February 10th, 2010
James Ray, on trial for manslaughter after the tragic sweat lodge incident that killed three people, claims that he accepts responsibility for the death, but argues that the accident was not a crime.
“After this happened he immediately reached out to the families. We have been meeting with the families’ lawyers. But again, that doesn’t make it a crime. We think turning this into a criminal charge we think is unjust and we look forward to proving his innocence in court,” said Ray’s Phoenix criminal lawyer, Brad Brian.
Brian claims that Ray is devastated by the death of his followers and has thought of little else since the incident. Ray did not physically force anyone to stay in the tent.
To read more on the matter, see the article on ABC News.
Tags: force, guru, manslaughter, negligence, sweat lodge
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February 3rd, 2010
Police report that they have broke up a major identity theft ring operating in the Phoenix area. The main suspects are accused of breaking into people’s homes and cars to steal identities and get bogus credit cards, which they then ran up big balances on.
Police say that one of their favorite places to identify victims was on hiking trails, where one person would watch the hikers leave their car and keep watch while the other stole possessions from the vehicle.
Phoenix criminal attorneys have said that this trial may be very difficult, as even with a lot of evidence, it is hard for investigators to truly calculate the true damage extent of damage done from the identity theft.
To read more on the story, see the article on KPHO. Image via Andres Rueda [Flickr].
Tags: burglary, identity theft, robbery, theft crimes
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January 27th, 2010
The Phoenix Police Department may have to cut its budget by as much as 15%. Some people worry the department could lose hundreds of officers. One rookie police officer told Fox News he is worried about being laid off.
“It definitely makes it tough to want to go out there and put your life on the line, not knowing if this is your last week doing that,” he says.
Public Safety Manager Jack Harris says its impossible to say how many, if any, people will be laid off from the department. Officers have been told that downsizing would be seniority-based. Announcements regarding how many lay offs will take place will be made tomorrow. Phoenix criminal attorneys say this may have an impact on the number of cases they see.
To read more, see the article on My Fox Phoenix. Image via Banspy [Flickr].
Tags: budgets, crime, layoffs, police department, police force
Posted in Legal News | No Comments »
January 20th, 2010
The Republican-led Arizona senate seems to be supporting the efforts of Sheriff Joe, as a senate panel on Public Safety and Human Rights recently passed a measure to strengthen the immigration laws in the state. The bill will support Joe not just in message but in the law’s actual text by making it illegal for police departments to make rules preventing officers from asking individuals about their immigration status –something Sheriff Joe has recently come under fire for doing.
The bill would also make it illegal to be in the state illegally or to transport or conceal an illegal immigrant. The law will also make it a crime for illegal immigrants to solicit work in a public place or to hire a person from your vehicle, which Phoenix criminal lawyers say may end up affecting many low-income legal workers who also do day-labor work.
To read more on the issue, see the article on KWST. Image via daquella manera [Flickr]
Tags: civil rights, illegal immigrants, immigration, sheriff joe
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January 13th, 2010
The Phoenix Police Department has launched an investigation into its own crime lab after staff members from the lab have come forward claiming co-workers have committed errors that may have dramatic impacts on police investigations. The workers have claimed that other employees have gone so far as to leave evidence at the crime scene and dispose of fingerprint evidence. Those who have came forward have also claimed that the lab employees that are members of the union are treated differently than those who are not.
“Some non-union employees have done things that could botch investigations, but nothing happens to them. Yet union members are criticized for relatively minor things,” said AFSCME Union spokesperson Frank Piccioli.
A police department employee has confirmed that the department will be investigating the claims, but will not make any statements regarding the accusations until the investigation is further underway. Phoenix criminal lawyers are watching the matter closely to ensure their clients will not be harmed by any wrongdoing on behalf of the crime lab employees.
To read more on the issue, see the article on KPHO.
Tags: crime lab, evidence, police, police department, unions
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January 6th, 2010
At the same time that Sheriff Joe is submitting to 7-hour depositions regarding his treatment of Latin Americans for a civil rights lawsuit, a civil rights advocate has started working to undermine his crime sweeps in largely Latino neighborhoods. The advocate has been sending out text messages to members of the Hispanic community to warn them when the sheriff is conducting crime sweeps. By using a sophisticated phone text tree, Lydia Guzman, director of the nonprofit immigrant advocacy group Respect/Respeto, is able to contact thousands of residents in only a few minutes. Guzman says she is helping to protect Hispanics and other non-Caucasians from racial profiling by the sheriff.
The sheriff and his deputies have been accused of stopping Mexican Americans for minor infractions, purely to check their immigration status. Sheriff Joe claims that his department does not participate in racial profiling and that the texts are intended as a way to help illegal immigrants avoid getting caught. “This little group of people is (in favor of) open borders, and they don’t like what I am doing. That is the bottom line,” Arpaio said. “But it isn’t interfering with our operations because every time we do it, we still arrest a good number of people, including illegal aliens.”
Guzman says that her texts are sent to civil rights and immigrant rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, Copwatch, Somos America and Puente. She says that some people may use the texts to avoid getting caught, but her main goal is to help promote civil equality in Phoenix. Phoenix criminal attorneys and law professors largely agree that her work is considered to be protected free speech –not aiding and abetting crime.
To read more about the issue, see the article in the LA Times.
Tags: arpaio, civil rights, crime, crime sweeps, free speech, immigration, sheriff joe
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December 28th, 2009
For the first time in four years, the kidnapping rate in Phoenix has gone down. The city, known to be the kidnapping capital of the U.S., has developed a serious problem with the crime after the drug wars of Mexico began spilling over into the states. Officials believe the crime reduction is a result of increased police efforts to target the drug and immigrant smugglers in the city, the same people who are responsible for the majority of kidnapping crimes.
In the first 11 months of 2008, there have been 302 kidnappings, down from the ten year high of 359 that took place last year. The city enacted a special task force to deal with the problem in the middle of last year. Phoenix criminal attorneys believe the force has played a huge role in helping to round up many of the larger kidnapping crews.
Abductees for the most part are taken for high ransoms and are often killed or tortured regardless of receipt of payment. Other kidnappings can be related to prostitution or the direct theft of the victim’s bank funds.
To read more about this issue, see the article in the L.A. Times. Image Via debaird [Flickr].
Tags: crime, crime rates, drugs, kidnappings, mexico, ransom, statistics
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December 21st, 2009
Despite his wide-spread popularity, Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s notoriously tough tactics may have finally caught up with him as he faces a civil rights investigation be the Department of Justice. After losing his federal-granted power to enforce federal immigration laws, Arpaio has continued to arrest and investigate suspected Mexican immigrants.
Since Arpaio lost his federal privileges, his harassment of Mexican Americans has “actually gotten worse rather than better,” said activist Salvador Reza, who claims some immigrants will not even turn on their lights at night for fear of attracting attention from the police. During his sweeps, his officers would file into Phoenix’s largely Latino neighborhoods and arrest people for infractions as minor as a broken headlight. Once people are in custody, state law permits Arpaio to investigate anyone regarding their immigration status.
As a response to these tactics, the U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights investigation into Arpaio’s affairs. So far, the sheriff has refused to cooperate with the investigators and is calling for an investigation into the investigators. Phoenix criminal attorneys are celebrating the Justice Department’s investigation, as they have also been criticizing the sheriff’s extensive use of racial profiling.
To read more about the sheriff and the investigations, see the article in the L.A. Times.
Tags: crime, immigration, joe arpaio, police, sherrif's department
Posted in Legal News | 2 Comments »
December 16th, 2009
Arizona, like most states these days, has been going through a severe budget crisis. In an effort to reduce the state’s expenses spent on crime and punishment, a house panel is examining alternative solutions that could cut back on spending. Experts say that while some measures are up in the air still, it seems likely that the panel will work to cut down on minimum sentences and create alternative sentences to imprisoning convicts.
At an average cost of $30,000 per convict per year, imprisonment is an expensive option. Increasing probation sentences will save the state millions of dollars in no time. Our current prison population is 24 percent larger than it was just four years ago, meaning that cutting expenses here will result in a major saving point for the state budget.
Phoenix criminal attorneys, families of inmates and others have advised the panel to cut back on minimum sentencing laws, many of which have been in place since the seventies and affect non-violent criminals like drug users.
To read more about the proposed changes, see the article in The Arizona Republic. Image Via banspy [Flickr].
Tags: crime, government, laws, prison, probation, punishment
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December 8th, 2009
A Phoenix horse owner is warning others about recurring acts of bestiality involving horses in the area. She claims her horses were molested at least four times, with the most recent incident in October. While the horse shows signs of abuse, police claim Melinda Gustafson’s horse was not being sexually assaulted, but instead it seems someone tried to steal it.
Melinda heard her neighbor’s dog barking and came outside to investigate, when she saw a man running out of her horse’s pen. The horse had an extension cord around its neck. While the police believe the cord was used as a way to lead the horse out of the stall, Gustafson spoke with a number of other horse-owning locals who experienced similar situations. They believe the extension cord was used to help suffocate the horse in order to sexually assault it. The owners agree that a fully conscious horse would have to be exceptionally docile or restrained for someone to assault it, which is why they think the attacker suffocates the horses first.
The reports from other persons of assaults committed against their horses go back as long as six years, meaning if the perpetrator is caught and convicted, he will be facing multiple counts of bestiality, trespassing and animal abuse. Arizona’s laws against bestiality are some of the strongest in the nation. If the horse owners are correct about the sexual assaults, then the molester will require a top Phoenix criminal attorney if he wishes to escape life imprisonment.
One of the owners of supposed molested horses actually moved from the area after the assaults made her foal infertile. “I personally could not handle it anymore,” the owner, Michelle Coppock, said.
To read more about these assaults, see the article on the Arizona Republic. Image Via tallpomlin [Flickr].
Tags: bestiality, horses, molestation, rape, sex crimes, sexual assault, trespassing
Posted in Local crimes | No Comments »
James Ray, on trial for manslaughter after the tragic sweat lodge incident that killed three people, claims that he accepts responsibility for the death, but argues that the accident was not a crime.
