New Times files a prelude to a lawsuit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio, County Attorney Andy Thomas and a discredited ex-special prosecutor on behalf of its readers and the Constitution

After two years, Pinal County returned the matter to Thomas last spring. As Manning put it in New Times' notice, "the Pinal County Attorney's Office did not share the Defendants' passion for political revenge."

This time, despite Thomas' already-declared conflict, he appointed his friend Dennis Wilenchik as special prosecutor in the New Times matter.

A lawyer who had made his name in toxic-mold litigation, Wilenchik was known for his bull-in-a-china shop approach to civil law. He used the same tactics against the new objects of his prosecutorial zeal.

As Lacey and Larkin revealed in the grand jury subpoena article, Wilenchik demanded "every note, tape, and record from every story written about Sheriff Arpaio by every [New Times] reporter over a period of years."

Acting on his own (remember, no grand jury ever existed in the matter), Wilenchik hit New Times, as well as reporters John Dougherty and Paul Rubin individually, with subpoenas.

Rubin's personal subpoena was especially egregious, as it sought everything Rubin had used to write his cover story "Below the Belt" (September 20, 2007), which documented Buckeye Police Chief Dan Saban's failed lawsuit against Arpaio for the 2004 smear involving his adoptive mother. Wilenchik defended Arpaio in the case, and his unsavory out-of-court activities were criticized in the article. The Rubin subpoena, sent the day after New Times published the article, sought records that had nothing to do with the home-address matter.

"Rubin's only 'misstep' was in criticizing Arpaio and Wilenchik," reads New Times' notice. "His story was not even remotely relevant to the matter Wilenchik had been hired to pursue (a 2004 story Rubin did not author).

"In the column disclosing the profound corruption of the investigation that led to their arrest, Lacey and Larkin succinctly summarized what was all too clear: 'It is impossible to view Rubin's subpoena as anything other than what it was: an act of vengeance.'"

Wilenchik also demanded in overarching subpoenas sent to New Times and to Dougherty all information on New Times' online readers from 2004 to 2007, including IP addresses, browsing habits, cookies, and domain names. Wilenchik had cast a wide, unprecedented dragnet. The targets were not just journalists and publishers, but readers and anyone who had pointed their Web browser toward New Times' Web site.

But it took something else to push Lacey and Larkin to write "Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution." It took Wilenchik's attempt to establish ex parte communications with Judge Anna Baca, who presides over county grand juries. Wilenchik telephoned political fixer Carol Turoff, a recent two-term member of the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, and asked her to set up a meeting with the judge, a close friend. Turoff's spouse, Larry Turoff, is a senior member of County Attorney Thomas' management team.

Carol Turoff's late-night call to Baca did not sit well with the judge. She called the stab at a behind-the scenes conversation "absolutely inappropriate."

But the mold-litigation specialist was unbowed by even a presiding judge's admonition. After all, he had just emerged from a battle with another powerful Superior Court judge.

He had publicly attacked Judge Timothy Ryan, an associate presiding criminal judge, as part of Andy Thomas' assault on the local judiciary. Thomas was annoyed over certain judges' failure to deny bail to illegal aliens in Proposition 100 cases. He was particularly miffed at Judge Ryan, whom Wilenchik termed a "danger to public safety." Incredibly, Wilenchik asked Ryan to recuse himself from all cases brought by Thomas' office. Also, he sought the recusal of all 93 Superior Court judges on the question of whether Ryan should step aside.

The move failed, but Wilenchik was emboldened. So much so that he asked for the secret meeting with Baca while the New Times case was pending.

Lacey and Larkin felt that the pugnacious lawyer's flagrant disregard of the rules left them no choice but to engage in their act of civil disobedience.

"Publishing the terms of a grand jury subpoena is a minor misdemeanor," observes Manning in the notice, referring to Lacey and Larkin's article on the subpoenas. "The statute was designed primarily to [protect] witnesses, targets of investigation and others from negative publicity.' It was not designed to insulate from public disclosure by a newspaper [the] unethical and unlawful behavior of a prosecutor who is misusing the grand jury to attack the newspaper, its reporters, and its readers' right to privacy."

The retort of Wilenchik and the MCSO was swift. The same day that Lacey and Larkin dropped their bombshell, Wilenchik filed an Application for Order to Show Cause, demanding that the two New Times executives and their lawyers be placed in custody, and that New Times be slapped with the staggering fines mentioned above.

The MCSO and Wilenchik's office collaborated on the evening arrests of the paper's founders for writing "Breathtaking Abuse of the Constitution." Larkin got the worst of it. With his children in the house, he was hauled away in handcuffs in an unmarked car bearing Sonoran plates. The Selective Enforcement Unit even threatened to arrest Larkin's wife when she demanded that they show proper identification. Lacey was collared in front of his girlfriend and taken to the Fourth Avenue Jail. He was released at 4 the next morning.