On his first solo night in February 2001, P hoenix rookie cop Shawn Dirks found himself accused of anal rape. He knew his accuser was drunk — he’d encountered her during a DUI stop. But he didn’t know until later that she was also mentally disturbed. It quickly became evident…
For the second time, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley has declined prosecution in an alleged case of abuse of a quadriplegic woman by her husband. In a New Times story published last year (“Paralyzed in Paradise,” May 1, 2003), Heather Grossman claimed that her husband, John, spit in her face,…
The Bishop Be Damned Adult Catholic’s perspective: Regarding your column on Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien, masterful is an understatement (“The Divine Sociopath,” Michael Lacey, April 15). What is so hopeful about what you said is this: You are an adult and a Catholic, and you think like an adult, not…
Haven’t you always wondered what Ralph Nader groupies look like? I have. Nader’s a sort of celebrity in the way that tofu’s a sort of food, and in these effervescent days of cable exposure, all politicians — even a serial scold — are national personalities. The best-kept political secret is…
David Sheflin is absolutely the most fashionable man in town. Sheflin runs his high-end, vintage boutique in central Phoenix like a weekly salon, mingling with discerning customers and influential friends as though he’s Diana Vreeland presiding over Vogue. On the side, Sheflin deals in top-name mid-century furniture. He’s also a…
“I just wish that sometimes your paper could say ‘Thank you’ rather than taking shots!” Jerry Colangelo bellowed over the phone in October, the last time I was able to reach him for comment on his business endeavors. The Godfather of Phoenix sports was angry because I had dared to…
Have you heard the one about the onetime felon who threw a fund raiser for the guy who wanted to be the county’s top prosecutor? Mike Bailey, one of several candidates hoping to succeed outgoing Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, started off his remarks with a wisecrack during a debate…
Like Snoop says in that joint they play all the time on Power 92.3, “Green’s for the money, the money, the money.” But green’s also for the mainstay of P-town bar-band culture, the Emerald Lounge, the kind of place where hot bands rub up against friendly drunks and stoners. It’s…
Lock Him Up Profile in courage: I take my hat off to Father Joe Ladensack, who had the moral courage to refuse Bishop O’Brien’s outrageous demands to make a family rescind its charges of pedophilia in the Catholic church (“The Divine Sociopath,” Michael Lacey, April 15). What courage Father Ladensack…
I’ll never forget the scorching blast that poured through the open door of the Boeing 707 as I prepared to exit the jet on August 15, 1974, my first summer day in Phoenix. As a wide-eyed, 18-year-old freshman entering Arizona State University, I was stunned by the intensity of the…
At terminal velocity, the wind can have a troubling effect on the male body. Consider that a plummeting adult falls at a rate of about 120 mph, a freefall fast enough to ripple your lips back around your ears. Nude, the whipping winds can actually flip a penis backward, thrusting…
Dime time. That means, 10 o’clock on a Thursday night, and I’m chillin’ at my homegirl Jett’s pad as she readies herself to ride on da club. The crib’s split between her side and that belonging to her roommate, T-Dog. One guess which side looks like a Hummer did doughnuts…
The Chill Is Gone Austin power: Great story (“Death of Cool,” John Dougherty, April 8). What you didn’t mention was the best coffee house on Mill — Java Road — replaced by a Bank of America, and then a yuppie-hell Internet cafe. And 6 East — the best place to…
I am terminally ill with rectal cancer. (Go ahead, make a crude joke. I’d have cracked wise if the tables were reversed. If only.) The pain is unimaginable in a place that should never hurt. The hospice attendants have given me control of the morphine drip, something I longed for…
Twin Piques The Spike is always happy to be the first to tattle on people — especially high-powered people — who fib. Case in point this week is actually from the weird world of reality TV (and The Spike is using that phrase loosely), where local twins Matt and Michael…
It’s not every day that the governor of a state is faced with an open insurrection by thousands of religious zealots. It’s even rarer when the fanatics flout the state Constitution in a hell-bent pursuit of reaching heaven by coercing teenage girls into a life of subjugation, rape and breeding…
Hey, Phoenix, where the freaks at, baby? Your 300-pound mack of wack and his lezzie Lara Croft been hankerin’ for some underground weirdness of the first water. We craved the bizarre, the bugged-out, the deviant — and the plain ol’ nasty. Luckily, a light bulb illuminated above Jett’s spiked ‘do:…
The Passion for Christ An order of piety, hold the blasphemy: I don’t usually read your newspaper because I am a Christian and generally the content is not in line with my values. However, a friend of mine mentioned the article on Christian rap (“Jesus Christ Rap Superstar,” Darren Keast,…
Oubai Shahbandar loves America. The only thing he loves more than his adopted homeland, people often say, is the sound of his own voice. On a winter day, Shahbandar sits at a blinding, metallic table outside the Memorial Union at Arizona State University in Tempe, reminiscing over his college career…
Travesty of Justice The Spike was intrigued by the fancy media kit that landed on several desks here last week. More interesting was the fact that it came from the Office of the Federal Public Defender’s Capital Habeas Unit (that’s the death penalty appeals folks for you non-legal types), an…
I ventured up to Flagstaff the other day. Just to walk around and enjoy its wonderful downtown at the base of Arizona’s most impressive mountains, the San Francisco Peaks. Rain, wind, sleet, snow flurries and occasional sunshine had left the air clear and crisp. The dramatic landscape and tumultuous weather…
Phil Root is sitting among the peanut shells and hot dog wrappers strewn across the aisle at Arizona State University’s Packard Stadium in Tempe on a recent Sunday. He has his “Bible” at his side — a black, three-ring binder full of opposing player biographies and some of the more…
