Mesa cop accused of illegal background checks

A Mesa police officer has been charged in connection with illegally checking backgrounds on 10 people over the course of more than three years.

Officer Daniel Albert Coronado, 37, of Gilbert, was indicted Tuesday on four counts of computer tampering and four counts of unauthorized access to criminal history.

The case was first investigated internally by Mesa police after it was uncovered during a separate criminal investigation. It has since been turned over to the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Coronado has been suspended with pay, police said.

"I don't know his motives," said Mesa police spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing.

According to the indictment, Coronado is accused of using police computer terminals to access the Arizona Criminal Justice Information System and computerized criminal history records between January 2005 and June 2008. The indictment accuses Coronado of illegally logging onto the computer terminals 149 times and accessing the criminal records of about 10 people, police said.

Since officers are assigned a login ID number, it's easy for investigators to see every time someone logs in and who they search.

Wessing said the people whom Coronado allegedly looked up were those he associated with in some manner.

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Florence detention officer arrested for stealing inmate monies

Detention Sergeant Amado Martinez, an employee of the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Detention Facility, was arrested by investigators of the Pinal County Attorney’s Office.

Utilizing the checks and balances system put in place by Sheriff Chris Vasquez over all financial operations at the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, a staff employee at the Pinal County Adult Detention Center discovered the potential of the alleged theft of inmate monies by Sgt. Martinez.

Due to the nature and severity of the complaint and allegations made by the employee, Sheriff Vasquez contacted the Pinal County Attorney’s Office and requested that they conduct a thorough criminal investigation into the possible theft of monies.

As a result of the investigation, Mr. Martinez was indicted on 18 charges, which include forgery, theft and identity theft. Mr. Martinez was arrested and booked by the Pinal County Attorney’s Office.

Mr. Martinez was initially booked into the Pinal County Detention Facility with a $100,000.00 secured bond. He has been placed on administrative leave without pay pending the outcome of an administrative investigation.

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Despite attacks on media by McCain campaign, case studies show disparate coverage in McCain's favor

The media have for months reported complaints by Sen. John McCain's campaign that they have favored his opponent in their coverage of the presidential race, while making little attempt to assess accuracy of those complaints or to confirm or refute them. Media Matters for America has undertaken a review of the media's coverage of two stories negatively affecting or reflecting on Sen. Barack Obama and two stories negatively affecting or reflecting on McCain and compared the extent of media attention to each. Specifically, Media Matters compared the media's coverage of Obama's association with Chicago developer Antoin Rezko to the media's coverage of McCain's associations with donors for whom McCain reportedly facilitated land deals. Media Matters also compared coverage of Obama's association with former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers to coverage of McCain's association with G. Gordon Liddy, whom Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman has described as McCain's "own Bill Ayers."

Media Matters found that while the five major newspapers -- the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post -- and the three evening network news broadcasts have frequently mentioned Obama's ties to Ayers and Rezko, they have rarely mentioned McCain's dealings with donors whom he reportedly benefited and have completely ignored McCain's association with Liddy. Indeed, since The New York Times first reported that McCain facilitated land deals that benefited major donors, these media outlets have mentioned those deals in only six additional reports, but news reports and editorial and opinion pieces by or in those media outlets have mentioned Obama's ties to Rezko -- who was convicted in June in a case in which Obama was never accused of any wrongdoing -- 44 times during that same time period. Moreover, while these same media outlets have frequently mentioned Obama's ties to Ayers -- 69 mentions so far in 2008 -- they have yet to mention McCain's connections to Liddy, whom McCain has praised and repeatedly associated with in public and in campaign settings. In addition to serving more than four years in prison for his role in the Watergate break-in and the Daniel Ellsberg case, Liddy also admitted that he plotted to murder journalist Jack Anderson; plotted to murder fellow Republican operative E. Howard Hunt; and plotted to firebomb the Brookings Institution. Liddy also reportedly gave advice on how to shoot agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and reportedly admitted to naming shooting targets after the Clintons.

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Can Obama Win and Lose Ohio at the Same Time?

Ohio attorneys pushing to convince a federal judge in Franklin County to lift the stay on a case alleging Republican Party operatives and Bush family loyalists cyber-rigged the vote in certain Ohio counties in 2004, filed two affidavits on Wednesday from data security and academic research experts on voting. The attorneys hoped to convince the court to lift a stay on their case, allowing them to issue a subpoena to Mike Connell, a long-time information technology handyman who worked in both Ohio and Florida, who they want to depose now in an effort to see whether the Matrix-like system he helped build in Ohio, that some say put Ohio in the win column in 2004 for President Bush instead of his Democratic opponent John Kerry, a senator from Massachusettes, is still rigged to go off on Election Day in November.

Al Gore received hundreds of thousands more votes than George W. Bush did in 2000 nationwide, but didn't become president, even though a recount of votes after the election in Florida showed that he also won more votes there, too. Some say John Kerry won more votes in Ohio in 2004, but due to dozens of Election Day irregularities, some maybe orchestrated while others were just vulnerabilities in Ohio's system of voting, lost the state by 118,601 votes. So the question of whether Barack Obama, who currently trails John McCain in Ohio but who leads him in recent polls nationwide by four percentage points (49-45, Gallup) can both win and loose Ohio. If three Ohio attorneys get the signal to re-energize their now moribund lawsuit, we all might learn somethings that we need to know but that also might scare us straight, and show us that the wacky election conspirators the news media has marginalized were not as wacky as first thought.

The stay, which was lifted by the court of Judge Algernon Marbley last Friday after Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, who had previously issued motions to keep it in place least it interfer with plans for the upcoming presidential election, agreed to let plaintiff attorney's pursue more discovery by moving forward with the issusing of subpeonas to Connell and, maybe, to others like Karl Rove, President Bush's political adviser and master Republican strategist, who the attorneys and those helping them think a path of breadcrumbs will lead to. The attorneys say Connell can blow the whistle on how democracy was compromised in Ohio and other states, like Florida, where he was given the keys to the castle of cyber systems.

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Mesa police officer indicted on 8 felony charges

A Mesa police officer was indicted for eight felonies counts on Wednesday.

According to Attorney General Terry Goddard, Department of Public Safety Director Roger Vanderpool, and Mesa Police Chief George Gascón, 37-year-old Daniel Albert Coronado of Gilbert was indicted on four counts of computer tampering and four counts of unauthorized access to criminal history, all Class 6 felonies.

Coronado is suspected of using police computer terminals to access the Arizona criminal justice information system and/or computerized criminal history records for purposes other than his official law enforcement duties between January 2005 and June 2008.

Coronado illegally logged on to the computer terminals 149 times and accessed the criminal records of nearly 10 individuals, according to the indictment.

An internal investigation was conducted by the Mesa Police Department, which was later turned over to the Department of Public Safety.

Coronado has been suspended from the Mesa Police Department pending the outcome of this case, according to authorities.

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Officer suspended after computer-tampering indictments

A Mesa police officer was suspended after he was indicted on charges of computer tampering and unauthorized access to criminal history records.

The indictment accuses Officer Daniel Albert Coronado, 37, of Gilbert, of illegally logging on to computer terminals 149 times and accessing the criminal records of about 10 people, according to a Mesa police press release.

Coronado is charged with illegally tapping into the records between January 2005 and July 2008, the release said.

There was no mention of his motive or his intended purpose in accessing the information.

Sgt. Ed Wessing, a Mesa police spokesman, said detectives came across the suspected illegal activity as part of another investigation. The case was turned over to the state Department of Public Safety to avoid the appearance of impropriety or preferential treatment.

“It's disappointing,'' Wessing said, adding he is not aware of a similar case in Mesa.

Coronado had been working as a detective in the Superstition district, he said. Coronado is an 11-year veteran. He joined Mesa police in January 1997.

The indictment was returned Tuesday by a state grand jury and the case is being prosecuted by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard's office.

Anne Hilby, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's office, said Coronado either knew the people whose records he accessed or knew them through another person.

“It was not at random. It was targeted,'' Hilby said, but she would not disclose a motive.

Coronado was indicted on four counts of computer tampering and four counts of unauthorized access to criminal history, all Class 6 felonies.

He is suspended with pay pending the outcome of the case.

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MS-13 Gang Member Arrested in Arizona Charged With California Murder

Nelson Antonio Garcia, 35, of El Salvador, charged in Arizona in August 2008 with the federal crime of Reentry after Removal has been recently charged in Superior Court of the State of California (in the City and County of San Francisco) for the 1998 murder of Daniel Solorzano. He is reported to be a member of the gang known as MS-13.

Garcia, aka Jesus Verona, Maurisio Antonio Lopez-Lopez, Marco Galindo Aria, Nelson Antonio Lopez-Garcia and Marco Arias, was arrested by the U.S. Border Patrol, Yuma Sector, on August 18, 2008. Border Patrol officials informed authorities in San Francisco of his arrest and on August 27, 2008, a warrant was issued by San Francisco authorities for Garcia’s arrest based upon a prior felony complaint. On September 3, 2008, a felony complaint was filed on the above-referenced murder charges as well as charges relating to the attempted murder of another man.

Criminal complaints are simply the method by which a person is charged with criminal activity and raise no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation in the federal case was conducted by the U.S. Border Patrol, Yuma Sector. The federal prosecution is being handled by Bret Alexander, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Yuma. The investigation in the California case is being handled by the San Francisco Police Department Homicide Detail and is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney George Butterworth of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office.

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Terrorism Financing Case Back in Court

The government's largest terrorism financing case returned to a courtroom in Dallas this week as prosecutors once again try to secure criminal convictions against five men for allegedly raising more than $12 million in what investigators call "blood money" to support overseas suicide bombings.

The case against former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas charity that authorities shuttered seven years ago because of its alleged links to the militant Palestinian group Hamas, comes nearly a year after a previous trial ended in disappointment for the government. Jurors acquitted one man outright on 31 charges and deadlocked on charges against the others. Senior U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish declared a mistrial.

The turbulent jury deliberations ignited debate about the strength of the government's evidence and its pursuit of financiers who back terrorist groups. In the years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, authorities increasingly have accused suspects of providing "material support" to hostile groups, but the Justice Department's trial record in such cases has been mixed.

Federal prosecutors last month moved to streamline the case, dismissing 29 charges apiece against two key defendants and training their fire on counts of conspiracy to fund terrorism and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Opening arguments begin tomorrow.

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DUI Lawyers - How to become one of the good ones

DUI law is getting tougher each year. It is a political hot issue that is always at the forefront, especially in election years. With the growing publicity and penalties, more lawyers are trying to break into the practice of DUI defense.

While there is always room for more good DUI Defense Lawyers, the glut of attorneys advertising that they do DUI defense work makes it difficult for the average consumer to sort out the experienced from the neophyte.

If you need a DUI defense lawyer, don't assume that just because a lawyer has been in practice for a long time that he or she is qualified to handle drunk driving cases with the skill necessary to get a great result. DWI defense is now a highly specialized field. It takes dedication and a near exclusive focus to be near the top of the field. This is because there is a vast amount of DUI law and science to master. There is also the art of negotiation and the theater of trial. These skills can not be learned overnight.

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Appeals court upholds Arizona immigration law

A federal appeals court upheld an Arizona law that penalizes businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants and requires them to verify the employment status of their workers.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision rejected a challenge by business and civil-rights groups that contend the law infringes on federal immigration powers.

The law, intended to lessen the economic incentive for immigrants to sneak into the country, imposes civil penalties on employers by suspending or revoking their business licenses when they are found to have knowingly hired illegal immigrants.

While it upheld the law, a three-judge panel of the court left the door open for other challenges, saying no one has been accused of violating the law since it took effect nine months ago.

Republican state Rep. Russell Pearce of Mesa, the author of the law, said the ruling is a big win for the movement to get state and local governments to crack down on illegal immigration.

"Locals are just as responsible for the crisis in America in this invasion (of illegal immigrants) as the federal government," Pearce said.

The civil-rights groups that challenged the law are considering whether to appeal the ruling to the 9th Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jonathan Weissglass, an attorney for the groups, said the law and the ruling could create problems for employers who have operations in more than one state because states could have different sets of hiring rules.

"What the 9th Circuit has allowed is everyone can enact its own laws regarding immigrant employment, which would create chaos," Weissglass said.

It's unclear whether the business groups that challenged the law will seek an appeal. Two lawyers representing the groups were unavailable for comment Wednesday because they were out of the country.

Lawyers for the state argued that while a similar federal hiring law prevents states from imposing civil or criminal penalties against businesses for illegal hirings, the federal law lets states take licensing actions against violators. The appellate court agreed with that argument.


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