12 most popular stories in Tucson in 2017

A Boston couple longing to be parents were thrilled when a Tucson woman, pregnant with twins, saw their adoption request online and chose them.

“It seemed like a fairy tale to us that she was due at Christmas,” Cindy Cantrell said.

Cantrell, a journalist, and her husband, Jack McHugh, a contractor, first connected with Karla Vargas in July 2015 through California-based Adoption Network Law Center.

The idea of raising twins made them pause only a moment before they became enamored with the idea. They’d been through disappointments and had their hopes for adoption dashed before.

“I thanked her again and again and again for choosing us,” Cantrell said. “We felt so fortunate.”

They signed the contract that month and agreed to provide monthly support to Vargas through the law center. They also paid Tucson-based Oasis Adoption Services Inc. for its services for the birth mother.

In addition to rent, the couple also paid her monthly food bills, bought her maternity clothing, set aside money for counseling she might want, and paid for her phone and bus passes.

•••

Looking back, Cantrell sees the warning signs.

The first: Vargas did not contact the couple as promised after she learned the babies’ genders.

She also told them her cellphone was going to be turned off, which was perplexing because Cantrell and her husband were paying the bill. And a couple of times she asked them to pay rent early because her landlord was “going on vacation.”

“It was always something,” Cantrell said. “I knew she’d had a tough life and it made me uncomfortable and sad, but I kept giving her the benefit of the doubt.”

Vargas also didn’t seem interested in meeting the couple — which Cantrell said they respected as her choice — but then suddenly changed her mind and had them come the weekend there was a pro football game in Phoenix.

Vargas and her sister, both Dallas fans, kept suggesting they all go see the game and were so focused on getting there that, to Cantrell, it seemed that was the reason they’d invited the couple out.

But there was also a tender moment that September weekend, when Vargas invited Cantrell along to an ultrasound appointment. Cantrell said when she saw the twins, she felt overcome with love and excitement.

“I thought, ‘This is real. This is happening,’” she said.

•••

Communication after the Tucson visit became increasingly sporadic.

On Nov. 10, Cantrell’s mother-in-law died unexpectedly, leaving the couple grieving and busy handling details.

Vargas was out of touch, too, so on Nov. 29, Cantrell sent a text to her. “Is everything OK between us?” she asked.

Vargas responded, “Yes. Why?”

McHugh, Cantrell’s husband, exchanged text messages the next day with Vargas’ twin sister, whom they knew as Lucy, explaining they’d been unable to get much feedback from Vargas and wondered when they should fly out to Tucson. The text exchange shows Lucy told them her sister’s doctors thought the twins would arrive Dec. 14.

Meanwhile, Oasis Adoption was trying to contact Vargas, who was so evasive the owner made some calls trying to figure out why, Cantrell said.

Soon, the couple received a conference call from the agency and the California law center: Vargas, they were told, had secretly given birth on Nov. 15, two weeks before the reassuring texts.

The twins were in a local hospital’s neonatal intensive-care unit for a couple of weeks before Vargas took them home Nov. 30. Only she and her sister knew that, records show.

Then, on Dec. 1, a text from Vargas’ phone came through to the law center, which had withheld payment when Vargas couldn’t be reached: Rent was due and funds were needed for the supposedly expectant mother.

•••

A month later, in January 2016, Cantrell contacted the Tucson Police Department. She said she hoped an investigation would prevent other couples from being victimized.

Vargas, a 35-year-old who has had 12 children and a long history of child-welfare issues, had gone through with at least one adoption before. “That’s where we gained our hope from, and that’s where she learned the system,” Cantrell said.

Detective Jennifer Burns said it was the first time she’d heard of adoption fraud allegations in her 16 years with Tucson police, including a decade working financial crimes.

“The case started up quite a discussion,” Burns said of her unit. “We were not familiar with the laws of adoption.”

Burns and her supervisor were motivated to try to build a case by two things Cantrell reported: Vargas kept the births a secret and then tried to get money after the babies were born while pretending to still be pregnant.

Burns said that during her investigation, Vargas admitted she didn’t want to give up the twins she was carrying and kept it quiet to get money.

Vargas and her sister, Lucianna Lopez, set them up from the beginning, Burns said, by telling them Lopez was Vargas’ landlord and exaggerating by $100 per month the amount of the rent due. The couple did not know the sister “Lucy” they would later meet was the same person posing as Vargas’ landlord, police records show.

The total in rent and other living expenses paid by the couple to Vargas over the four to five months amounted to $6,014.

Vargas admitted in a December plea hearing only that she lied about the amount of rent due, said her attorney, Michelle Bowen. Vargas turned down an interview request by the Arizona Daily Star.

Vargas pleaded guilty to a Class 3 felony for attempted fraud scheme and artifice, said Benjamin Mendola, a deputy Pima County attorney. She is being held at the Pima County jail; bond is set at $11,000.

She could be ordered to spend up to 8.7 years in prison or up to five years on probation at her sentencing Tuesday before Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley.

Lopez also was indicted on charges of fraud and forgery, and her case is still pending. Her attorney, Richard Kingston, would not talk to the Star.

•••

Catherine Braman, executive director of Oasis Adoption Services, would not comment on Vargas’ case specifically but said she has heard of only one other Arizona case in which a birth mother was prosecuted for fraud.

“There’s a lot of safeguards in place,” said Braman, who has operated her agency since 2000 and worked in adoption since 1996. “We work really hard to not let that happen.”

Kristin Yellin, chief legal counsel with the Adoption Network Law Center, said her organization provides legal oversight in adoption cases and financial protection if a birth mother changes her mind.

Yellin’s organization has reimbursed the Boston couple for the money they spent supporting Vargas.

“We have to let our clients know we may never know the whole truth about any particular individual,” Yellin said. They do records checks on any birth mother seeking adoption for her child. “If there are things like fraud or bad checks or drug issues in the past, yes, we will let them know.”

•••

The twins — a boy and a girl — are now 14 months old, their well-being and current caregivers not a matter of public record.

Cantrell and McHugh started training to be foster parents last fall, a final attempt to adopt the twins, who were removed from Vargas’ care by Arizona’s Department of Child Safety in May.

But a short time after completing the initial steps, the couple realized how complicated and prolonged that process would be and have since entered into an adoption agreement for another baby.

While they are overjoyed to have another chance to become parents, Cantrell said it has taken a long time to recover from an experience she describes as “psychologically violent.”

Cantrell said having Detective Burns invest so much time in investigating their case “has gone a long way toward helping me heal from trauma that is still difficult to describe.”

“She listened to me, she asked how I was doing,” Cantrell said. “I expected our interactions to be very businesslike, but she reached out from a place of compassion and empathy.”

Usually, Burns said, the crimes she investigates are property crimes related to businesses or banks, situations where people are disappointed but not brokenhearted. But this case resonated with her, from one mother to another.

When she learned Cantrell and her husband were advancing toward adopting another child, she sent them gifts, all things her own children had enjoyed when they were young: a rattle, a special blanket and a Baby Einstein music player.

“It felt like a victory for them,” Burns said. “I wanted a happy ending for her. I didn’t want her to give up.”

The gifts from the detective were among the first presents they received for the adoption that’s now underway.

“We looked at her note,” Cantrell said, “and we both cried.”

UPDATE

A Tucson woman involved in an adoption scam involving a Boston couple was sentenced Tuesday to 100 days in jail and four years probation. 

Pima County Superior Court Judge Casey McGinley told Karla Vargas that after reviewing the case Friday he was prepared to sentence her to prison for a financial crime he said was both unusual and emotionally harmful. 

However, McGinley told the 35-year-old woman he reconsidered because she has had a tragic life, and also because the victims in the case asked that she be spared prison.

He warned her to be careful going forward, to stop lying and "using other people's good will against them."

If she ends up back in his courtroom, "you will have used up all of everyone's good graces."

Cindy Cantrell, a journalist, and her husband, Jack McHugh, a contractor, first connected with Vargas in July 2015 through California-based Adoption Network Law Center.

Vargas, who has had 12 children and a long history of child-welfare issues, kept the births a secret and then tried to get money after the babies were born while pretending to still be pregnant. She admitted to a Tucson police detective that she didn’t want to give up the twins she was carrying and kept it quiet to get money.

Vargas and her sister, Lucianna Lopez, set them up from the beginning, police records say, by telling them Lopez was Vargas’ landlord and exaggerating by $100 per month the amount of the rent due.

Longtime Tucson radio personality Bobby Rich was fired from his afternoon talk show at 94.9 MIXfm on Wednesday just weeks after moving from the morning drive-time slot to afternoons.

MIXfm officials would not comment except to confirm that Rich was no longer with the station, where he had spent 24 years hosting the morning show.

Just after 2 p.m. Wednesday — an hour before his "Bobby Rich Celebrates Tucson" show was set to begin — Rich posted on Facebook that he and the station, owned by Scripps, were parting ways.

"I made a big mistake and said something I should not have said," the  Arizona Broadcasters Hall of Fame personality wrote. "Even though I regret it and apologized, I own it, and now it becomes necessary for my association with MIXfm and Scripps Tucson to conclude."

Contacted not long after he made the post Wednesday, Rich would not comment on what he said nor if he said it on or off the air during his 3 to 7 p.m. show last Friday.

Rich said MIXfm officials suspended him on Monday and fired him Wednesday. He was last on the air Friday. 

"I didn't see this coming," he said.

Rich said he will continue an internet radio project he has been doing as a hobby for the past several years.

"It will keep me kind of in the air if not on the air for a while," he said, adding that he doesn't really make money off the venture. "I just want to have fun."

"Bobby Rich Celebrates Tucson" debuted Jan. 3.

Nearly five years after she disappeared, Tucson police announced Friday that the remains of Isabel Celis were recovered from a site in rural Pima County.

Police Chief Chris Magnus made the grim announcement about how the remains found earlier this month were positively identified by DNA testing as those of Isabel, who was 6 years old when she went missing from her midtown home in 2012.

Magnus said no arrests have been made. He said the circumstances of police finding the remains were "not happenstance."

Isabel's disappearance from her family's home resulted in a missing child case that involved a massive search in Tucson by hundreds of law enforcement personnel, national media attention and public scrutiny of her parents.

"The loss of any child is a loss to the family and to our entire community," Magnus said. He urged anyone with information to call 88-CRIME, the anonymous tip line.

He said he could not release more details because the investigation is ongoing.

He said the department followed up on more than 2,200 leads in the case and that they will continue the investigation to locate anyone connected to the girl's death.

Magnus said he could not reveal how investigators learned where the remains where.

Isabel's family issued a statement through Tucson Medical Center, where her mother Becky Celis works as a nurse.

Isabel went missing from her bedroom in her family’s midtown home five years ago. It was during the night, while the family slept. No one heard sounds, not even from the family's dogs. Her father, Sergio Celis, reported her missing on the morning of April 21, 2012. Becky Celis had already left for work.

For many years, the Celis family’s house near Park Place mall had a banner displayed with the face of Isabel pictured smiling with long, brown hair and hazel eyes. Other banners informed the public about an 88-CRIME reward.

The case remained opened with police investigators conducting numerous follow up interviews, re-canvassing the family's neighborhood and periodically asking the public's help for information. Tips that poured in at first, dropped to a trickle then stopped. New detective were assigned to the case several years later to offer fresh eyes. The department's website to this date still has information and images of Isabel with a link to provide tips.

Both Sergio and Becky faced intense public scrutiny in the weeks after their daughter went missing. At one point, Sergio entered into an agreement with state child protective services that he would not have contact for a period of time with his two sons, Isabel’s older brothers.

Becky said in an interview several years ago they all were coping because of the support from their family, faith in God and the love they each have for one another.

“God is listening to us. We just have to be patient. We have to have faith in God. God has a plan, and eventually He will bring her home,” said Becky, adding that she feels frustrated and anxious about not knowing how or where Isabel is. “That anxiety doesn’t go away,” said Becky, a nurse at TMC.

For Sergio, an oral surgery assistant at a dental office who also performs opera, the not knowing about his little girl is creating “a lot of frustration, a lot of anger, a lot of wanting to shake your fists and constantly saying why, and why and why.”

The last time anyone saw her was when she went to bed the night before.

At 8 a.m., Sergio said he discovered his daughter missing when he went to wake her so she could get ready for her Little League game. Her mother, Becky, had already left for work.

Sergio said he and his sons searched the house before calling 911. In a 911 recording, Sergio, tells a dispatcher that “my oldest son noticed that her window was wide open and the screen was laying in the back yard.”

About 250 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies scoured the neighborhood area, and fanned out into sections of the city and county. Tracking dogs, including a special FBI search dog, were used. FBI profilers, behavioral analysts and an evidence-recovery team were brought in.

A Tucson Fire captain shot and killed a man and wounded his ex-wife before turning his gun on himself in a busy Foothills restaurant Friday night.

Frederick Bair, 60, a 24-year veteran of the Tucson Fire Department, worked as an Emergency Management and Homeland Security captain.

“The Tucson Fire Department is heart broken over the news regarding the shooting at La Encantada that occurred Friday night,” department spokesman Capt. Barrett Baker wrote in a news release. “The department extends it thoughts and prayers to the families of this tragic event.”

The murder-suicide occurred at about 7:30 p.m. inside Firebirds Wood Fired Grill, a popular restaurant at the high-end La Encantada mall at North Campbell Avenue and East Skyline Drive.

When deputies arrived, they found Bair and another man already dead.

On Saturday, authorities identified the victims as Eliot Cobb, 65, and Mary Jo Bair, 57, Bair’s ex-wife. She was shot in the leg and taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries described as not life-threatening.

Detectives had to interview dozens of witnesses, who were rushed out of the restaurant after the shooting, said Deputy Cody Gress, a Pima County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

David Hardin was celebrating his grandson’s 18th birthday when they heard gunshots in the main dining room.

“We hit the deck,” Hardin said. People hid under tables before being ushered out of the building. “It was pretty startling, surreal actually,” he said.

Hardin said he was impressed by how quickly sheriff’s deputies and other personnel arrived and how many came. Sheriff Mark Napier arrived, as did representatives from Victims Services, to help calm people down and hand out information, Hardin said.

Paul Hallums was walking across the courtyard in front of Firebirds with his wife and two children when a crowd of people came “crashing” out of the restaurant’s front doors.

“Many were screaming as they ran in all directions. One man was running, carrying a highchair with his young child still in it,” Hallums told the Star. “We didn’t hear any shots, but we could hear crashing sounds like furniture being knocked over as people poured out the front door.”

Although the situation seemed to begin to calm down, people continued to run from the area for several minutes, Hallums said.

Friends and colleagues expressed shock and disbelief in posts on social media after Bair was identified as the shooter Saturday.

Bair’s younger brother, Frank, died Monday of diabetes-related complications, according to a post on the Rincon High School Alumni’s Facebook page. Services and burial were held Thursday, an obituary notice said.

Pima County Superior Court records show that Frederick Bair’s divorce was finalized in September.

Mary Jo Bair is a Pima County court reporter, according to her Facebook page.

Over the years, the Arizona Daily Star published several photographs taken by Bair at Tucson Fire Department incidents. The most recent accompanied a story in October about a man who was rescued after getting stuck in the chimney of his home near the University of Arizona.

In 2011, Bair crawled through a home filled with heavy smoke to rescue a mother of two who was trapped inside. After she recovered at a hospital, the woman presented Bair with a bouquet and hugged him, the Star reported.

The FBI arrested a TUSD employee on suspicion of threatening U.S. Rep. Martha McSally.

FBI agents arrested Steve Martan, 58, in connection with three messages left on the congressional office voicemail on May 2 and May 10, according to a criminal complaint filed May 12 in U.S. District Court in Tucson. Martan is a campus monitor at Miles Exploratory Learning Center in the Tucson Unified School District. He was placed on home assignment and told not to come into work as the district investigates the allegations.

The voicemails contained threats to McSally, including that she should "be careful" when she returns to Tucson and that her days "were numbered." He threatened to shoot her in one of the expletive-filled messages.

The complaint stated Martan told agents he was venting frustrations with McSally's congressional votes in support of the president of the United States.

Martan was accused of threatening to assault and murder a United States official with intent to impede the official's duties and to retaliate against an official for the performance of the official's duties, according to the complaint.

Phone company records showed Martan owned the phone used to make the threats and agents found the phone at Martan's residence. Martan told agents he used the phone to call McSally's office, according to the complaint.

Martan was released on his own recognizance, but he is restricted to his home when he is not at work or fulfilling other obligations, such as his court-ordered participation in a mental health treatment program, court records show. He must wear an electronic monitoring device and he is prohibited from contacting any alleged victims or possessing a firearm or weapon.

McSally represents congressional District 2, the same district served by then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and seriously wounded in an assassination attempt on Jan. 8, 2011, on the northwest side. Six people were killed and 13 wounded in the attack.

A Pima County judge has ordered the well-known doughnut shop Le Cave’s Bakery to shut down until it obtains a permit from the health department.

Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bergin also approved a fine of $2,000. If the bakery continues to operate without a permit, it could be subject to daily fines of up to $1,000, according to Arizona statute.

Le Cave’s, 1219 S. Sixth Ave., has been operating without a permit since October, when the bakery lost it after missing payment deadlines, and has failed six inspections to requalify since then. The most significant unresolved issue is an aging cracked and pockmarked floor the Pima County Health Department says needs to be replaced before they will issue another permit.

Summarizing a June 16 visit, county health inspector Gary Frucci told Bergin that some floor work was occurring, but also observed “gross, unsanitary conditions.”

In his inspection report, Frucci noted that food was “exposed to construction debris” and told the judge Monday that it was unusual for a restaurant to remain open while conducting such work to bring an establishment into compliance.

Inspection chief David Ludwig said that at a previous court hearing, owner Rudy Molina Jr. had promised to have 60 percent of the floor finished by the next inspection. However, only one small patch had been completed and work on another patch had started by the mid-June inspection.

When asked during Monday’s hearing by Deputy County Attorney Lesley Lukach if Molina had made a “good faith effort” to get into compliance, Frucci said he had not.

After the ruling, Molina told the Star “I think what they’re doing is completely unfair,” and declined to comment further on the matter.

Molina previously told the Star that the floor is a “structural issue,” and does not represent a health risk to patrons. Frucci and Ludwig disagree, saying that the floor’s condition makes proper cleaning difficult, potentially raising the risk of pathogens on the floor getting into food. Molina also cited declining sales in the wake of a high-profile 2016 failed health inspection as an obstacle to carrying out the repairs.

In May, Molina filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection and in June submitted a 60-month payment plan to cover roughly $54,000 in debt, according to court records. The plan notes that the bakery also owes the IRS $81,000, but that Molina “is not personally responsible” for the federal tax lien.

Though the county has recently taken other restaurants to court, Ludwig said that the ruling is the first time a judge has ordered a business closed during his more than two years with the department.

Ludwig said his department would honor Molina’s current permit application, rather than starting the process over again.

“When his floor is corrected and his place is clean and sanitary for an inspection, we will come out and do that inspection, and we will issue him a permit as soon as he qualifies,” Ludwig added.

U.S. Sen. John McCain revealed Wednesday evening that he has a brain tumor.

The announcement follows a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix last Friday, where a pathology report revealed the glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor.

Treatment options may include a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.

A statement from McCain's doctors say he is recovering from his surgery, but it is unclear when the 80-year-old Republican would return to the Senate. 

"Further consultations with Senator McCain's Mayo Clinic care team will indicate when he will return to the United States Senate," the statement read. 

Because glioblastomas can grow rapidly, the most common symptoms are usually caused by increased pressure in the brain. These symptoms can include headache, nausea, vomiting, and drowsiness.

Depending on the location of the tumor, patients can develop a variety of other symptoms such as weakness on one side of the body, memory and/or speech difficulties, and vision changes, according to the American Brain Tumor Association website.

Glioblastoma can be difficult to treat because the tumors contain so many different types of cells, the association says.

About 20,000 people in the U.S. each year are diagnosed with a glioblastoma. The American Cancer Society puts the five-year survival rate for patients over 55 at about 4 percent.

The tumor digs tentacle-like roots into normal brain tissue. Patients fare best when surgeons can cut out all the visible tumor, which happened with McCain's tumor, according to his office.

That isn't a cure; cancerous cells that aren't visible still tend to lurk, the reason McCain's doctors are considering further treatment including chemotherapy and radiation.

The senator and chairman of the Armed Services Committee had been recovering at his Arizona home. His absence had forced Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to delay action on health care legislation.

In a statement, McConnell said: "John McCain is a hero to our Conference and a hero to our country. He has never shied from a fight and I know that he will face this challenge with the same extraordinary courage that has characterized his life. The entire Senate family's prayers are with John, Cindy and his family, his staff, and the people of Arizona he represents so well."

U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Arizona, said McCain is "one of the bravest men I know — a hero, a warrior and a survivor."

"I am confident he will defeat this foe as well," she said in a statement. "Senator McCain has been a personal mentor for me. I have been honored to serve alongside him in the Arizona delegation in Congress, and I look forward to continuing to do so. My thoughts are with him and his family, and my prayers are for his health and full recovery.”

Doctors say McCain is recovering from his surgery amazingly well and his underlying health is excellent, according to the statement.

McCain was the GOP's presidential nominee in 2008, when he and running mate Sarah Palin lost to Barack Obama. A Navy pilot, he was shot down over Vietnam and held as a prisoner for 5½ years.

The senator's daughter, Meghan McCain, tweeted about how the news of her father's cancer shocked the family.

"It won't surprise you to learn that in all this, the one of us who is most confident and calm is my father. He is the toughest person I know. The cruelest enemy could not break him. The aggressions of political life could not bend him. So he is meeting this challenge as he has every other. Cancer may afflict him in many ways: but it will not make him surrender. Nothing ever has," she wrote.

Hours after a white nationalist rally and violence that rocked Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller posted from her personal Facebook account that she is “sick and tired of being hit for being white.”

“It is all about making us feel like we need to apologize. I am WHITE — and proud of it! No apologies necessary,” the 6:19 p.m. post went on to say.

Miller was responding to a Politico article shared by former Tucson mayoral candidate Shaun McClusky that detailed President Trump’s response to the violence, in which he said that “we condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence, on many sides — on many sides.” Those comments were criticized for not specifically calling out white supremacists and other groups involved in the Unite the Right rally.

Miller did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Star. 

On the James T. Harris radio show on 104.1 KQTH Monday afternoon, Miller said her post was meant to criticize “the simple-minded identity politics that defines us based on nothing more than the color of our skin. And I was expressing my frustration with the identity politics. And I think the American people are rejecting those politics, and I certainly will not be ashamed for the color of my skin.”

She agreed with Harris that the reaction to her comments was an example of “gotcha politics,” and added later: “I hope everyone is proud of their race.”

“Why is that a bad thing to say? And why do they extrapolate? It’s pretty clear they extrapolated my comment into their narrative and assumed that because I say I’m proud of being white that means I hate everybody.”

Miller also condemned white supremacists and hate speech, and said it was unfair to attribute any responsibility for the violence in Charlottesville to President Donald Trump.

Miller's three Democratic colleagues on the board have asked for her to apologize for the post. Her fellow Republican Supervisor Steve Christy denounced the Charlottesville violence, and the white supremacists behind it, as “deplorable and shocking,” but did not call for an apology from Miller, in a written statement Monday. Rather, he said Miller’s post “unfortunately gave her detractors the fodder they have been waiting for — an opportunity to pounce and to denounce her.”

There's little doubt the federal complaint against Book Richardson could have potentially seismic implications for the Arizona Wildcats.

Here's one look at them:

• Jahvon Quinerly is unlikely to play for Arizona, and may not play college ball at all. Quinerly appears to be the player given money from agents through Richardson and if the NCAA finds he took it, Quinerly could be suspended for part or all of his freshman season (though it may be more likely at this point he doesn't play college ball at all, and just plays professionally overseas before joining the 2019 NBA Draft).

How do we know it's Quinerly? The document reported that Richardson took a total of $20,000 in bribes and gave most of it to a "top point guard" who committed “around three days” before Aug. 11. Quinerly, a five-star point guard, announced on ESPNU on Aug. 8 that he would play for to Arizona.

• The rest of UA's recruiting class could dissolve. Brandon Williams and Shareef O'Neal may not want to take chances signing with a program that could be under NCAA investigation.

• UA coach Sean Miller's status could be affected. While Miller isn’t implicated in any wrongdoing on the federal complaint, the U.S. attorney at Tuesday’s press conference stated that it is a continuing investigation. Obviously, any subsequent NCAA investigation will seek to find out if Miller was involved or had knowledge of it, too.

• Current UA players could be declared ineligible if they were found to have taken money from an agent. There is a reference in the document to a current player already having taken payments.

While Richardson spoke of directing two current players to the agent, there is no suggestion those players have received any money from him or an agent.

• Other UA coaches could be questioned. There are references to the agents' meetings with Richardson and another, unnamed UA coach, suggesting more than one coach may have known what happened.

• Finally, of course, a subsequent NCAA investigation could result in sanctions against Arizona, likely in the area of recruiting but possibly involving games — especially if current players are found to have taken payments.

While the timing could make it unlikely for an investigation to lead to immediate sanctions, the 2018-19 and subsequent seasons could be affected.

The five charges facing Richardson:

1. Conspiracy to commit bribery

2. Solicitation of bribes and gratuities by an agent of a federally funded organization.

3. Conspiracy to commit honest services fraud

4. Honest services wire fraud

5. Wire fraud conspiracy

Here is a more detailed breakdown of key notes from the complaint that involves Richardson and Arizona:

71. Richardson was paid $20,000, some of which he “appears to have kept for himself and some of which he appears to have provided to at least one prospective high school basketball players.” In exchange for the payments, Richardson agreed to use his influence over the athletes he coached to retain two advisors, Christian Dawkins and Munish Sood.

73. Sood said he would meet with two UA coaches at a restaurant in Las Vegas on March 8, the evening before the Wildcats played their first Pac-12 Tournament game. Sood later said “the coaches are interested in definitely working with us” but that the coaches wanted to wait until after the NCAA Tournament.

83. Sood said Dawkins introduced him to Oklahoma State’s Lamont Evans as well as coaches as Arizona and other universities.

87c. Dawkins said a coach such as Richardson “may need these two kids, and he may need like a grand a month, two grand a month to get something done for this kid.”

88. In June 2017, Dawkins “reapproached Richards about receiving bribes in exchange for convincing student-athletes on (Arizona’s) basketball team to retain the services of the new company formed by Dawkins, Sood and (an undercover FBI agent).”

89a. On or about June 20, 2017, Dawkins made reference to one basketball player at (Arizona) who already had received payments, so we got no expenses there.”

Richardson told Dawkins that a recruit would be on campus that weekend so asked “would I be out of bounds to try to get five from him?”

Richardson said he had suggested UA athletes to pick from a group of agents in the past but would not “simply tell players to retain Dawkins and his company.”

Richardson also committed to “steer a particular student-athlete who was on (Arizona’s roster) to Dawkins and his company, stating ‘I’m telling you (Dawkins) is getting (this player). … there’s no ifs ands or buts about that. I’ve already talked with (the player’s) mom, I’ve talked with his cousin.”

At the end of the meeting, the undercover agent gave Richardson $5,000 in cash in exchange for his agreement to direct some UA players to Dawkins’ firm.

91. On or about July 5, Dawkins asked the undercover agent to pay another $15,000 to Richardson which Richardson would, according to Dawkins, “provide to (a top recruit) in order to influence (recruit) to attend (Arizona).”

Dawkins told the undercover agent that Richardson had “the top point guard in the country,” who was ready to commit to Arizona but that Richardson needed to provide the player $15,000 “ASAP basically.” Dawkins said Richardson was willing to meet the undercover agent in Atlanta, South Carolina or “fly to New York and pick it up and take it to the kid’s mom.”

93. On July 7, Dawkins spoke to the undercover agent by telephone and told him that Richardson would accept $15,000 extra as an advance for his $5,000 monthly fee and said that if the agent “could get this thing done…(Sean Miller) is talking out of his mouth, he wants (the recruit) bad as (expletive). So the leverage I have with the program would be ridiculous at that point.”

When the agent asked where Richardson would give the money Dawkins said its sometimes best to go the recruit’s handler because “the kids 90 percent of the time ain’t making they own decisions. They don’t (expletive) care.”

94. On or about July 20, Richardson met with Sood and, in a recording by the FBI agent, said the recruit had “committed to us” but that his mom asked for money because “she didn’t know what I was already doing for her son.” Richardson also said in reference to directing players to Sood, Dawkins and the undercover agent that “this is done.”

97. On or about Aug. 11, Dawkins noted that “I know the guy with the 15 grand we gave him, he committed to (Arizona) like three days ago. … so that deal got done.”

99. On or about Aug. 30, Richardson met with Sood, Dawkins and another undercover FBI agent to discuss players he might be able to influence. Richardson spoke a current UA player who was “kind of a sheltered kid” and assured Dawkins that he had spoken to the player’s handler and that the player was “going to be insulated in who he talks to… you’re looking at that guy.”’ They also discussed another current UA player of whom Richardson said he would “work that.”

100. The handler met later that day with Dawkins, Sood and the undercover agent and noted that he wondered “what is Book tryin’ to get out of it,” but said he was strongly inclined to sign with Dawkins’ firm.

Yahoo's Jeff Eisenberg explains why the FBI did what the NCAA didn't, and ESPN's John Gasaway breaks down the broad implications for college basketball.

Cup It Up American Grill closed for good on Monday, three days after two of its owners posted a politically charged statement on Facebook that prompted angry social media backlash and calls to boycott the University of Arizona-area restaurant.

Julian Alarcon, a former partner who was not involved in Friday’s Facebook post, said the restaurant at 760 N. Tyndall Ave. was the target of harassing and threatening phone calls throughout the weekend. Two employees quit Saturday because of the calls and several more quit throughout the weekend, he said.

“It’s not worth it,” said Alarcon, the operating partner and chef who resigned Saturday morning in response to the Facebook post from partners Christopher Smith and Jay Warren.

The pair’s post laid out their political beliefs that included support for President Trump, standing for the national anthem and repealing Obamacare, and opposition to fake news and the concept of global warming.

That post, which went up at noon Friday, also announced that they would not broadcast NFL games at the restaurant in light of players’ kneeling during the anthem.

Within minutes, the post was met with a barrage of comments, most of them negative and including calls to boycott the restaurant.

The post was taken down three hours later and by Saturday the restaurant had removed itself from social media.

Neither Smith nor Warren returned calls Monday for comment.

In a statement Saturday, the pair apologized for bringing “our personal political beliefs into a business forum” and said they had never intended to “strike a nerve.”

“We assumed there would be some discussion and shares, but never this type of animosity and hostility,” the statement read.

In an interview Saturday morning, Smith said he contemplated closing the restaurant indefinitely after they received harassing phone calls and threats to burn down the building with the owners in it. But the restaurant opened Saturday and Sunday with no incidents, Alarcon said.

Cup It Up opened in early 2016 on North Wilmot Road and moved to the North Tyndall Avenue space in April.

A Pima County jury last week awarded $12 million to a 46-year-old Tucson woman who was severely incapacitated by what her lawyers say was a hospital medical error.

The jury’s verdict in favor of Esmeralda O. Tripp and against the University of Arizona Health Network, now Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, is the largest civil verdict reported in Arizona to date this year.

It is also the largest medical malpractice verdict in Pima County since at least 2004, said Kelly Wilkins, an attorney and partner with Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix, who has been tracking Arizona verdicts for 13 years.

“Now she can get the round-the-clock care she needs,” said David Wenner, a lawyer for Tripp, who is a mother of four and grandmother of seven. “Her family shouldn’t be homebound because of this tragedy.”

Lawyers for the hospital said an appeal of the verdict is likely, and they emphasized that the jury found Tripp was partially at fault.

The total verdict was $15 million but was reduced by $3 million due to fault attributed to the plaintiff.

The defendants included the UA Health Network, the Arizona Board of Regents, University Physicians Healthcare, University Medical Center Corp. and the UA College of Medicine.

Banner Health was not named as a defendant in the case. But in 2015, Phoenix-based Banner Health merged with the UA Health Network, became the surviving entity and assumed its liabilities. The UA Health Network included University Medical Center Corp. and University Physicians Healthcare.

“We are truly sorry for the medical outcome that occurred for Ms. Tripp and her family,” Christoper J. Smith and Kathleen L. Leary, lawyers for the UA Health Network and other defendants, said in a written statement.

“We believe these physicians acted in good faith with sound medical judgment based on the information they were provided.”

The money was awarded to Tripp, who is now in a persistent vegetative state, via Tucson-based conservator Robert B. Fleming. The jury found the “relative degree of fault” in the case was 20 percent for Tripp and 80 percent for the defendants.

Lawyers for the hospital and other defendants had argued, among other things, that Tripp did not provide accurate information about her medical history when she went to the emergency room with pain and thin blood on the afternoon of Sept. 13, 2013, and that they acted appropriately based on the available information.

But her lawyers and her daughter say Tripp most certainly gave information she believed to be accurate. She’s not a medical professional and she trusted the doctors who were caring for her, they say.

“They made this whole case about her,” said Brian Snyder, another of Tripp’s lawyers. “They were trying this case on dragging her through the mud. They knew she couldn’t respond.”

Tripp’s daughter, 26-year-old Jamaica Tripp-Serrano, sat through the entire trial and said it was upsetting to hear lawyers for the hospital try to blame her mother.

She maintains doctors were in error when they chose to give her mother a dangerous drug to treat her symptoms, and says that’s clearly why her mother was deprived of oxygen to the brain. It wasn’t because of anything her mother did, she said.

Tripp-Serrano said she hopes her mother’s case sheds light on medical errors, which can go unnoticed due to confidential settlements.

“Do your research, ask questions,” she said. “We trust doctors, put our lives in their hands. But they can make mistakes.”

Three-week trial

The verdict came Monday after a three-week trial. The jury deliberated for three and a half hours.

Tripp’s Phoenix-based lawyers argued that a medical resident violated the hospital’s own guideline and standard of care by giving Tripp the drug Profilnine after Tripp went to the emergency room on the advice of her primary care physician because her blood was unusually thin.

She also had “flank pain” — pain in her upper abdomen, back and sides.

Tripp’s lawyers contended that a little more than two hours after getting the Profilnine, which controls bleeding, Tripp suffered significant blood clots and a heart attack that caused brain damage. The drug carries a risk of thrombosis and clotting that can cause a heart attack or stroke, her lawyers argued.

“I was really troubled that they didn’t say, ‘We admit we violated our guideline.’ They litigated that to the death,” Wenner said.

“Nobody is saying doctors are bad people. But on this day they weren’t at their best.”

Tripp was then hospitalized for seven weeks and is now in what her lawyers in court filings classified as a chronic vegetative state.

The hospital where she got her care was the UA Medical Center’s university campus, 1501 N. Campbell Ave. At the time, it was operated by the UA Health Network. It is now called Banner-University Medical Center Tucson.

Hospital officials denied violating the standard of care and denied any negligence in the case.

“Emergency room physicians are regularly faced with making important medical decisions based on the information provided by patients and their families,” Smith and Leary wrote in a statement they said came from court proceedings.

“The physician’s capacity to act quickly on that information is vital to the best patient outcome, and in some cases may even make the difference between life and death.

“No one expects to have an emergency medical situation, but a patient’s knowledge and willingness to provide the most accurate information about symptoms, health history, current medications and allergies is paramount to the physician’s ability to deliver the right care in the safest manner.”

At the time she sought help at the emergency room, Tripp had been taking the blood thinning drug Coumadin because of blood clots in the veins in her legs and lungs many years before, motions filed by her attorneys say.

Dangerous drug

Lawyers for the hospital said Tripp was taking four times the level of Coumadin that she’d been prescribed, which complicated her case. They also said she claimed to have a medication allergy that turned out to be inaccurate.

Tripp, who was 42 at the time, had a history of hypertension, irregular heartbeat, heart disease and seizure disorder, court documents say.

That day, Tripp’s blood testing showed higher-than-normal levels of Coumadin, which means the blood is too thin and the body is taking too long to clot, putting the patient at risk for bleeding.

Doctors measure blood levels by a standard called the international normalized radio (INR) and the ideal therapeutic range is two to three.

On the afternoon of Sept. 13, her lawyers say, Tripp’s primary care physician told her that her INR measured at 13 and instructed her to go to the hospital.

It wasn’t the first time Tripp had gone to the hospital because of a high INR. Her lawyers say that from 2006 to 2013, Tripp had been seen at the hospital several times for higher than normal INR and that on each occasion she’d been successfully treated with either Vitamin K or fresh frozen plasma, or both.

But Tripp’s lawyers argued that on Sept. 13, 2013, a medical resident eight weeks out of medical school and her attending doctor decided that Tripp’s INR should be rapidly reversed with the blood clotting medication Profilnine, which was given to Tripp in the early-morning hours of Sept. 14, 2013.

The hospital guidelines say Profilnine should be used if the patient has serious or life-threatening bleeding, or if the patient requires emergency surgery.

Therein was the key argument of Tripp’s lawyers — that Tripp did not have life-threatening bleeding and did not need a fast-acting treatment to bring down her INR level. A preliminary report indicated Tripp may have had appendicitis, and that’s when the Profilnine was administered. But it turned out she did not need surgery for appendicitis.

Hospital officials argued that Profilnine is quickly becoming standard treatment for reversing a high INR and that giving Tripp the drug was within the standard of care.

Within 30 minutes of getting the Profilnine, Tripp’s INR was within therapeutic range. But her lawyers say that about two hours later she screamed in pain and that her heart rate and blood pressure went extremely high.

Court documents show a code arrest was called. The doctors gave her the clot-busting drug TPA, which helped restore her heart rate and oxygen levels.

“After approximately two hours, Ms. Tripp’s vital signs, including her blood pressure, heart rate and the level of oxygen in her blood, had returned to normal levels,” lawyers Wenner, Snyder and co-counsel Kevin Keenan wrote.

“Nonetheless Ms. Tripp did not ever regain consciousness.”

Tripp’s lawyers said the Profilnine led to the code arrest. But the defendants filed court documents suggesting Tripp’s persistent vegetative state and arrest were more likely due to her underlying conditions than the Profilnine.

Family impact

Tripp is being cared for in a hospital bed in the den of her family’s home by her husband and her children. She has a feeding tube and needs to be bathed and turned regularly to prevent bedsores.

A caregiver provided by the state’s Medicaid program has been coming four hours per day, five days per week, Wenner said.

The jury award will allow Tripp to have better care and it will no longer be financed by Medicaid, her lawyers said.

Wenner and Snyder say the defendants initially offered to settle for $1 million. Lawyers for the defendants would not confirm whether that’s true.

“Responding to this question would inappropriately reveal information about a confidential settlement negotiation,” Smith and Leary wrote.

Tripp-Serrano said her mother was born and raised in Tucson, attended Sunnyside High School, loved horses, collected angel figurines and volunteered as a ticket taker at the Tucson Rodeo every year.

Above all, she loved caring for her family. On Friday, Tripp-Serrano was in the kitchen making horchata from one of her mother’s recipes. The family said it believes Tripp still has some awareness and can feel their love for her.

Tripp-Serrano said she knows that juries often side with doctors and hospitals in malpractice cases. But she also knows the jury saw the truth in this case, she said, and that it was undisputed the hospital gave her mother the Profilnine.

“She’s been in bed for four years. We are so grateful she will live a better life,” Tripp-Serrano said. “We still believe she’s there and we will take care of her as long as God allows us.”

“Nobody is saying doctors
are bad people. But on this day
they weren’t at their best.” David Wenner, lawyer for Esmeralda O. Tripp

Sen. John McCain learned just how brutal social media can be today. 

Thousands of people unfollowed Arizona senator on Twitter Monday after the he sent out a tweet asking for more followers.

"We're only 74 Twitter followers away from 3M - spread the word & help us reach this big milestone!" McCain tweeted out at 10:27 a.m. Monday morning from his verified account, @SenJohnMcCain. 

And the internet did help spread the word, but in the opposite way the senator was hoping for. 

Using the hashtag #UnfollowMcCain, a mass unfollowing ensued. 

Thousands voiced their displeasure of the senator asking for followers and also used the opportunity to speak their mind about McCain's recent support of the tax reform bill. 

"John, earn your followers the normal way, by tweeting meaningful things." @gettinnoticedmo

"Unfollowed... should have reconsidered that tax scam vote." @staygold8512

"You're kidding, right? *THIS* is what you're concerned with?" @madmia2

Needless to say, the senator is even further from his 3 million followers goal.

By 4:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon, about 6 hours after the senator's original tweet, he has lost more than 17,000 followers on Twitter.