The Arizona Daily Herald website reappeared Friday, this time being run by a former staff member of Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller.
Timothy DesJarlais announced he had purchased the website domain June 1, shortly after he said he resigned from Miller’s office.
DesJarlais and Miller reportedly filed complaints with the FBI last month about the Daily Herald, arguing someone named “Jim Falken” was sending emails to county supervisors and supervisor candidates requesting comment on Miller’s proposed road improvement plan as part of the online news site. The two previously said they hoped an investigation would determine the real identity of the person sending out the emails.
Media reports suggested the Herald website may have been set up and the emails sent by DesJarlais. He had repeatedly used the pseudonym “Jim Falken” in an online role-playing game. After reporters questioned whether he was involved, the website was taken down.
At the time, Miller said the fake news site was a political attack, designed to disrupt the business operations in her office and hurt her election chances.
Miller said now that she has concerns about DesJarlais’ previous involvement in the website, but that he is innocent until proven guilty. “It is not looking good for Mr. DesJarlais,” Miller said Friday.
Miller said she wanted to take her young staffer’s word at the time that he wasn’t behind the emails, and warned him of the consequences when they filed an FBI report.
On Friday, Miller filed another report — this time with the Tucson Police Department’s cyber-crime unit — in attempt to find the person who sent the emails. County leaders have also requested the sheriff’s and county attorney’s offices to look into the matter.
DesJarlais said he still doesn’t know who was behind the first version of the website, but he has essentially ruled out everyone who has been publicly discussed, including a man named “John Dalton.”
“All I do know is that it is not John Dalton or Jim Falken,” he said. “The real owner still is a mystery to me, although I don’t necessarily share Supervisor Miller’s paranoid view about a conspiracy to destroy her office.”
Registration information does show the site changed hands June 1, but the original registration information — an address in Canada — didn’t change when DesJarlais reportedly purchased the website.
The new managing editor says he doesn’t believe Miller had anything to do with the creation of the website.
“Pima County Supervisor Ally Miller, to the best of my knowledge, has no involvement in the site whatsoever under its previous ownership, and to this day, she has no involvement in its content, creation or maintenance,” said DesJarlais.
In his decision to quit, the recent Pima Community College graduate and candidate for the Marana district school board said he wanted to get back into journalism. He said that since he has resigned from Miller’s office he plans to use the Arizona Daily Herald to work on journalism and blogging.
