In 2004,  Pima County Superior Court Chief Justice John Leonardo and Associate Justice  Howard Fell,  embarrassed by public disclosure of their own malfeasance and obstruction of justice in State of Arizona vs Charles Ken Walter, effectively suspended the foundational premise of America : the right of  individual citizens to speak, write, publish and distribute  information  and opinion critical  of government policy. 

Pima County Superior Court Judges Fell and Leonardo suspended the First Amendment. This was not the first time a Pima County Superior Court Judge had committed such an outrage.

In 2000 Pima Superior Court Judge Charles Sabalos, influenced by powerful  economic  interests,    applied an "overbroad, vaguely worded" disturbing the peace statute to protect a local psychologist named Peter Schur, and a powerful medical corporation, The Palo Verde Behavioral Health Professional Association, located in the heart of a six square mile hospital complex known as Tucson Medical Center . 

Dr. Schur, through his attorney Scott Rash,  "reached out" to employ the services of a  rogue cop named CK Walter who, after failing to intimidate him, arrested Roy Warden,   a  political  activist and child rights advocate, for conducting a political protest and public inquiry into the systemic malfeasance of Arizona's Medical Boards, Dr. Schur's misconduct with children, and the misconduct of a Pima County child rapist and board-certified "Bogeyman," the infamous Dr. Michael Mahl.  [See Walter Commits Perjury]

In 2004  Pima Superior Court Judges were  again angered by Warden,  and by  the content of Warden's political newsletter, Common Sense II. For several years Warden had investigated the corruption of Pima County legal and political institutions, and members of the local bar, and published his findings via the internet to more than 1, 500 local media outlets, judges, prosecutors, elected officials and attorneys. 

Warden referred to this practice as, "shoving a flashlight up their rectums and  using the harsh light of public scrutiny to reveal the dark recesses of their miserable, excrement filled souls." 

In 2004 Warden, dismayed  by information he'd received that  CK Walter,   the same TPD Officer who had arrested him in 2000, was about to be "cut loose" and freed  from criminal charges he used a police computer to seduce, solicit (and receive) sexual favors from local teenage girls, obtained inside information  from  Tucson Police Department informants, investigated Walter,   and  wrote a series of stories about Walter,  Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall, Walter's prosecuting attorney Bradley Roach, and Superior Court Judge Howard Fell, an 18 year veteran of the Office of Pima County Prosecutor,   who presided over this obstruction of justice. 

Barbara LaWall's malfeasance  has been well-documented in the New Yorker Magazine by former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin, who  exposed the dirty dealings of  LaWall and former prosecutor Ken Peasley, the only American prosecutor ever to be disbarred for  presenting  perjured testimony to secure a conviction for Capital Murder in the First Degree. 

In the spring of 2004 LaWall faced reelection that fall. She wanted no more "Peasleys,"  embarrassing disclosures or loose ends.

TPD Officer Charles Ken Walter was just such a loose end. A 20 year veteran, his personnel jacket revealed a deplorable, unbelievable number of Internal Affairs Investigations. The TPD rumor mill reported Walter had "protected" status in the department for his willingness to perform certain "unofficial favors" for wealthy, well-connected local citizens and public officials, for which he received money, political support, and a "get off the hook" card for time of need.

In the spring of 2004 Walter needed off the hook.  In November  2003 Walter had been "stung" by a joint TPD and FBI investigation for emailing sexual solicitations to a TPD undercover agent posing as a 16 year old high school student. FBI agents filmed Walter when he drove up to the rendezvous point in a TPD squad car: armed, in uniform, and as one insider put it, "locked, cocked and ready to rock."

So Walter, facing a 10 year prison sentence, turned in his card. The system responded slowly,  so in January 2004  Walter upped the stakes by making it known that, if prosecuted for sex crimes, he would reveal where "all the bodies were buried." In Pima County Arizona there are a whole lot of political bodies to expose. 

Now  properly "motivated," the  well-greased machine  swung smoothly into action. Through a mysterious process the case was assigned (not surprisingly) to Judge Howard Fell, an 18 year veteran of the Office of the Pima County Attorney who had specialized in the prosecution of child sex crimes.  

In the Pima County Superior  Courts  Judge Howard Fell  is well known to be "reliable" whenever the Pima County Attorney needs a favor. 

Bradley Roach, a seasoned prosecutor,  was assigned to  consummate what was assumed to be a routine deal. Later Roach would be dismissed by Barbara LaWall for unprofessional conduct and failure to report to police his knowledge of the events leading to the murder of Dr. David Stidham. After his dismissal Roach received a plum $150, 000 a year contract to defend Pima County indigents, which is How Things Work in Pima County .

During their first pretrial conference Roach and Walter's attorney Renaldo "Pancho" Lopez,  quickly agreed to drop the child sex-solicitation charges and plead guilty to "using a police computer beyond its' authorized limits." Walter would keep his pension.

Warden, who stood just outside the conference room with a tape recorder, was amazed at the openess  in which the bargain was stuck and the laxity of the agreed upon sentence. They stood right there in public and did it, for Chrissakes! They didn't even bother to close the door!  

Warden quickly finished part one of his investigation and published his findings in the first edition of Common Sense II. On February 23, 2004  he began distributing his newsletter in the halls of the Pima County Superior Court, 1st Amendment activity expressly protected by the US Supreme Court in Cohen v California and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Sammartano vs First Judicial District Court, 303 F.3d 959 (2002). To fully understand the sequence of events leading to his arrest, read the Facts and Allegations section of Warden's First Amended Complaint. 

Pima County Deputy Sheriffs immediately began to lean on Warden: "Hay, who do you think you are? You can't hand out that kind of stuff around here!" When that failed the deputies  summoned Chief of Security Chris Hoffman  to muscle Warden: "Judge Fell says you're going to be arrested if you keep handing out that stuff."  Warden asked the statute or court rule that granted such broad authority.  Hoffman just smiled. 

The following week when Warden returned to Superior Court  to reopen the  issue  Hoffman  provided him with  a  copy of  Pima County Policy 902, which (appropriately in Warden's view) proscribed commercial solicitations,  and the selling of products, on courthouse premises.  

The problem was Common Sense II,  taking its' name from Thomas Paine's revolutionary publication,     was carefully designed as a political newsletter. Even a moron, (or a Pima County Superior Court Judge for that matter)   could understand  Warden's publication was not a "commercial solicitation."  Under USC Title 18 Section 242 , the official proscription of political literature is a federal crime.  At Warden's behest, local attorney and perennial Libertarian Candidate Ed Kahn wrote a letter to the Pima County Superior Court requesting clarification of Policy 902. 

For the next several months Warden consulted with Ed Kahn and his associate David Euchner,  the 2004 Libertarian candidate for Pima County Attorney, and continued to interview personnel who worked in various county offices, the Tucson Police Department and the Superior Court.  

Occasionally, Warden stopped to view proceedings before Judge Fell,  (sitting right there in the courtroom, grinning at his honor!),  or reading his own publication, much to the annoyance of both Fell and Hoffman, who shadowed Warden's activities and occasionally interfered.  Kahn and Euchner promised Warden a vigorous prosecution of  a  USC Title 42 Section 1983  action against the Superior Court, and Judge Fell, should Warden eventually be arrested for distribution of Common Sense II on courthouse property.

For the full story on how the ACLU, Ed Kahn and David Euchner reneged on their promise, failed to uphold the clearly stated Rules of Professional Conduct, failed to file charges against Leonardo and Fell for violation of the  Rules of Judicial Conduct, and abandoned Warden on the steps of the Federal Courthouse, click Warden's Federal Case.

 Warden called a press conference for April 26, 2004, the day of Walter’s sentencing, when Warden promised to "present evidence and answer questions regarding specific allegations of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct."   

However, subsequent to Walter's sentencing to 3 years probation, as Warden made his way to the press conference, he stopped on the front steps of the courthouse to hand a copy of  Common Sense II to an attorney.  Chris Hoffman and three Pima County Deputy Sheriffs promptly handcuffed him, took him into custody and held him until the press conference broke up. Then they let him go.