State Glance
Navajo policeman arrested in DUI fatal crash to be fired
GLENDALE — A Navajo Nation spokesman says a tribal officer who is suspected of hitting and killing a bicyclist while driving drunk in Glendale will be fired.
Mihio Manus says termination paperwork for 30-year-old Kevin Hevel will be complete this week. In the meantime, he’s on administrative leave.
Glendale police say Hevel was drunk last Friday when he side-swiped an SUV then struck Peter Rankin, who died on scene.
Police say Hevel then drove through a red light and struck a police vehicle.
The Navajo Nation has said Hevel was in good standing with the tribal police department where he worked for 10 years.
Court records show Hevel has a history of traffic violations.
He faces charges of manslaughter, felony endangerment, DUI and leaving the scene. No formal charges have been filed.
Austin pilot sentenced to 3 years for drug smuggling flight
AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas pilot whose suspicious flight pattern from Oregon to Arizona drew law enforcement attention must serve three years in federal prison for the drug-smuggling trip.
Wayne Douglas Brunet in June pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana. The 65-year-old Austin man was sentenced Friday, plus must forfeit his 1969 Piper Comanche and pay a $5,000 fine.
Investigators say Brunet had more than 200 pounds of marijuana in the singleengine plane when he was arrested in March after a late-night landing at Llano Municipal Airport, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) northwest of Austin.
Authorities had tracked Brunet’s plane from Medford, Oregon, then to Holbrook, Arizona, to refuel. Brunet briefly landed or tried to land at two other small Texas airports, but officers were present and he took off.
Suit over Diamondbacks stadium cost taxpayers $450,000
PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks’ lawsuit against Maricopa County over repairs at Chase Field has so far cost taxpayers more than $450,000 in legal fees.
The team contends the county needed to pay a large share of as much as $187 million in upgrades to the ballpark that opened in 1998.
County officials argue many of those repairs are cosmetic, and that the financial responsibility for them falls to the team.
Diamondbacks attorney Leo Beus tells the Arizona Republic that the parties have failed to take the first step of negotiating out of court, which a judge had ordered a month ago.
Beus blames the county for dragging its feet.
Maricopa County officials say they have tried to be accommodating, but the team wants to move too fast.
Suspect arrested in fatal hitand-run accident in Tucson
TUCSON — Police in Tucson have arrested a suspect allegedly involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident.
They say 33-year-old Ruben Aulbert Lemon was arrested Saturday night.
He’s being held on suspicion of one count of a hitand-run involving a death with additional charges possibly added at a later date.
Police say Lemon allegedly ran his truck into a bus stop at a high rate of speed last Wednesday, killing one man and injuring a woman.
The man died of his injuries at a Tucson hospital.
Police have identified the victim as 67-year-old Leonard Green.