Last Tuesday (former) GRAPEVINE editor Kevin Birnbaum gathered up the proofs of the paper which were prepared solely in the offices provided by Leigh Butler, solely on equipment owned by Leigh Butler and solely by employees paid by Leigh Butler. He requested and was given his pay check for the week by Leigh. But instead of taking Leigh's certified cashier's check for the printer Kevin left without this and took the plates instead to Joel Barr who took the plates to a second printer and contracted to do his own printing of 10,000 issues. The numbers for the sales office in the paper had been changed. We subsequently learned that Joel Barr raised the money for this printing from the solicitation of advertising sales in the name of the GRAPEVINE. We learned that Joel had programmed the GRAPEVINE phones to call forward to an apartment in a sleazy part of town.
When Kevin failed to show up at our printer we called around town and learned that another printer was preparing to go to print with the GRAPEVINE. We arrived about 7:00 PM with three of the finest officers of the PHOENIX POLICE. Two police sergeants and a field officer spent the better part of the night examining the instruments of ownership of the GRAPEVINE and determined that the ownership of the GRAPEVINE belonged 100% to Leigh Butler. That was always the opinion of the GRAPEVINE accountant. Joel Barr takes great fanfare to tell his readers that he "cleaned toilets to get the $300 to print the first GRAPEVINE." He does not say that was to only money he put up for the newspaper and the last time that he worked any job. The other $150,000 that the paper has used to operate has come solely from Leigh Butler. Every instrument of ownership has her name on it.
When we parted with the police the arrangement was for Leigh to go down to the printer and present her ownership documents and the printer would release the unauthorized papers to her. Everything went fine until the MARICOPA COUNTY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE intervened. At this point my memo to Paul Ahler goes directly to the point.
After this memo was faxed to Rick Romley's office some world class "shucking and jiving" began. Our first inquiry was met with disbelief. They said we must have been mistaken. The police sergeant must have been talking with the Phoenix Municipal Attorney. We checked with them and they said they did not get involved in matters involving more than $2,000. On our second call we were told that it was impossible that one of the attorneys from the MARICOPA COUNTY ATTORNEYS OFFICE could have intervened. They would have to have the duty report in their office and it was not logged in. They checked the LEGIS computer system and it was never received. We checked with the police sergeant and were told it was Joe Fuller of MARICOPA COUNTY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE that he talked with. We called Joe Fuller but suddenly he was in a class all day and could not be reached. The next day a message was placed on my answering machine very early in the mourning from Joe Fuller saying among other things that he had not read the police report. Joe, I was next the officer when he read the report to you. Councillor, we rest our case.
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