Some people might say your MesaZona blogger has a nose-for-the news coupled with a sense-of-curiosity to follow the dots merging into lines of inquiry that somehow appear seamlessly out of what most people think is nowhere, even when it takes year to reveal.
Whoever said "Mesa is boring" may have been throwing out a bone-as-bait to take attention off a trail of stories that go untold. Stories take place in-time: back-in-time then or in real-time now. They need action, a plot line and an emerging cast of characters playing out their parts to make the drama unfold. More importantly, someone needs to write their account of the story. AZ Capitol Times reporter Howie Fischer is a seasoned veteran news reporter who's now writing a series of real-life stories published in syndication.
The latest episode here in Maricopa County appeared just this morning in The Daily Miner, trusted local news leader in Kingman, Arizona and Mohave County. No one is "pointing-the-finger" yet in the current Grand Jury case (at least as far as we can tell since these proceedings don't get televised), but in an ongoing series of reports that appear likes episodes in a soap-opera, there are others in the courtroom cast of characters in addition to the original people named and additional witnesses to-be-called to provide testimony:
This bribery case is just the tip-of-the-iceberg involving schemes in water rights/resources, utilities and water/wastewater treatment (millions in taxpayer debt service obligations- and expanding land acquisitions - in the last few years the City of Mesa has sold 11,000 acres (valued by City Manager Chris Brady at $100M and sold over time to self-finance the construction of Sloan Park) in Pinal County recently to increase the 14,000+ acres acquired by the newly-formed http://saintholdings.com/ .
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The current $35 or $350,000 bribery case is 'small potatoes' . . .
PHOENIX – "Jurors will get to see what could prove a critical email that prosecutors say should help prove that Gary Pierce purposely sought to conceal a land deal at the center of a bribery case.
U.S. District Court Judge John Tuchi has rejected arguments by defense attorneys that an email between Kelly Norton and her then-husband Jim is protected by marital privilege. His ruling makes it admissible.
What makes the email significant is it originated with Pierce who at the time was a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission. In that role he voted on several matters involving Johnson Utilities.
Federal prosecutors contend that company owner George Johnson was going to pay for Pierce to buy a 3.5 acre property he wanted in east Mesa for a car dealership. But the plan, according to the government, was to conceal the true buyer.
In a Dec. 29, 2011 email, Pierce tells Jim Norton, who was lobbying for Johnson, he is hoping the bank, which owned the property, would take $300,000 for the property. There is also a “letter of intent’’ to pay that much in cash, a letter signed by both Pierce and Norton.
The email, however, shows Pierce did not want to be on the document.
“I am going to have Rex take my name off this LOI and you will be the buyer,’’ Pierce writes to Jim Norton. The “Rex’’ is Rex Griswold, a vice president of a commercial property firm that was handling the offer for the would-be buyers.
That fits into the government’s theory that Johnson was going to be the source of the money – and that Pierce, as a utility regulator voting on matters involving Johnson’s company, sought to hide that information. Defense attorneys have dismissed whatever happened, pointing out the land deal never went through.
Tuchi’s ruling comes as defense attorneys begin their cross-examination of Kelly Norton today. Norton, who is an “unindicted co-conspirator’’ in the case has been granted immunity for her testimony on behalf of the government.
Defense lawyers will seek to undermine her testimony last week about her role in the alleged bribery scheme, including how she said she funneled $31,500 from Johnson to Sherry Pierce and, by extension, her regulator husband. And they already have questioned Kelly Norton’s credibility and whether she has motive to lie because, as she testified, she discovered her husband was having an affair – and it was not his first.
Prosecutors have known about the email from Gary Pierce asking that his name not be on any documents on the land deal for years. But it has taken until now to get Tuchi to let them use it.
What has delayed a ruling on the issue is that Pierce sent the email not directly to Jim Norton but to Kelly. She forwarded it to Jim five days later.
That, according to defense attorneys, made the letter a privileged communication between husband and wife.
The judge did not explain his reason for rejecting that claim. But in their arguments to Tuchi, prosecutors said there were two flaws in the defense argument.
One, they noted, is that there is nothing in the email intended to be a communication between Kelly and Jim.
“The mere forwarding of the Pierce email does not implicate the confidential communications privilege,’’ argued Assistant U.S. Attorney James R. Knapp.
On top of that, Knapp said that the marital privilege “does not apply to communications having to do with present or future crimes in which both spouses are participants.’’ And Kelly Norton, as an “unindicted co-conspirator’’ for her role in the whole bribery scheme, was a participant."
Whoever said "Mesa is boring" may have been throwing out a bone-as-bait to take attention off a trail of stories that go untold. Stories take place in-time: back-in-time then or in real-time now. They need action, a plot line and an emerging cast of characters playing out their parts to make the drama unfold. More importantly, someone needs to write their account of the story. AZ Capitol Times reporter Howie Fischer is a seasoned veteran news reporter who's now writing a series of real-life stories published in syndication.
The latest episode here in Maricopa County appeared just this morning in The Daily Miner, trusted local news leader in Kingman, Arizona and Mohave County. No one is "pointing-the-finger" yet in the current Grand Jury case (at least as far as we can tell since these proceedings don't get televised), but in an ongoing series of reports that appear likes episodes in a soap-opera, there are others in the courtroom cast of characters in addition to the original people named and additional witnesses to-be-called to provide testimony:
> ex-Congressman Mesa Mormon Republicans Matt Salmon (hired on by ASU before resigning office as Vice-President for Government Affairs at a salary of over $250,00)
> current U.S. Congressman Andy Biggs
> Now a former mayor of Mesa (currently the vice-president of a commercial real estate firm active in downtown Mesa sales transactions ) Rex Griswold has been involved in the trial with a new trail-of-clues emerging in an email from December 2011.
More clues in the real-time/real-life court drama of this story
Yesterday:
Mesa ex-lawmaker's bribe plot unfolds before jury
Earlier in this evolving news cycle:
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Blogger Note: All these clues leave a trail of how mostly Mesa Mormon Republicans have exercised monopoly control in local, state and national elected office to benefit a closely-held network of undisclosed business associations in second-hand and third-party agreements and/or contracts.
. . . or shall we call it "friends-and-family", or "cousins" or that out-dated phrase "crony capitalists" in politics and government, finance, insurance, and real estate.
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The current $35 or $350,000 bribery case is 'small potatoes' . . .
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Critical email could determine corporation commission case
by Howard Fischer, for The Miner Originally Published June 12, 2018 5:53 am
PHOENIX – "Jurors will get to see what could prove a critical email that prosecutors say should help prove that Gary Pierce purposely sought to conceal a land deal at the center of a bribery case.What makes the email significant is it originated with Pierce who at the time was a member of the Arizona Corporation Commission. In that role he voted on several matters involving Johnson Utilities.
In a Dec. 29, 2011 email, Pierce tells Jim Norton, who was lobbying for Johnson, he is hoping the bank, which owned the property, would take $300,000 for the property. There is also a “letter of intent’’ to pay that much in cash, a letter signed by both Pierce and Norton.
The email, however, shows Pierce did not want to be on the document.
“I am going to have Rex take my name off this LOI and you will be the buyer,’’ Pierce writes to Jim Norton. The “Rex’’ is Rex Griswold, a vice president of a commercial property firm that was handling the offer for the would-be buyers.
That fits into the government’s theory that Johnson was going to be the source of the money – and that Pierce, as a utility regulator voting on matters involving Johnson’s company, sought to hide that information. Defense attorneys have dismissed whatever happened, pointing out the land deal never went through.
Tuchi’s ruling comes as defense attorneys begin their cross-examination of Kelly Norton today. Norton, who is an “unindicted co-conspirator’’ in the case has been granted immunity for her testimony on behalf of the government.
Defense lawyers will seek to undermine her testimony last week about her role in the alleged bribery scheme, including how she said she funneled $31,500 from Johnson to Sherry Pierce and, by extension, her regulator husband. And they already have questioned Kelly Norton’s credibility and whether she has motive to lie because, as she testified, she discovered her husband was having an affair – and it was not his first.
Prosecutors have known about the email from Gary Pierce asking that his name not be on any documents on the land deal for years. But it has taken until now to get Tuchi to let them use it.
What has delayed a ruling on the issue is that Pierce sent the email not directly to Jim Norton but to Kelly. She forwarded it to Jim five days later.
That, according to defense attorneys, made the letter a privileged communication between husband and wife.
The judge did not explain his reason for rejecting that claim. But in their arguments to Tuchi, prosecutors said there were two flaws in the defense argument.
One, they noted, is that there is nothing in the email intended to be a communication between Kelly and Jim.
“The mere forwarding of the Pierce email does not implicate the confidential communications privilege,’’ argued Assistant U.S. Attorney James R. Knapp.
On top of that, Knapp said that the marital privilege “does not apply to communications having to do with present or future crimes in which both spouses are participants.’’ And Kelly Norton, as an “unindicted co-conspirator’’ for her role in the whole bribery scheme, was a participant."
https://kdminer.com/news 12 June 2018
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SAINTS HOLDINGS - They call it "Heritage Arizona"
Southwest’s Fastest Growing Corridor
Location: Coolidge, Arizona in Central Pinal County
Size: 11,438+/- Acres
Water Rights: 34,000 Acre Feet +/- Per Year
Access: Interstates I-10 and I-8
Rail: Union Pacific unit train capable
Future home of the proposed high speed train from Los Angeles
Heritage is a multi-generational community with immediate
developability that is unmatched in scope. . . . Just 45 minutes from the fifth largest city in the United States Heritage spans over 11,438 acres of prime development land in Pinal County, Arizona. With Arizona’s population set to double by 2030, developable land is quickly becoming a scarce commodity. The Phoenix to Tucson corridor has been and is expected to be one of the fastest growing megaregions in the U.S. in the next decades. More than one million people currently work and reside within 35 minutes of Heritage. It is projected that more than 100,000 jobs will be created in the region in the next decades. Welcome to Heritage. See more > http://www.heritagearizona.com/
developability that is unmatched in scope. . . . Just 45 minutes from the fifth largest city in the United States Heritage spans over 11,438 acres of prime development land in Pinal County, Arizona. With Arizona’s population set to double by 2030, developable land is quickly becoming a scarce commodity. The Phoenix to Tucson corridor has been and is expected to be one of the fastest growing megaregions in the U.S. in the next decades. More than one million people currently work and reside within 35 minutes of Heritage. It is projected that more than 100,000 jobs will be created in the region in the next decades. Welcome to Heritage. See more > http://www.heritagearizona.com/
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MORE SAINTS HOLDING:You can easily see where this starts at the top: Salt Lake City, part of The CanaMex Corridor now called The Sun Corridor
Central Arizona Commerce Park
( this image was updated 5/8/17 )
• Conveniently located along the Canamex corridor and I-10 to California
• 45 minutes from Phoenix and Tucson and international airports
• Well established multimodal transportation in road, rail and air with direct routes to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
• Plentiful resources and raw materials for agriculture, aviation and aerospace technology, mining and specialized manufacturing
• Extremely affordable municipal utilities
• Excellent workforce drawhttps://www.cazcp.com/
• 45 minutes from Phoenix and Tucson and international airports
• Well established multimodal transportation in road, rail and air with direct routes to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach
• Plentiful resources and raw materials for agriculture, aviation and aerospace technology, mining and specialized manufacturing
• Extremely affordable municipal utilities
• Excellent workforce drawhttps://www.cazcp.com/
