2024 January InMaricopa Magazine

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laser-guided missiles. Public records paint a different picture of Zinnerman at that time — one of a career criminal in Los Angeles. By 2002, Zinnerman had been charged with nearly two dozen felony counts of burglary and theft, among other things. He was convicted at least four times, public records show. The records also suggest Zinnerman never left Southern California between 1980 and his reputed retirement in 2002. He’s now the subject of an FBI investigation. Sonoran Desert Parkway Saga Installation of a controversial traffic signal at an embattled intersection in southern Maricopa began in late November and wrapped up in December as the city finally put the finishing touches on its portion of the Sonoran Desert Parkway, a byway that will one day give Maricopans an additional route to Interstate 10 and hopefully ease traffic concerns in the city. The plan was for the city and the Arizona Department of Transportation to fund the purpose-made parkway, which would lead to the front door of Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino. Everything seemed fine as Ak- Chin Chairman Robert Miguel was on hand for the parkway’s groundbreaking in 2022 and spoke glowingly of the project. The only cost to the Ak-Chin Indian Community was to allow city workers on 50 feet of its property to install a stoplight, which would direct patrons onto the casino property or allow them to safely turn left or right at the intersection. This wasn’t your average installation, however. It took months to get resolution as

thousands of taxpayer dollars were squandered each idle day. Problems arose early last year when Ak-Chin filed a complaint with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which in turn issued a cease-and-desist letter to the city stating right-of-way concerns had not been properly handled. The city, on the other hand, had paperwork stating the opposite, and more than three decades ago, right-of-way was transferred to ADOT and Pinal County, which handed those rights to the city. Things came to a head in September when Ak-Chin tribal leaders sent their police force to the intersection to arrest unsuspecting workers installing the signal. The workers left before anyone was arrested, but the message from Ak-Chin was clear. As a result, the city set up a messy four-way stop with traffic cones and stop signs in September. The “permanent traffic condition” blocked access to Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino at that intersection from the new Sonoran Desert Parkway. Mayor Nancy Smith said Ak-Chin would pay for the traffic light if it did not acknowledge the city's permits by Sept. 11. After months of negotiation, Ak-Chin approved the permits in November. The city still shouldered the cost, proving its threat empty. In the November magazine, through interviews with city leaders past and present and Freedom of Information Act requests, InMaricopa uncovered Ak-Chin’s history of reneging on its promises and agreements with municipal leaders, and just how contentious the relations had gotten between the city and Ak-Chin.

SCAMOUFLAGE: HOW A DISGRACED MARICOPA MARINE CONNED HIS

InMaricopa readers spoke loudly of their favorite stories in 2023. InMaricopa.com published more than 1,400 stories last year, but readers flocked to two of them unlike all the others. The first was the tale of a Maricopa Marine who lied extensively about his military service — or lack thereof — and turned it into a lucrative occupation. This story was InMaricopa’s most viewed ever with more than 50,000 reads. Our most popular series involved the Sonoran Desert Parkway. At its groundbreaking ceremony in June 2022, Ak-Chin Indian Community Chairman Robert Miguel was all smiles and handshakes but later tried to derail the project. Over a series of stories from September to November, this saga garnered more than 70,000 reads. Maricopans tuned in as

For police officers injured in the line of duty, the ending isn’t always favorable. When injured officers can’t immediately return to work, it’s not always a given they’ll be made whole by worker’s compensation and the municipality that employs them.

Such a situation caught InMaricopa ’s attention when Maricopa Police Cpl. Joshua Fox bravely chased down suspected auto thieves after one opened fire and shot him one night in June. A few weeks later, the family organized fundraisers for him to buy necessities like groceries. From there, InMaricopa examined the system and how injured police officers in Arizona are denied benefits after injuries and often neglected by their employers. InMaricopa reached out to the city to find out why one of Maricopa’s finest would even need such fundraisers in the first place. Initially, the city refused to comment on Fox’s situation, but eventually had to respond. Our story ran online on Aug. 11. On Aug. 15, the city ended its silence about injured employee pay, stating: "What is not paid by workers’ compensation is covered by the city to make the employee’s salary whole." The question still remains: If that’s true, why did Fox convey to the public he couldn’t afford to eat and solicit them for handouts?

WAY TO THE TOP E ntangled in a web of lies, a former Marine in Maricopa found himself ensnared in the sticky grip of stolen valor accusations. Like a black widow spinning artificial silk, his own web became his prison. “This is f*cking r*tarded,” Billy Zinnerman told InMaricopa the morning the story was published. For Zinnerman — who falsely purported to be a retired sergeant major of the U.S. Marine Corps decorated with the most portentous service medals — it was time to pay the piper. Zinnerman crafted and advanced his spurious saga since at least 2010, when, ironically, he pontificated about moral upstanding on PBS’ bygone Ethics NewsWeekly. In retrospect, it was a scintilla of

In November 2022, Zinnerman appeared at the 247th Marine Corps Ball as its guest of honor. A few months later, in May, he was lauded by U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters as he delivered the keynote speech at a commemoration in Inglewood, Calif., and accepted an award from the city’s mayor. At the event, Zinnerman recounted fantastical tales of a helicopter crash in Afghanistan, surviving gunshots in Kuwait and rescuing his comrade from a burning car in Hawaii. He brazenly described a quarter- century of military service that culminated with an honorable discharge in 2002. Zinnerman said he was a gunnery sergeant in Iraq in the years leading up to 9/11, leading a unit that identified targets for

credibility that metastasized into a whole new identity for Zinnerman. Suddenly, he was no longer a low-ranking pawn with a lengthy criminal record, booted from the service amid accusations of repeated misconduct. He was a war hero and Maricopa City Council hopeful. Zinnerman parlayed those lies into a feature story where he made the cover of InMaricopa’s November 2022 magazine. In July, InMaricopa kicked over Zinnerman’s house of cards and exposed his lies one at a time. Zinnerman hoodwinked Maricopa’s American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, the Marine Corps League of Arizona and eventually the Marine Corps itself.

Wild West Music Fest By many accounts, the Wild West Music Fest was a finely tuned operation. The event, held for three days in mid- October to celebrate the city’s 20th anniversary, ran on time, traffic issues were nil and police made no arrests. Aside from the operational success of the event, many questions remained months later. The city had no idea whether it made any money or even what the official attendance figures were. And the kicker was the promoter, Steve Levine Entertainment, wasn’t contractually obligated to supply those figures until mid-February. InMaricopa took a deep dive into the contract, the $350,000 spent on the event and details from the limited documents the city had on hand after the festival had run its course. Was it in fact worth it? You make the call.

the drama unfolded. Here’s a look back:

InMaricopa.com | January 2024

January 2024 | InMaricopa.com