Phoenix News Blog

​Pinal County Superior Court Judge Robert Carter Olson today unsealed the search warrant and other documents in a criminal investigation into a campaign finance scandal linked to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office -- pulling back the curtain, in part, on an investigation that is clearly both active and serious.

Olson acted at the request of this newspaper, which filed a motion to intervene in the six-month-old case last week. Though the documents have previously been sealed by court order, the Arizona Attorney General's Office, which has quietly been working the case all that time, did not object to New Times' request. Though Dennis Wilenchik, the lawyer representing the officer at the center of the probe, Sheriff's Captain Joel Fox, had previously argued against public disclosure of the documents, his associates did not do so in court today.

Attorney Michael Meehan filed a brief on New Times' behalf; the paper's longtime counsel, Steve Suskin, was in the courtroom today.

The documents show that agents raided Fox's Gilbert home March 31 -- and that its investigation is very much ongoing.
 
"Is it your avowal that this is still an active criminal investigation?" Judge Olson questioned the assistant attorney general, Todd Lawson.

"It certainly is," Lawson replied.

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Captain Joel Fox had to 'fess up and spill the names of the cagey SCA donors behind a Republican Party smear campaign, but he still hasn't turned over the contribution checks.

Today's the big day, according to Jeffrey Messing, the lawyer hired by the Maricopa County Elections Department to hold fire to the feet of Fox and the SCA.

The settlement agreement allowed Fox a reasonable amount of time to get the checks, and that time has passed. Fox told Messing last weeks that he has the checks but hasn't given them up yet, Messing tells us today. Messing says that if Fox doesn't deliver the checks by this afternoon, he'll whack (our word, not his) the sheriff's deputy with a civil sanction. County officials are expected to post the checks online after they receive them.

Image: City of Glendale

Steve Ellman

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Valley developer Steve Ellman must feel a bit of deja vu.

Years before we broke the story about his big contribution to the SCA, Ellman knew what it was like to be under suspicion of using the Republican Party to funnel money toward a specific political candidate.

"The recent revelation is consistent with Mr. Ellman's tactics," says former Scottsdale Councilman David Ortega. "It looks like typical Ellman cover. That's what I thought when I saw it."

Ortega, who has an architecture practice in Scottsdale, tells New Times it's possible he may have been targeted by Ellman in 2004 after making strong statements against the developer's former plan to develop the site of the old Los Arcos Mall using subsidies from the city. He doesn't know for certain that Ellman attacked him while he was running for mayor. A complaint over the incident filed by a citizen and submitted to the state Attorney General's office apparently went nowhere.

As the East Valley Tribune reported in September of 2004, Ellman made a $25,000 contribution the Maricopa County Republican Committee in the spring of that year -- the largest individual contribution the committee had seen in six years.

Six days after the donation, the committee formed a group that hammered Ortega in mailers and phone calls to potential voters, ultimately spending about $18,000 on the effort. Mary Manross was re-elected as mayor. 

Image: www.sonoranalliance.com

We asked for comment, we got comment -- from the Sonoran Alliance blog, anyhow.

Turns out Shane Wikfors (pictured), who runs the blog, considers church-mate Dan Saban a friend. Who knew? Wikfors slams the infamous attack ad on Saban as "disgusting." And although the blog's only unmasked cowboy (there's also one unmasked cowgirl) doesn't quite level both bores on the SCA, he does seem to understand something has gone wrong:

Incidentally, if the ad was really an independent expenditure, anyone close to either candidate who gave to the effort for or against either of the candidates could be interpreted as violating campaign finance law.

In fact, at least half of the people involved with the SCA are close to the candidate in question, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

With the SCA scandal breaking wide open last week, we figured it was time to make another call to Bruce Ash, the Republican National Committeeman for Arizona.

This time we got him on the phone, and as you'll see, he helped clear up a couple of nagging questions we had about the Republican Party's involvement with the SCA, or the Sheriff's Command Association.

Ash, if you'll recall, is a key figure for anyone trying to figure out the origins of the scandal. Back in early October, the vicious smear ad by the Republican Party against Dan Saban, the Democratic opponent of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, had raised enough controversy that even other Republicans were criticizing it.

In response to the criticisms, Ash commented on a now-defunct blog site run by former Arizona Republican Party chairman Nathan Sproul. In his statement, Ash seems to be explaining to fellow pachyderms that they shouldn't concern themselves over the idea that the Party spent its own money on the smear ad:

 

We're not saying Captain Joel Fox is wrong about everything.

Turns out he's right on the issue of whether the SCA contributions were, in fact, "payroll deductions."

Although the reports filed by Fox say "payroll deductions," Fox says in comments to this blog that they were actually nothing more than direct deposits.

We heard from Maricopa County spokesman Richard De Uriarte this morning, who tells us that's true. His explanation also covers union dues, an issue brought up yesterday by the man who ran against Sheriff Joe Arpaio in 2004 and 2008, Dan Saban.

Captain Joel Fox hasn't been honest with us.

Here's what Fox posted to our blog in February about the $105,000 contribution to the Arizona Republican Party that came from the SCA:

None of the money came from Arpaio,or Hendershott or Arpaio's campaign, or anyone associated with Arpaio's campaign, nor did it come from any corporation or labor organization or any other illegal contributor. It was all private funds, solicited over a period of about 2 years.

As we now know, Hendershott was one of the main contributors to the Sheriff's Command Association.

Fox's lie is probably just the tip of a very large berg of bullcrap. For instance, Fox also claims in the comment sections of this blog that the SCA money didn't finance the smear ads against the political opponents of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

 

Just hung up from one of our trusty "Deep Throat" sources who tells us the FBI is highly interested in the Sheriff's Command Association case.

Our source says New Times articles this morning about the men behind the SCA donations were forwarded to the local FBI office. An FBI agent soon called, hungry for more.

The FBI "is offering an ear" on the case, says the source. "They'd like to know about the stuff being conducted on county time."

The revelation today that top deputies at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office were behind the shadowy SCA shows Sheriff Arpaio and his minions "aren't willing to come out and have a fair fight," says Arpaio's longtime political opponent, Dan Saban.

Saban (pictured) ran against Arpaio in 2008 as a Democrat and was slammed with one of the most vile attack ads ever aired in Arizona (see ad on YouTube below). The ad was produced and paid for by the Republican Party, apparently with the money raised by the SCA.

As far as Saban is concerned -- and we're in no position to argue with him -- the money appears to have been funneled to the smear ad directly from the deputies and others with connections to Arpaio.

"They are willing to bend the rules, if not break them," Saban says. "This clearly shows they are cowards."

Saban notes that he obviously wouldn't have kept people like Chief Deputy Dave Hendershott if he'd been elected. The top deputies "had a vested interest in the outcome of this election. Their positions were going to be threatened."

We sent Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio a question on Twitter about the newly uncovered SCA donors that include his top brass.

No response yet.

We left messages for Arpaio and his chief deputy, Dave Hendershott -- one of the SCA's top donors -- but they didn't return calls. Instead, Arpaio had his spokeswoman, Lisa Allen, read a statement to New Times:

"This situation has absolutely nothing to do with the sheriff's office," Allen says.

Sheriff's Captain Joel Fox (at right) doesn't have to worry about a $315,000 fine, but the legal woes for him and other SCA contributors may not be over.

A settlement agreement between Fox and the Maricopa County Elections Department drops the main case against him, though the process of uncovering the SCA's secrets will continue for a few weeks.

The agreement requires Fox to identify the SCA's contributors, and he's apparently done that. County elections also wants the monthly bank account statements from the SCA since 2006, copies of the donors' checks, and wire-transfer records. Subpoenas may be required to force all of the contributors to provide the records.

With the deadline fast approaching to reveal the names of the SCA members or face a $315,000 fine, Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Captain Joel Fox begged election officials this month to let him disclose the names in private.

Fox, who obviously missed his calling as a lawyer, continues to argue in correspondence with county officials even as his ship sinks.
As we explained yesterday, he already paid his $450 fine for failing to file a pre-election report.

But it's the six-digit number that's causing him to squirm. He's got until July 1 to say who was behind a $105,000 donation to the Republican Party or face the triple threat.

Maricopa County Sheriff's Captain Joel Fox owes $450.

That's a whole lot less zeroes than some expected. Fox was on the hook for $315,000 in penalties.

But don't turn up the house lights just yet -- this show's not over.

Thomas Shedden, a judge with the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings, ruled against Fox on all but one point. That point: The county should have given Fox an extra 20 days to comply with the law and turn over records related to the SCA, such as the names of donors. Because the county did not do that, Shedden decided the $315,000 fine cannot be levied against Fox -- not now, anyway.

Although the decision on Maricopa County Sheriff's Captain Joel Fox and the SCA donation is scheduled for Monday, we think it will probably be announced on Tuesday, after the holiday. Either way, we imagine there's still time for Fox to reveal the identity of these secret contributors.

But if he doesn't, the contributors could do the job for him. Under what rock is the Sheriff's Command Association hiding? These men (and women?) are apparently going to let the financial future of a sheriff's captain be utterly destroyed.

When Judge Thomas Shedden of the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings issues his decision, either Fox will have outfoxed his highly trained legal opponent or he'll owe $315,000.

Even if he was a millionaire, which he's not, it will hurt if this doesn't go his way. For a person of average means, it would be a life-changing amount of debt. To be honest, we're not sure how it works: Will he have to declare bankruptcy, or have his wages garnisheed for 30 or 40 years?

And the Sheriff's Command Association is willing to sit back and let it happen, apparently because of its members' paranoid and irrational fear of the media attention.

Remember the hubbub in 2007 when Sheriff Joe Arpaio's bad boys tossed our owners, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, into jail for having written about the agency's Banana Republic-like "investigation" into us for publishing the old guy's home address on the Internet?

Now, seems Joe's threatened Joe by publishing his address on the Web. But first a little background.

The arrests came a few months after Arpaio's pal, County Attorney Andy Thomas, sicced his moneymaking private attorney Dennis Wilenchik after us.

Wilenchik then had demanded a ton of information from us in so-called "grand jury" subpoenas, including the names, reading habits, and other stuff about the folks who read this rag on our Web site.

Not in this lifetime, fella.

By Ray Stern

African-Americans partying at a downtown Phoenix bar were positively gleeful after Tuesday's history-making election of the country's first black president.

Local black leaders and their supporters had gathered at Stoudemire's at Second and Washington streets to watch election results. By 10:30 p.m., the full impact of the election of Barack Obama was still settling in.

Spontaneous cheers and raucous laughter broke out from partiers inside the bar and on the patio; one man happily danced down the sidewalk as a group of women looked on, smiling.

"This is monumental," said Gary Flunoy of Phoenix (pictured at left), one of the happy revelers at Stoudemire's. "This is for all of our ancestors, from Harriet Tubman to Martin Luther King Jr. -- all of the people that laid the foundation that made this a reality."

By Stephen Lemons

With cries of Barack Obama's "Yes we can" refrain still echoing in the Wyndham's ballroom in downtown Phoenix, Tim Nelson conceded a hard-fought campaign against incumbent Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

"My disappointment in this election is more than overcome by my elation at the election of Barack Obama," said Nelson to his fellow Democrats, who had assembled at the hotel to watch election returns on a wall-size TV screen.

After thanking his family and his campaign staff, Nelson added, "Despite my disappointment, I have never been so proud to be a Democrat as now."

Nelson lost big to Thomas. The incumbent got 52 percent of the vote to Nelson's 44 in an election that many Dems were hopeful of winning.

As voters headed to the polls, the race between Thomas and Nelson was close enough to be within the margin of error, according to a much-publicized ASU poll.

Nelson during his concession speech at the Wyndham Tuesday night.

By Ray Stern

The wedding's off.

Arizona voters have approved Proposition 102, which bans same-sex marriages and amends the state constitution to make it more difficult for supporters of gay marriages to change the law in the future.

Nearly 92 percent of statewide precincts have reported results, and the proposition won by about 57 percent to 44 percent, ensuring a win.

Voters didn't fall for the deceptive campaigns of Propositions 200 and 202, which dealt with payday loans and the state's employer sanctions laws. The defeats mean a legislative exemption for the high interest rates of payday loan stores will expire in 2010, and the employer sanctions law will remain as is.

By Ray Stern

Two Democrats will add to the mix on the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission, which previously had been an all-Republican affair.

Tuesday's election filled three empty seats on the commission. Sandra Kennedy, a small business owner and former state lawmaker, and Paul Newman (pictured at left), a lawyer and Cochise County Supervisor, appear to have been the top winners with 91 percent of polls counted by 11 p.m. Tuesday. The two Democrats each received 18.1 percent of votes.

By Benjamin Leatherman

Governor Janet Napolitano began ecstatically cheering, clapping, and dishing out high-fives mere moments after CNN announced that Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

Napolitano was in attendance at a packed Democratic Party rally at the Wyndham Hotel in downtown Phoenix amidst hundreds of fellow Obama supporters.

“It feels really good,” Napolitano said. “And one of the best things about it, so many people were involved, having a good time, really united in a campaign that’s something larger than their individual selves. You don’t see that often, and it's very heartwarming when you do. The energy in this room is incredible.”

But does she have her eye on any positions in the Obama Cabinet?

By Jonathan McNamara

For John McCain, the campaign trail ended at the Arizona Biltmore, where supporters mingled with news crews as election results poured in.





See more shots from McCain's campaign closer at the Biltmore in our slideshow.

By Ray Stern

Change came to Washington, D.C., tonight, but not to Maricopa County.

County Supervisors Don Stapley (pictured below left), Fulton Brock, Andy Kunasek, Max Wilson, and Mary Rose Wilcox all retained their seats without breaking a sweat. With 95 percent to 99 percent of precincts reporting, none of the opponents of the five supervisors even came close to winning. Meanwhile, Keith Russell will stay on as county assessor, and Helen Purcell will begin her sixth term as county recorder.

By Amy Silverman and Sarah Fenske

Like John McCain, we're going to keep this one short and sweet.

Barack Obama is the next president of the United States, and while there are a lot of Republicans here at the Biltmore who aren't happy about that, many were as gracious as the Arizona senator.

We got onto the lawn here just in time to see McCain speak. The Senator was dignified in defeat, promising the new president he would be there to help. It was nothing nearly as electrifying as Obama's speech, but the crowd reacted with tears, cheers, and even a few boos (when McCain suggested we all welcome Obama/Biden).

As you can see from this photo, some Republicans took the loss hard.

By Paul Rubin

Well ahead in the votes counted, Sheriff Joe Arpaio strutted into the Phoenix Civic Center South Hall a few minutes ago and had this to say:

"This is not my last campaign! People hear me, not my last campaign! I don't want to bad-mouth the media, but every time you guys blast me, my polls go higher and higher."

Someone shouted out, "What do you think of the Hispanic community?"

Arpaio laughed and said, "I love the Hispanic community. I lived in Mexico City for four years. The Hispanics who obey the law love me. The Hispanics that don't obey the law had better look out."

Hundreds of Thousands Flock to Obama Rally in Chicago

See the event for yourself courtesy of this slideshow direct from Obama's rally in Chicago.

Barack Obama closed his campaign with a massive outdoor public event — a street party in downtown Chicago centered on Grant Park, near the Lake Michigan waterfront. The campaign distributed 70,000 tickets to the official event, but many more came down for the party.

More images will be added to this slideshow as the night continues.

By Niki D'Andrea

Dan Saban was disheartened, but said he's glad he waged a tough campaign against Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

"We have energized people who would never vote in this type of election,” Saban told a crowd assembled at his Gilbert home on election night.

With most of the votes counted, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was leading Saban 57 percent to 41 percent.

“I’m physically and emotionally exhausted,” Saban said. “It’s been an amazing two years.”

By Sarah Fenske and Amy Silverman

The phone rang a little while ago, and it was a friend in the Amsterdam area. “So it’s over,” he said.

And we said, “What!?”

Here in the Frank Lloyd Wright Ballroom in the Arizona Biltmore, McCain is doing just fine. Big & Rich is playing “Raising McCain.” They’re calling Texas for the Republicans, and everyone actually still thinks they have a chance to win.

By Ray Stern

Democrat Tim Nelson was making a strong showing in early returns, but his Republican opponent, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas, bounded to a respectable lead as polling station results came in about 8:15 p.m.

Thomas had 53.01 percent of votes compared with Nelson's 43.1 percent, with 32 percent of precincts reporting.

Nelson supporters had a modicum of hope as votes started to trickle in, because they felt a big turnout by Democrats might push him over the edge. But when the first official polling station totals were announced, Thomas kept his lead.

Senator John McCain was in no danger of embarrassment in his home county, based on early returns. He had 55 percent of the vote to Barack Obama's 43 percent. Statewide, national poll watchers had the race too close to call.

And Sheriff Joe Arpaio had no worries after the first round of results, beating Dan Saban with 57.49 percent to 40.17 percent

In an interview at election headquarters at the Phoenix Convention Center, Arpaio told reporters he would continue all of his policies and "would not change a thing." Arpaio, 76, also vowed, "This is not my last campaign."

By Sarah Fenske and Amy Silverman

Okay, dont tell anyone, but we snuck into the McCain party. Sadly, this is a little bit B-list -- us and the foreign media and some really bad outfits. And Grant Woods, inexplicably, and at least three Congressmen. (As in Shadegg, Flake, and Franks -- the indicted Rick Renzi is nowhere in sight.)

There still isn't much going on here, despite periodic "whoooos" when McCain wins some totally obvious Southern state. In fact,we've spent most of our time fielding questions from Republicans jealous of our wireless access. No one here has been told that New Hampshire has been called for Obama, much less Pennsvylania or Ohio or New Mexico. If it's over, someone is hiding it from the fat lady.

So since you've got more of a pulse of what's up than we here at the Biltmore ballroom, we have nothing to offer you but a fashion show. Call it the best of McCainia.

By Sarah Fenske and Amy Silverman

So here we are, armed with the world's smallest laptop and the world's largest cocktails (hey, when in Rome -- we've gotta blend in here), ready to cover history as it unfolds. Well, as it unfolds behind the ginormous bleachers reserved for paying guests and the political elite at the McCain "Victory" Party.

The stage is set ...

FOX News is on the TV, the foreign journalists are circling and Phil Gramm just walked by. Yet the only thing sparking are the rhinestone "McCain 2008" pins walking by on GOP housewives of a certain age.