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

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.

Before a gaggle of television, radio, and print reporters, Lacey said after his release, "We're being arrested for raising hell. It's sort of a tradition journalism has."

A tsunami of public outrage followed. Outlets as varied as slate.com, the New York Times, Reason magazine, the Washington Post, and gawker.com reported on the arrests. The Arizona Republic's Laurie Roberts weighed in on the side of the arrestees, as did the Goldwater Institute's Clint Bolick, who wrote, "Regardless of one's ordinary proclivities regarding the players involved, there is only one place for friends of freedom to stand at the moment: shoulder-to-shoulder with the New Times."

In County Attorney Thomas' capitulation 10 hours after Lacey's release, he claimed to have had no prior knowledge of the arrests. After firing Wilenchik as special prosecutor for criminal matters, he quashed the subpoenas and ended the investigation of New Times.

So who did order the arrests? When asked that question, Wilenchik wrote in an e-mail to New Times, "Don't know. If I find out, will be back."

But MCSO public information officer Paul Chagolla told the Associated Press that "the arrests came at the requests of the prosecutor." Confronted with Wilenchik's slippery e-mail, Chagolla got more specific, informing New Times that MCSO detectives worked with attorneys William French and Rob Somers of Wilenchik's firm. French, a former prosecutor and judge, later resigned after the fallout from the arrests ("Dennis the Menace," December 27, 2007). In subsequent interviews, French pinned the responsibility for the arrests on Wilenchik.

"Somers told me that Wilenchik said, 'No more Mr. Nice Guy. We're going to arrest them.' That's what happened," French intoned to the Arizona Republic.

In New Times' notice, Manning puts the arrests into their legal context:

"Misdemeanor violations that do not threaten lives are usually handled by the issuance of citations, not by [Selective Enforcement Unit] raids, arrests, handcuffs, and jail cells in the dead of night. Responsible prosecutors know these circumstances would never justify such conduct."

Sheriff Arpaio's office has never expressed any misgivings about its dealings with New Times, much less over the arrests of Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin.

The outright obstinacy of the MCSO in providing public information has forced New Times to do battle with Arpaio and his officers for the past 15 years.

Time-consuming legal remedies, such as New Times' current notice, seem the only possible remedy when dealing with a Sheriff's Office bent on keeping information that might reflect badly on Arpaio secret from the public.

This newspaper's recent appellate court win regarding numerous public-records requests submitted by writer John Dougherty to the MCSO in 2004 illustrates the MCSO's hostility in dealing with not just New Times but any news media outlet that criticizes Arpaio or the actions of his office.

This publication was forced to sue in 2004 because the Sheriff's Office refused to comply with Arizona's public-records law and release the information that Dougherty had requested. The MCSO forked over the documents only after the suit was filed. New Times then sought legal fees from Arpaio's office. Though a Superior Court judge denied the request in 2005, New Times appealed.

On February 5, the three-judge Arizona Court of Appeals assessed nine of Dougherty's requests individually, finding in all but one that New Times was wrongfully denied access to public records. In eight instances, the appeals court found the excuses of MCSO public information officers Lisa Allen MacPherson and Paul Chagolla to be unconvincing.