by Matthew Holloway | Sep 29, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
As the race for Maricopa County Attorney nears its end, the records of both incumbent, Republican Rachel Mitchell, and Democrat challenger Tamika Wooten have rightly been subject to scrutiny.
An in-depth investigation into past litigation handled by Wooten has revealed that, in addition to voicing direct opposition to the “Secure the Border Act” ballot initiative, the Democratic candidate defended at least a dozen criminals charged with human smuggling related offenses as a private attorney under her previous married name “Tamika Cheatham.”
Of the twelve examples of Wooten defending human traffickers, eleven were issued suspended sentences and ten were given unsupervised probation. The offenses these men were charged with ranged from smuggling (class 2 and 4 felonies) to conspiracy to commit smuggling (a class 4 felony,) all of which Wooten fought, often successfully to reduce.
At least one client, Sergio Gonzalez-Sanchez, was charged with smuggling a minor and received a more severe charge: a class 2 felony, for intentionally transporting or procuring the transportation of a human being below the age of 18 who was not accompanied by a family member.
In the 2009 case of Fernando Gomez-Hernandez, the suspect was charged with smuggling, a class-4 felony, and according to court documents, “Intentionally Transported Or Procured The Transportation Of Human Beings, For Profit Or Commercial Purposes.” Gomez-Hernandez was reportedly “the driver” and the arresting law-enforcement officers “immediately recognized,” the situation as “a human smuggling incident.”
The officer wrote:
“I immediately recognized this as a human smuggling incident. The driver who was identified as Fernando Gomez with a date of birth of REDACTED, by California identification card he gave me. Fernando only spoke Spanish, and the remainder of the conversation was conducted in such. Fernando said he was driving to Flagstaff, Arizona to drop off his friends. Fernando did not know the names of any of the persons in the vehicle nor was he related to any of them.”
The people Gomez-Hernandez was smuggling were “lying down in the rear of the van,” were visibly “scared,” and “were shaking,” according to police. “A traffic stop was initiated and upon contact with the occupants of the van, police noted numerous persons in the back seat and lying down in the rear of the van. Officers noted the subjects appeared scared, they failed to make eye contact and were shaking.”
The smuggler was plead down to a class-5 felony: “Attempt to Commit Smuggling” and served a six-month sentence with 100 days credit for time served.
In another case Wooten defended in 2009, Carlos Figueroa Ramirez was wearing “clean clothes, and newer shoes,” whiel smuggling people in the back of his truck “covered in dirt and debris.”
According to the court documents, the officer explained, “I approached the vehicle, saw one male driver who was later verbally identified as Carlos Ramirez Figueroa with a date of birth of REDACTED. In the back seat of the truck was six humans that were attempting to conceal themselves. Based on my training and experience I believed this to be a human smuggling load. The driver was in clean clothes, and newer shoes. The rest of the passengers appeared to have been in the desert for quite a few days and were covered in dirt and debris from trees and shrubs.”
In a plea deal arranged by Wooten, Ramirez Figueroa was sentenced to serve a six-month sentence in the county jail with a credit for 89 days served after which the remaining sentences for additional counts suspended.
In one case, Guillermo Vazquez-Espinoza pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Commit Smuggling working with a person he believed to be a coyote, a person smuggling people for profit. In another, Alvaro Ruiz-Alcala was also charged with Conspiracy to Commit Smuggling with five other people believed to by coyotes within a residence. Jose Valentin Nunez-Yanez was traveling in a vehicle that was “part of the agreement made with the coyote to have him transported to the State of California.” Guillermo Vazquez-Espinoza was in the act of attempting to contract a coyote for transport to North Carolina. And Jose Guadalupe Cervantes-Diaz was reportedly conspiring to commit human smuggling to New York as part of an agreement with a coyote.
These cases merely represent the most egregious of the dozen researched. But all point to a consistent pattern of legal maneuvering to arrange the most lenient possible sentences for human smugglers and those willfully conspiring to be smuggled.
Wooten’s litigation history in this area provides vital context for her political positions which followed.
In audio uncovered by AZ Free News, researchers revealed that Wooten, attending a closed-door meeting, expressed her explicit opposition to HCR 2060, the “Secure The Border Act,” which would permit Arizona Law Enforcement to crack down on illegal immigration and human smuggling. Wooten warned the Maricopa County Young Democrats on August 26th, “We have [HCR] 2060 that’s going to come down the pipe,” and told the members “As County Attorney, I’m not going to allow racial profiling for stops” claiming, “We don’t need to patrol our citizens.”
As Maricopa County Attorney, Wooten would be positioned to effectively stop the meaningful prosecution of human smuggling in the most populous county of Arizona, the fourth largest in the nation, by the third largest public prosecutorial agency in the United States. Based on her statement to the Young Democrats and her history of consistently pushing for slap on the wrist sentences for human smugglers, there’s every indication that she will.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Sep 27, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Former gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson responded to a report from 12News’ Braham Resnick about the ‘Future Freedoms PAC’ pumping money into Arizona elections to turn the legislature blue. Her answer? Join her Arizona PAC.
Taylor Robson stressed that if successful in gaining control of the Arizona legislature, the Democrats would “turn Arizona into a place none of us recognize,” citing “Higher Taxes,” “More Regulations,” “Open Borders,” and “Rising Crime.”
She added, “This is not what Arizonans stand for, and I will keep fighting to protect the state we know & love.”
The Arizona PAC, launched in 2023, lists Taylor Robson and Tucson philanthropist Jim Click of the Click family of car dealerships as the committee’s leadership. According to the website, the purpose of the PAC is that “to maintain and grow the Republican majorities in the Arizona legislature.”
The PAC wrote:
“Arizona has benefited from decades of conservative leadership and conservative policies. Arizona is a business-friendly, pro-family state that has grown due to a low-tax, low regulatory environment. Thanks to conservative governance, Arizona’s workers have the right to work and our families have the right to choose the best education options for our children.
These priorities and others are at risk if we allow far left policies to take over. Arizona’s legislature is a target of big out-of-state interests hoping to turn Arizona bright blue and make our state the next California with high taxes, high barriers to opportunity and government involvement in all aspects of our lives.”
Taylor Robson was defeated in the 2022 gubernatorial primary election by Kari Lake. Lake went on to be defeated in a highly contested election by Democrat Katie Hobbs with the results of the election marred by litigation for months afterword. Since facing off against Lake, Taylor Robson in turn endorsed both Lake and President Donald Trump following the August primary going into the 2024 elections.
In an interview with the New York Post, she told critics of her endorsement, “It’s a binary choice. It’s Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. You look at the conservative and Republican vision for America or the Democrat vision for America, and they’re two completely different visions.” She added, “Take personalities out of it.”
“I do not subscribe at all to Kamala Harris’s vision for America, which is colossal government, growth of the regulatory state, more taxes now, price controls, open borders, chaos in our streets. That is not my vision for America. I want a safe and secure America,” she continued.
Taylor Robson also took aim at Democrat Senatorial nominee Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) saying , “He, like Kamala Harris, is very much remaking themselves from where they are, right? Ruben Gallego was a member of the Progressive Caucus his entire career in Washington until he decided to run for the US Senate.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Sep 26, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
Republican Congressman David Schweikert, working alongside Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), and Jared Golden (D-ME) introduced the Employee Retention Tax Credit Repeal Act on Tuesday. The bipartisan legislation is designed to streamline lower-risk returns from small businesses for more rapid processing by prohibiting the IRS from processing COVID-19 Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) claims filed after January 31, 2024. The bill also drastically increases the penalties on businesses and individuals defrauding the government.
According to a press release from Schweikert’s office, the ERTC was initially created to enable “Main Street” businesses to keep furloughed staff employed during the COVID-19 pandemic. “However, legitimate returns from small businesses desperately needing support were crowded out by perverse promoters looking to take advantage of an emergency program, landing ERTC on the IRS’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ list in 2023.”
In a July statement, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel warned that the law, as written, presented “more and more questionable claims,” noting that, “The further we get from the pandemic, we believe the percentage of legitimate claims coming in is declining.” The Congressman’s office noted that Werfel asked for Congress to help with this situation and to assist the U.S. Department of the Treasury to “address fraud and error.”
“The ERTC Repeal Act would enable the return to fiscal sanity and end a program riddled with fraud that could cost up to seven times more—up to $550 billion—than initially estimated if allowed to continue. By eliminating the ERTC program, this bill would save taxpayers an estimated $79 billion over ten years. “
Schweikert explained, “We’ve all heard from the number of small businesses in our district waiting for their claims to be processed. A 1.4 million return backlog still exists, and moving the deadline up, rather than waiting until April 2025, will enable the IRS to go after the bad actors seeking to take advantage of taxpayers while approving legitimate claims faster and delivering long-overdue refunds to small businesses. Congress would be perpetuating a moral hazard if this level of fraud were allowed to go unpunished. It’s past time fiscal responsibility prevails, and we act on behalf of future generations who will be shouldered with a more than $35 trillion national debt.”
Per the release, the ERTC Repeal Act would advance the sunset date of the original program, and in addition to prohibiting processing of claims submitted after January 31, 2024, it would:
- Increase penalties for promoters from $1,000 to $10,000 for individuals and $200,000 for business promoters;
- Impose a $1,000 penalty for failure to comply with due diligence requirements; and
- Extend the statute of limitations period on assessments to six years.
According to the text of the bill, any businesses promoting the ERTC may also be subject to “75 percent of the gross income derived (or to be derived) by such promoter with respect to the aid, assistance, or advice.”
A corresponding Senate Measure spearheaded by Senators Tom Tillis (R-NC), Mitt Romney (R-UT), and Joe Manchin (D-WV) was announced September 18th.
“Repealing the ERTC is a critical step towards addressing America’s debt crisis,” Tillis said in a statement. “It’s past time to eliminate this fraud-ridden pandemic-era policy so we can concentrate on getting our fiscal house in order.”
According to the Senate findings, the ERTC added approximately $230 billion to the U.S. deficit through Fiscal Year 2023 and was projected to ballon to as much as $550 billion. The IRS also announced in June that between 10% and 20% of claims showed “clear signs of being erroneous” while another 60% to 70% showed an “unacceptable risk” of being improper.
Under existing law, the credit will persist until April 25, 2025.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Sep 25, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
In a series of posts to ‘X,’ Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer reported via his personal account that his office has received the first batches of ballots under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA ). According to Richer, “The 2024 General Election is officially underway here in Maricopa County!”
In full he wrote, “We’ve already received back 200 Uniform and Overseas ballots. The 2024 General Election is officially underway here in Maricopa County!”
Richer also reported via X that the Recorder’s Office now has “three remote recording kiosks up and running,” sharing the locations as the Sun City Library, the Southeast Regional Library in Gilbert, and the Georgia T. Lord Library in Goodyear.
He followed up with the Maricopa County Active Voter Registration Totals as of Monday totaling 2.512 million registered voters: 883,494 Republicans, 868,825 Independents, 719,324 Democrats, 19,5226 No Labels Party, 18,715 Libertarians and 2,120 Green Party.
According to a Monday press release from Maricopa County Elections:
- Maricopa County Elections is expecting a total turnout of 2.1 million voters.
- It is expected that half of voters will do so by voting early by mail and the other half will vote early in-person, drop off an early ballot, or cast their ballot in-person on Election Day.
- Approximately 315,000-420,000 voters are expected to visit a Vote Center on Election Day.
- 246 Vote Centers will be opened, and more than 3,000 election workers will be hired to service voters.
On the 2024 ballot, voters will decide 144 elected offices, 45 judges up for retention, and 76 ballot measures of which 13 are statewide propositions.
Jennifer Liewer, Deputy Elections Director for Communications, advised, “With a two-page ballot, containing contests on the front and back of both pages, it is more important than ever for voters to do their research ahead of time. Voters may also want to make a plan to either vote early by receiving a ballot in the mail or vote early in-person at a Vote Center to avoid longer than normal lines on Election Day.”
Since his ouster as Recorder, Richer has touted his recent lengthy interview with TIME in which he repeated his claims that “the 2020 election wasn’t stolen,” calling this view “a documented fact,” despite the hotly disputed status of the claim at the highest levels of the GOP. The outgoing County Recorder was defeated in the Republican Primary by Arizona State Rep. Justin Heap who ran on a platform to “Restore Voter Confidence.”
During a forum presented by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, previously reported by AZ Free News, Heap made serious accusation against Richer that election rules were not followed and vocally defended Arizonans’ right to be skeptical about election results. He said that legal safeguards weren’t followed and that the signature verification process for mail-in ballots was “inadequate.”
“I do not trust the system as it is currently being operated,” Heap added.
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Matthew Holloway | Sep 25, 2024 | Education, News
By Matthew Holloway |
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne issued a press release Thursday alerting parents of the Osborn School District that callers to the Arizona Department of Education’s (ADE) Empower Hotline have reported the central Phoenix district is allowing race and gender politics into the classroom, supporting Black Lives Matters and other political signage. Horne condemned the decision stating that the district is allowing race and gender politics to distract from academics. However, he noted that Arizona is a local-control state, so he is unable to intervene, and Osborn District parents must act.
In a statement, Horne said, “As Superintendent of Public Instruction my primary focus is helping schools increase academic outcomes, and the Osborn school district is not doing well academically, in part because of needless and provocative distractions.”
“We received a notification on the department’s Empower Hotline from a member of the Osborn community, who is offended by what is going on at that school district. This person sent pictures of a classroom wall that instead of posting academic materials had a big Black Lives Matter poster. They also sent a picture of stickers given to the students with the Osborn logo, surrounded by the colors associated with gender politics. The district provides magnets to attach this to cars, and stickers to students and staff, according to the notification we received on the hotline. There are no posters of brown lives matter, blue lives matter. Where does one stop when one goes down this path?”
Citing test scores holding up Phoenix’s Osborn District alongside the demographically similar Avondale Elementary District, which has an even higher poverty rate according to the free and reduced lunch enrollment, the release from the ADE noted that Avondale scores “significantly higher in academics.”
“81 percent of Osborn students are not proficient in math, compared to 67 percent in Avondale. In reading, 76 percent of Osborn students are not proficient, while that figure for Avondale is 63 percent.”
Horne offered some advice to school districts.
“If districts eliminate the time spent on race and gender politics they will have more time for academics. This will produce higher test scores. I spoke to the Osborne superintendent about this. He said what I was complaining about was designed to make all students feel welcome. The way to do that properly is to teach students to treat each other as individuals without regard to race, sexual orientation, sexual identity, or any such characteristic. It is not to promote identity politics in our public schools. He responded that we would have to agree to disagree.”
The State Superintendent added, “Arizona is a local control state. I do not have authority to order this to stop. We must rely on the parents and taxpayers in the Osborn school district to bring proper values and focus on academics to that school district. I urge them to do this as I do parents throughout Arizona who may observe this kind of needless distraction being promoted by schools.”
Pre-empting criticism for his opposition to the racial politics at play, Horne recalled his history of support for civil rights saying, “I have been a passionate supporter of civil rights since childhood. I attended the march on Washington in 1963 in which Martin Luther King gave his famous speech arguing that we should be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. That has been my philosophy my whole life.”
However, he made his recommendation clear: “Race and gender politics in schools are contrary to this philosophy which should be taught to all students.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
