There Was A Second Act To The Murder Mystery!

I just stumbled across these two amazing articles by John Dougherty, from 2004, in the Phoenix New Times.  My connection here is that, from my days in Tucson, I was on the jury that convicted Alan Robert Terry of second-degree murder.  There was a second act of which I was wholly unaware until today:

In December 1981, Connie Thompson was known as Connie Stacy Lynn Lutz. A week before Christmas, the then-24-year-old Lutz was in Pinetop with her biker gang boyfriend, Jimmy Lewis.

They were faced with a crucial decision.

One of their biker buddies had shot to death a 29-year-old paramedic during a traffic altercation in Tucson shortly after midnight on December 17. Later that same day, Alan Robert Terry was at their door seeking help.

Lutz and Lewis welcomed Big Al Terry into their home, provided him a car and later fled with him to California to avoid arrest. Along the way, everybody obtained fake California driver's licenses and identification cards.

Rather than assist police in arresting a fugitive who had fired three bullets into an unarmed man, Lutz went underground with a man wanted for first-degree murder.

And this:

Connie and Mark Thompson aren't letting ethics, honesty and honorable public service get in the way of boosting the fortunes of the elder care referral business they run from their Tempe office.

Instead, they are simply abusing their position of public trust to benefit their private business -- even if it means gutting protections for the old, the frail and the dying.

Mark Thompson, 46, was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives from District 17 in 2002. He ran as a "clean elections" candidate and received $31,000 in public funds, of which he paid his wife $2,888 for "political consulting."

After his election, Representative Thompson was awarded a position by House Republican leadership on the Health Committee, a perfect perch to boost the fortunes of his business.

His election came a year after Connie Thompson, 47, was appointed by then-governor Jane Hull to an obscure regulatory board that oversees nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The post gave Connie Thompson an inside track into structuring regulations that directly affect the family business.

From these two positions of public trust -- the legislator and the regulator -- the couple are in position to craft laws and regulations to benefit their business while, not coincidentally, stripping protections for the elderly out of state law.

Once a Bad Ass Biker, always a Bad Ass Biker!