Cop Shop

Two employees of the Vee Quiva Casino in Laveen have been indicted for allegedly stealing $9,400 in non-existent slot machine jackpots.

Jason C. Beal, 31, and Fernando Lechuga, 25, both of Phoenix, will be tried in January for theft by an officer or employee of a gaming establishment on Indian lands. If found guilty, they each face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million.

According to federal prosecutors, Lechuga, a slot attendant, and Beal, a slot assistant supervisor, wrote and signed jackpot slips for $4,900 and $4,500. A review of surveillance tapes confirmed the jackpots never occurred.

A Mexican man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday to five years in prison for leading sheriff’s deputies and police officers on a chase that caused an officer to fatally shoot a man.

Ramon Emilio Gil-Galindo, 27, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death before U.S. District Court Judge Earl Carroll, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The death occurred shortly after a Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy stopped Gil-Galindo for speeding on May 10, 2006. Gil-Galindo, who was transporting eight undocumented travelers in a stolen pickup truck, sped away as the deputy approached the vehicle, prosecutors said.

A chase ensued. Eventually a Coolidge police officer threw stop sticks, then shot at the truck several times when Gil-Galindo tried to run him down. One bullet struck and killed Ramiro Aragon-Guerrero, who was sitting in the front seat, prosecutors said. The truck escaped at approximately 100 miles per hour, but was later recovered.

Authorities said Gil-Galindo was in the country illegally and had been deported previously on October 27, 2005, through Nogales, Ariz.

After he’s released from prison, he’ll spend five years on probation.

Attorney General Terry Goddard joined 11 other states Wednesday in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over new regulations reducing public access to information about toxic chemicals.

The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the EPA’s revised regulations and return to the former reporting requirements so that public access to environmental information is not restricted, according to a press release from the attorney general.

The suit involves the country’s only public database of toxic chemical use, storage, and release. Companies are required to provide information for the database, including the types and amounts of toxic chemicals stored at the company’s facilities and the quantities they release into the environment.

“These new regulations put our communities at risk,” said Goddard in a prepared statement.

“In Arizona, we’ve seen fires involving toxic chemicals, and knowing what chemicals are involved helps firefighters and public safety personnel take the necessary precautions to protect themselves as well as the surrounding neighborhoods. Without this information, our public safety personnel and our neighborhoods are at much greater risk of being exposed to unknown hazards during a fire or chemical spill,” he said.

In December 2006, the EPA issued revised regulations that, according to the attorney general, have weakened the utility of the public database by reducing the amount of information companies must report about the toxic chemicals covered by the program. For many toxic chemicals, the EPA’s new regulations substantially increased the quantity of chemical waste a facility can generate without providing details about it, Goddard said.

“Citizens have a right to know about these dangerous substances, and agencies and emergency responders need to have this information to protect the health and safety of our communities,” said Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Director Steve Owens in a press release.

Congress enacted, and President Ronald Reagan signed into law, the Toxics Release Inventory program (the public database) in 1986, after the Bhopal toxic chemical catastrophe in India. In 1984, a deadly cloud of methyl isocyanate accidentally released from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, and killed or seriously injured more than 2,000 people. Shortly thereafter, a serious chemical release occurred at a sister plant in West Virginia.

The 11 other states involved in the suit are: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

A copy of the complaint is available on the Attorney General’s Web site at www.azag.gov. The lawsuit was filed today in U.S. District Court in New York State.

A man and woman forced their way into an apartment with five occupants and made off with cell phones, cash and a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix Tuesday.
According to a Mesa police summary, one of the victims answered a knock at the door at 5:20 a.m. at 432 S. Mesa Drive.
A man described as white or Hispanic in his early twenties pointed a rifle at the person answering the door and forced his way in.
The man was 5 feet, 9 inches, 180 pounds, had short, dark hair, goatee, a white shirt, black jacket and black pants.
The woman was described as dark-skinned Hispanic or black, in her early twenties, 5 feet, 3 inches, 120 pounds, with long brown hair and red sandals.

A motorcyclist crashed and died near east Mesa late Tuesday as he was being chased by Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies. The identity of the motorcyclist was not released.

Sheriff’s spokesman detective Aaron Douglas said deputies tried to pull over the motorcyclist a little before 9:30 p.m. near Rittenhouse and Hawes roads. “They wanted to stop him and apparently he took off,” Douglas said. A chase ensued and ended about 4 miles away at Power and Williams Field roads when the motorcyclist crashed. He died at the scene, Douglas said.

Map: The chase

Police caught a suspected teen car burglar targeting cars in Tempe Marketplace Monday and also nabbed the boy suspected of buying the stolen goods.A 17-year-old Tempe teen and his 16-year-old friend, who lives in Scottsdale were both arrested and taken to Maricopa County’s Southeast Juvenile Detention Center. The 17-year-old faces possible burglary charges and trafficking in stolen property and the 16-year-old faces one possible charge of trafficking in stolen property.A security guard patrolling Tempe Marketplace about noon saw the 17-year-old attempting to remove a stereo from the dashboard of a parked vehicle near the Barnes & Noble book store.  But when the security guard confronted the boy, he ran away.  Police captured him a short time later a block southwest of the shopping center.During questioning, the boy admitted to burglarizing another vehicle the day before in the same area. He told police the name of the boy he sold it to and police also tracked him down.

Mark Merila

The man charged with killing two Mesa teenage girls in 1984 has been returned to Arizona and has pleaded not guilty.

Mark Merila, 43, was extradited from California and pleaded not guilty to the murders Friday before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Michael Gordon.

In Aug. 2006, a grand jury indicted Merila for first-degree murder in the deaths of 16-year-old Kelly Cooper and 14-year-old Ermalinda Ianuzzi. The indictment came 22 years after the girls’ bodies were discovered hidden under desert brush near the Arizona Canal about five miles north of Mesa.

DNA evidence taken from Cooper’s clothes and “other investigation techniques” tied the case to Merila, said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Aug. 2006. The match was made in 2005 through the nationwide DNA database.

After authorities located Merila in San Diego, he admitted to Maricopa County detectives that he was celebrating his 20th birthday on Aug. 25, 1984, in the area where the bodies were found.

“He admitted to having sex with an unknown girl. He did not confess to any murder,” Arpaio said.

Sheriff’s officials said they are still pursuing a second suspect in the case.

Gilbert police arrested a 21-year-old man Monday on suspicion of aggravated shoplifting, illegally possessing a firearm and assault after he allegedly pulled a handgun while stealing a caffeinated malt liquor from an Albertson’s.
According to Sgt. Mark Marino, Gilbert police spokesman, Jacob Nathaniel Cooper walked into the store at 750 N. Gilbert Road about 2 p.m. and grabbed a can of Tilt malt liquor.
He passed the cash register and pulled a gun from underneath his shirt when a security guard asked him to stop.
Cooper never pointed the gun at anyone, but he made it outside and dropped it in a trashcan before the security guard wrestled him to the ground.

Cooper never pointed the gun at anyone, but he made it outside and dropped it in a trashcan before the security guard wrestled him to the ground.

A video has been posted online of a man exposing himself in public in Valley stores and shopping malls, ABC 15 reported today. The video shows the man exposing himself in front of customers at the Arrowhead Towne Center mall in Glendale and at local Wal-Mart and Barnes and Noble stores.

In the video, it appears the man is filming himself by placing the camera on a shelf before pulling down his pants, the news station reported. Glendale, Phoenix and Peoria police departments are now investigating the case after ABC 15 reported it, but the agencies say no victims have yet come forward.

The news station has a censored version of the video posted on its Web site.