexander, the right-wing blogger and ex-prosecutor under former Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, has blown her chance to appeal her law-license suspension by failing to file her opening brief on time. The former deputy county attorney had her license suspended in April for six months and a day because…
Another example of how not to be a parent was in a Maricopa County courtroom this morning, as 19-year-old Catalina Clouser pleaded not guilty to driving about 12 miles before realizing she had left her baby on the roof of her car.That incident, which occurred on June 1, came a…
As the Tempe Police Department got verification earlier this month that the five burned bodies found in an SUV in the Vekol Valley were identified as James and Yafit Butwin and their three children, another group of five people was still apparently missing.Pinal County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tim Gaffney tells…
Ashley Buckman and her boyfriend James Edwards pleaded not guilty this morning to charges related to the death of Buckman’s 4-year-old daughter, who died after horrific alleged abuse.Toryn Buckman was pronounced brain dead when she was brought to Phoenix Children’s Hospital on May 30, after what Edwards told police was…
Starting today, feeding birds in Scottsdale’s public parks can land you in jail.Like, an actual misdemeanor that would lead to a really awkward conversation in a job interview.The city recently passed the ordinance, which goes into effect today, makes it a class-two misdemeanor if you get caught being a total…
A pair of Valley motorists, on separate occasions, have smoked weed and apparently forgotten they had their children with them in the last week or so.First it was 19-year-old Catalina Clouser, who was getting high on June 1 before she buckled up her baby into her car seat and drove away — realizing…
Let’s try this one again: Daniel Wayne Cook has a date with death.After reaching into the excuse bag over and over again to avoid execution — with the U.S. Supreme Court taking the bait at the last minute more than a year ago — Cook’s execution now is scheduled for…
A Tempe man who tried to rape an employee at Phoenix’s Arizona Grand Resort in December pleaded guilty to a pair of charges related to the attack.Michael Robert Martinez, 31, pleaded to attempted kidnapping and attempted sexual assault this morning, more than five months after he failed to rape the…
Eduardo Mercado is accused of drowning his 21-year-old friend Saturday afternoon at a pond south of Lake Pleasant, and police say the thing that really pushed Mercado over the edge was when the friend decided to steer his boat in the wrong direction. Peoria police say meth also was a…
The Tempe Police Department’s theory that the five bodies found in the Vekol Valley this weekend were victims of a murder/suicide continues to check out.Yesterday, the Pima County medical examiner identified the two adult bodies found in the SUV in the desert as James and Yafit Butwin, and sure enough,…
Disbarred and apparently delusional ex-Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas still is trying to play the everyone’s-corrupt-except-me card, and he’s carrying around a piece of wood and pretending he’s a movie character in his attempt to prove it.One would expect that after being pegged as corrupt by just about everyone — and an…
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu’s claims that a “violent drug cartel” murdered five people in the Vekol Valley are looking more outlandish and unfounded by the hour.Two of the five charred bodies found inside a burned SUV have been identified by the Pima County medical examiner as James and Yafit…
The Arizona Legislature didn’t really feel the need to replace the police force in Colorado City with deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, so Attorney General Tom Horne’s pulling out Plan B.The AG’s office announced today that it’s sending $420,000 to the Sheriff’s Office for overtime pay to patrol…
Lee Charles Lubonne, the self-described “sex pig” charged in two sexual assaults, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment this morning.Judging from what sex-crime detectives found in his house, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office thought there was a “possibility” there were more victims, and Lubonne, a 44-year-old father of two from Litchfield…
