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| Three Arrested in Plot to Kill Arizona Governor, Sheriff |
| By Arizona Daily Star |
| Published: 05/16/2002 |
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Three Maricopa County men were arrested Tuesday in connection with a plot to kill Gov. Jane Hull and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Sheriff's officials say the plot was hatched in a misguided attempt to get Hull to sign a pardon for 78-year-old Donald Cochran, a retired naval veteran. Cochran served an Arizona prison sentence for aggravated assault and is currently in custody for sex offender registration violations. Cochran shared a cell with Danny Warner, a 43-year-old career criminal with an Arizona prison rap sheet dating back to the early 1980s. He was facing charges of attempting to run over Phoenix officers trying to arrest him. The two men recruited Robert Bradford, 65, a former volunteer jail chaplain, to transfer $2,354 from Cochran's bank account in late March to post bail for Warner on his pending charges. Warner was then supposed to arrange the murders of Arpaio and Hull. Sheriff's officers were tipped off to the plot by another jail inmate, who advised them that Cochran was soliciting someone to commit the murders. Cochran ordered Bradford to transfer an additional $200 to an undercover sheriff's deputy posing as a hit man to purchase a rifle with a high-powered scope. According to sheriff's officials, Cochran wanted Arpaio killed for $100,000. The undercover officer also met with Warner, who agreed to buy the rifle and then set up a hideout for the hit man with his relatives in Oregon. Jack MacIntyre, a sheriff's spokesman, said the men planned to throw Hull in a trunk and bury her in Prescott. 'They got to the point of trying to get someone released from custody and buying a rifle with a scope, so I'd say they were pretty serious,' he said Tuesday. Threats are not new to law enforcement officials. Five people have been convicted of trying to kill Arpaio, with another five awaiting trial, in roughly a dozen separate plots, MacIntyre said, adding Arpaio gets threats on a weekly basis. Arpaio's officers worked closely with Hull's Department of Public Safety security detail. 'The sheriff and his deputies have been extremely cooperative and the governor appreciates the work everyone has done on this case,' said Hull's spokeswoman, Francie Noyes. 'She's confident everything is under control.' Arpaio said he's had many threats during his 44 years in law enforcement and doesn't plan to make any changes. 'I don't have bodyguards and I don't carry a gun and that's the way it goes,' he said. 'What are you supposed to do? Hide? I'm not going to do that.' Cochran and Warner are expected to face two counts of conspiracy to commit murder. Bradford was arrested on charges of facilitation to commit murder. |
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