Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

October 19, 2007

Michael Lacey jailed for exposing Arpaio's spying

By Brenda Norrell
http://www.blogspot.com/

Michael Lacey, who created Phoenix New Times and is now executive editor of Village Voice Media, spent the night in jail last night for exposing Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's snooping, a big secret of a Grand Jury.
Lacey was always destined for grand things. Lacey shared an audience bench with me in the federal courtroom of the infamous Earth First! Trial in Prescott, Arizona, when I was a stringer for Associated Press. (The trial was the one where the FBI agent drove the so-called saboteurs to do their supposed monkey-wrenching and Peg Millet outran the Swat Team.)
Anyway, I'll always remember Lacey for his description of the tense federal prosecutor.
Lacey wrote something like this in New Times: She came into the courtroom, grabbed her balls and shot the judge a high-five.

Village Voice Media Executive Editor Released From Jail and Vows to Fight
posted: 11:08 AM, October 19, 2007 by Michael Clancy
Two top executives of Village Voice Media, the parent company of the Voice, were arrested Thursday night and released from jail early Friday morning for revealing information about a secret grand jury proceeding in a story in the Phoenix New Times.
The story—headlined "Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution", and written by Michael Lacey, Village Voice Media executive editor, and Jim Larkin, VVM chief executive— detailed how Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio used a wide-ranging subpoena "in an attempt to research the identity, purchasing habits, and browsing proclivities of our online readership."
http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/runninscared/archives/2007/10/village_voice_m.php

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