County Court Records

 

A disappointed Mike Carona emerges from US Courthouse in Santa Ana following his sentencing to 5 1/2 years in prison and a fine of $125,000. Wife Deborah is by his side. The former Orange County Sheriff’s sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford Monday. The judge has the discretion to sentence Carona to anything from probation to 20 years in prison. Carona’s wife Deborah accompanied her husband to court.

 

 

Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona is accompanied by his wife Deborah as Carona arrives for sentencing by U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford in Santa Ana Monday. The judge sentenced Carona 66 months in federal prison and fined him $125,000. Carona could have received anything from probation to 20 years in prison. U.S. Attorneys had ask judge Guilford to sentence Carona to at least 9 years.

In a bid for leniency the former Sheriff said he regrets the words he used on a secret recording that led to his witness tampering conviction but did not take any responsibility for illegally trying to influence the grand jury testimony of his former assistant Don Haidl.Carona is charged with asking on Haidl to withhold information about cash and gifts during a conversation at a Newport Beach restaurant in August 2007. Haidl by than had cut a deal with the feds and was cooperating by using a federal hidden microphone. It showed Carona using the F word often plotting to get their testimonies straight.   In a letter filed Friday along with dozens of others from his wife, son and a cross-section of supporters who advocate probation, Carona tells U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford that on the advice of his attorneys he cannot speak about the witness tampering charge.”I want you to know, though, how sorry I am that I permitted myself to be drawn into that conversation with Don Haidl,” Carona wrote. “When Don started talking the way he did . . . I should have gotten up and walked out of the restaurant. I wish more than anything I had done that.”

Carona’s letter was one of 71 filed by people such as the mother of 5-year-old murder victim Samantha Runnion and the head of a popular vodka distillery. Many of his supporters strike a similar theme, asking the judge to consider Carona’s entire public service record, especially the good he has done for at-risk and missing children. Some took the media and prosecutors to task, saying they had twisted the facts at the expense of justice.

The most passionate pleas came from his wife Deborah Carona and son Matthew, 18.”Please don’t destroy us any more. Enough is enough,” Carona’s wife urged the judge, recounting the financial, psychological and physical toll already caused by a trial that she said was turned into a “salacious soap opera” by prosecutors. “I pray that this terror will end.”

“I could honestly not ask for any more of a father and without him in my life I would fall. I feel he is my rock that I am built upon and without him I would crumble,” the teenager wrote. “I ask you from the bottom of my heart to see the truth and understand that my dad is not the man that the prosecution tried to portray him as during the trial.”Probation officers recommended Carona serve 6 1/2 years in prison.   

In his letter, Carona said that he has been humiliated, humbled and financially ruined by the case.  

Carona Trail Archive

 

The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team, based in Phoenix, Arizona. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
On January 22, 1968, the NBA awarded expansion franchises to an ownership group from Phoenix and one from Milwaukee.
The primary investors in the Phoenix franchise at its inception had close ties to Tucson, Arizona’s second largest city. They were:
• Richard Bloch, a Southern California investment broker/real estate developer and former Tucson resident (no relation to the Richard Bloch who was the co-founder of tax preparation provider H&R Block).
• Karl Eller, owner of a major outdoor advertising company and one of the Phoenix area’s most influential business leaders at that time. He was a former football player for The University of Arizona;
• Donald Pitt, a Tucson-based attorney;
• Don Diamond, Tucson-based real estate investor who eventually replaced Eller on the ownership managing team.
All four men were alumni of The University of Arizona. According to the history section of the Suns website, other investors in the Suns included prominent entertainers such as Andy Williams and Henry Mancini.
According to the Suns website, the original logo was designed by Stanley Fabe, owner of a Tucson printing company, for $200.
The new Suns ownership group hired former Chicago Bulls executive Jerry Colangelo to be general manager (he was 28 years of age when he took the position). Colangelo in turn hired Johnny “Red” Kerr (as of this writing a broadcaster with the Bulls) to be the first head coach of the Suns. Kerr was forced to resign midway through the 1969-70 season, and Colangelo himself coached a few games. Cotton Fitzsimmons replaced Colangelo as Suns coach for the 1970-71 season. He took the team to their first winning season, with a final record of 48-34.
Fitzsimmons would return to the head coaching job in the late 1980s; he would go on to be greatly loved by Suns fans, wildly popular (and successful) as a coach, broadcaster and executive with the Suns organization.
In the 1970s the Suns experienced mild success, combining the talents of such players as Dick Van Arsdale (The Original Sun), his twin brother Tom Van Arsdale, Hall of Famer Connie Hawkins, Len “Truck” Robinson, Alvan Adams, and center Neal Walk. In 1976, the year the movie Rocky was released, the Suns proved to be a real-life basketball version of Rocky. They finished the season with 42 wins and 40 losses, but shockingly they beat the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors in the playoffs and went on to play the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, giving the Celtics a tough battle before falling in 6 games. Game 5 was a triple-overtime classic that is considered by many to be the greatest game in NBA history, with Suns forward Gar Heard hitting a buzzer beating rainbow jump shot (“The Shot”) to send the contest into the third overtime at Boston Garden.
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the Suns enjoyed several successful seasons, making the playoffs for 8 seasons in a row. Problems arose however, on and off court, in the mid ’80s. In 1987 the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office indicted 13 people on drug-related charges, three of whom were active Suns players (James Edwards, Jay Humphries and Grant Gondrezick). These indictments were partially based on testimony from star player Walter Davis, who was given immunity. No defendants ever went to trial: two of the players went into a prosecution diversion program, while another received probation. Nevertheless, the scandal, although now perceived in many respects to be a witchhunt, tarnished the reputation of the franchise both nationally and within the community. The scandal did provide an opening for general manager Colangelo to lead a group that bought the team from its owners for $44 million, a record at that time.
With a drug scandal and the loss of promising young center Nick Vanos, who was killed in the crash of Northwest Airlines Flight 255 after taking off from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the franchise was in turmoil on and off the court. The Suns’ luck began to turn around in 1987, however, with the acquisition from the Cleveland Cavaliers of Kevin Johnson, Mark West, and Tyrone Corbin for popular power forward Larry Nance. In 1988, Tom Chambers came over from Seattle as the first unrestricted free agent in NBA history, Jeff Hornacek a 1986 second round pick continued to develop, “Thunder” Dan Majerle was drafted with the 14th pick in the draft, which they obtained from Cleveland in the Kevin Johnson trade, and the team began a 13-year playoff streak. Kurt Rambis was added from the Charlotte Hornets in 1989, and the team (coached by Fitzsimmons), in a shocking upset, beat the Los Angeles Lakers in 5 games that season before falling to the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals. In 1991, The Suns stormed to a 55-27 record, however they lost in the first round to the Utah Jazz 3-1. In 1992, the Suns cruised to a 53-29 record during the regular season. While having sent four players to the all-star game in the last two years (Chambers, Johnson, Hornacek and Majerle), the Suns were poised to make a serious run at the NBA Finals. They showed their poise by sweeping the San Antonio Spurs in 3 games. But once again the Suns fell in five games to the Trail Blazers in the conference semifinals, however the series was punctuated by an electrifying game 4, in which the Suns lost in double overtime 153-151. The Suns were yet again denied a shot at a title, but in subsequent seasons enjoyed even greater success than ever before.

Jack Hutchings, A Horatio Alger Award winner some years ago has been living out his later years in life much like some would say Hugh Hefner. Although married to Barbara Jean Hutchings, Jack Hutchings still finds time to cruise the world on his yachts and find beautiful woman to fondle. Most recently and according to seminole county court records Jack Hutchings built a mansion in Costa Rica to enlighten on his fetish for young girls. The alleged court papers say Hutchings new girlfriends is 11 years old! David H. simmons a Former Florida State rep. and running for Florida Senate in 2010 is Jack Hutchings attorney, he is doing everything to shut down the allegations as a good attorney should do at $500/hr…..Jack Hutchings- Oh…he’s a tomcat!. H

Illegal drunk driver takes Highland High School teen life & maybe 10 1/2 years how does supervised probation work ? Does he get a green card ? Will he be allowed to remain in America possibility drinking & driving again ? Has La Raza issued a press release on this matter ? So can this illegal remain in America ?Attorneys are close to a plea deal with a driver accused of causing a collision that killed a Highland High School teen last fall, according to documents filed Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court.

If no agreement is reached, Manuel Contreras-Galdean, 33, will be tried Oct. 26 on charges of aggravated assault and manslaughter in the death of Kelly Tracy, 16, of Mesa, the records show.

Contreas-Galdean has been held without bond in a Maricopa County jail since his arrest Nov. 15.
He also is under an immigration hold; Mesa police said he has been living in the country illegally.

Attorneys this week updated the status of plea negotiations in the case management plan submitted to the court, writing that both parties “anticipate a non-trial resolution of this case.”

Prosecutors want Contreras-Galdean to serve no less than 10-and-a-half years in prison and supervised probation if he pleads guilty, the documents stated.

Police said Kelly and her older brother were driving to meet with their marching band Nov. 15 when Contreras-Galdean turned in front of them near Guadalupe and Sossaman roads. Kelly’s brother, Matthew Tracy, sustained minor injuries. Kelly died at the hospital.

Investigators said Contreras-Galdean was drunk during the crash and three hours afterward when they obtained a blood sample, court documents show.

Police alleged his blood-alcohol content was .19 – more than twice the legal limit.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2009/07/22/20090722gr-caseupdate0725.html