Cop Shop

Mesa Fire Department has been selected to fly “The United States Flag of Honor” Thursday at noon.

The flag was presented by the State of Texas to Christopher Heisler and is the same flag that was flown over the State Capital while the U.S. was under attack on September 11, 2001.

The Mesa police Department will hold a flag raising ceremony with the Mesa Fire Department Honor Guard at Mesa Fire Station One, 360 E. First Street.

A former federal investigator pleaded guilty Tuesday to bank fraud and forgery.

Scott Allen Gompert, 43, admitted he used his connections from more than eight years as an investigator for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General to locate bank accounts holding criminal proceeds. He then prepared fake seizure warrants for the accounts and served them on banks, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix announced Wednesday.

On three occasions in 2005 and 2006, banks placed cashier’s checks in Gompert’s personal bank account, believing it was an official U.S. government seizure account.

Gompert amassed $1.1 million by lying and forging the signatures of federal magistrate judges.

As a condition of the plea agreement, Gompert will forfeit $550,000 in cash, as well as a development property in Peoria and a 2005 Toyota Avalon.

Gompert faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on the bank fraud charge and five years in prison and $250,000 in fines for the forgery charge.

Judge Lawrence Anderson set Gompert’s sentencing for Jan. 28. before Senior U.S. District Judge Earl H. Carroll.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said she did not know where Gompert is from, nor where the crimes took place.

Hugh Hegyi

Soon-to-be judge Hugh Hegyi, of Chandler, will be sworn in Friday at Maricopa County Superior Court.

The Austrian-born jurist has just finished four years as a superior court commissioner presiding over family law cases and probate and mental health court proceedings.

Prior to becoming a commissioner, Hegyi prosecuted financial fraud for the state attorney general’s office. A superior court press release states he helped write several state statutes, including Arizona’s Used Car Lemon Law. Hegyi has also worked as a civil litigator in private practice; as legal counsel in DNA Legal Services on the Navajo Reservation; and as as a staff assistant to a U.S. Senator.

Hegyi grew up in Germany before moving with his family to Arlington, Va., where he attended high school. He came to Arizona in 1983. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Hegyi will begin his work as a Family Court judge.

The ceremony is set for Nov. 2 at 12:30 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors Auditorium, 205 W. Jefferson, Phoenix.

Aimee Anderson

Governor Janet Napolitano announced today that she has appointed Aimee Anderson of Phoenix to serve as a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.

The new position was created as a response to the county’s growth, Napolitano said in a press release.

Anderson has served as a Maricopa County Superior Court commissioner since 2001. Previously, she was an Assistant Attorney General for the state, where she worked primarily in the Children and Family Protection Division. She has also worked in the county’s Office of the Legal Defender.

Anderson holds her bachelor’s and law degrees from Arizona State University. Napolitano noted Anderson is a former member of the United States Track and Field Team.

One of Mesa’s tough guys couldn’t pick on someone his own size, so he targeted a 74-year-old woman. The 18 to 25 year-old robber snatched a purse from a senior citizen and punched her as she fell to the ground in the parking lot of Dillards at Superstition Springs mall, police said. The robbery occurred about 11:40 p.m. on Tuesday.The woman suffered injuries to her head and arms.Police said the assailant escaped in a white four-door car. He is described as Hispanic 5 feet 7 inches to 5 feet 10 inches and 130 to 150 pounds.

A man died Tuesday in Mesa when he stopped in the fast lane to make a left hand turn and was struck by a vehicle that was trying to avoid colliding with him. Police said William Lieberman, 78, was pronounced dead on the scene after a crash just before 8 a.m. where a vehicle struck his driver’s side. Authorities said Lieberman’s vehicle was making a turn southbound onto N. 88th Street from University Drive, but was using the fast lane instead of the two-way left turn lane. Because of this, two vehicles maneuvered to avoid colliding, but one vehicle struck another and pushed it into Lieberman’s car, police said. Lieberman was pronounced dead at the scene, another driver was flown to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn with serious injuries and a third driver was not injured.

Two Mesa residents have been charged with stealing money from the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief Program.

Andre L. Milton, 40, and April M. Platt, 22, were indicted in federal court Oct. 23 for theft of government property and making false statements.

Court documents show Milton applied for FEMA aid by telephone on Sept. 26, 2005, claiming he lived in Independence, La. He later received more than $4,600 in disaster relief assistance.

Court records show Platt applied for disaster relief totaling more than $5,000, which she received beginning in Sept. 2005.

Milton, Platt and 14 other Arizonans received some type of federally funded assistance related to Hurricanes Rita or Katrina, even though they were all living or working in Arizona at the time of the 2005 disasters.

“This type of fraud diverts funds desperately needed by those recovering from disasters. Not only is this stealing taxpayers’ money but also from the private donations to non-governmental agencies,” said U.S. Attorney Daniel G. Knauss in a press release.

Other federal defendants included: Charles Levought, 54, of Tucson; Kenneth Elbert Hart, 28, of Tucson; Sheila Bernice Johnson, 49, of Goodyear; Stewart T. LaRue, Jr., 74, of Phoenix; and Carolyn Ladeen Richards, 60, of Tucson.

In Sept. 2005, the Department of Justice created the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force to deter, investigate and prosecute disaster-related federal crimes such as charity fraud, identity theft, procurement fraud and insurance fraud. Since 2005, the task force has charged 768 people with hurricane fraud-related crimes.

The Arizona Supreme Court decided Tuesday it will consider a priest’s arguments for why he’s entitled to a jury trial for a misdemeanor charge.

The court agreed to set oral arguments in the case against Dale Fushek, former priest of St. Timothy’s Catholic Community in Mesa, who was charged in Nov. 2005 with having sexually related discussions during confessions with teenagers and exposing himself to teens as he got into his hot tub.

Fushek’s attorney, Tom Hoidal, argued before the Court of Appeals in June that the priest is entitled to a jury trial because he could be required to register as a sex offender if he’s convicted — a serious punishment.

But the Court of Appeals rejected that claim. The court found that jury trials are reserved for “serious” offenses, such as those punishable by at least six months in jail, and for offenses that historically have been promised a jury trial. The case against Fushek didn’t qualify in either situation, wrote presiding Judge Lawrence Winthrop.

Fushek faces one count of assault, five counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and one count of indecent exposure. Fushek served as St. Timothy’s priest for 20 years and founded the national Life Teen program.

Police are searching for two people who pointed a handgun at two women and robbed them as they were loading groceries into their car.The robbery occurred just after 6 p.m. on Monday in the 700 block of East Guadalupe, police said.One of the robbers approached the women, pointed a gun and stole a purse. Both assailants then drove away west on Guadalupe.The man with the handgun is described as Hispanic, about 25 years old, 5 feet 7 inches and 200 pounds with dark hair. He was last seen wearing a blue and white striped polo shirt and jean shorts.There is no description of the second robber.The escape vehicle is described as a white or gold older-model, 4-door passenger car with tinted windows and a primer grey-colored rear trunk. Police ask anyone with information to call 9480) 350-8311.

Audio recordings obtained through a telephonic wiretap, a house bug and a vehicle bug will be allowed as evidence in the trials of serial shooting suspects Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Roland Steinle denied a defense motion to exclude the audio recordings as evidence on Oct. 12. Hausner’s attorney Kenneth Everett had claimed the wiretap and bugs violated the defendants’ constitutional rights.

But Steinle wrote in his ruling that Judge James Keppel had already decided that investigators had probable cause to gather the evidence. Procedurally, the court does not reconsider the same question in the same case.

Transcripts of the recordings released in July revealed that on a single evening, the suspects in last year’s serial shootings discussed their death count, compared themselves to another serial killer and spoke of disguises.

Dieteman told Hausner: “The D.C. sniper is more experienced than us with more technology and know how.”

A few minutes later, the duo discussed the news media’s version of the death count: six.

Hausner said: “The death toll is higher than that. What about the (expletive) guy I shot at 27th Avenue and Northern?” He then called Dieteman and himself “pioneers” in killing.

“It feels good, doesn’t it?” Hausner said.

Later, Dieteman talked about altering his appearance by tanning and dyeing his head and facial hair black so he’d look Hispanic, the transcripts state.